Birger Lens Mount Reservations

[Michael Hastings]

My prediction of Erik's post: "Shipping next week"

just kidding, Erik.

HAHA No I think he was anticipating shipping about 20 mounts today or tomorrow.

However, since my second big interest is the encoders/knobs (so we can control focus and iris in the underwater housing and he said he had made another minor hardware change on those and first component parts wouldn't be here until NEXT WEEK.

From talking to him, most of the issues have to do with the production machinery. When he realized he had 200 units to make he bought pick and place and soldering equipment which SHOULD make things more controllable and predictable however I think he found that "we'll have you up and running a few days after you get your machine..." is just behind "the check is in the mail..." as the biggest lie in business.

I went through this a few years back when we got an order from Panasonic for a run of 100 underwater housings for one of their 3chip DV camcorders. We thought that was the time to upgrade some machinery so we could do everything in house and be quicker and more in control - and it's true once you get it debugged - but in reality it set us back a month or more.

Specifically he said something about the lead-free? solder requiring really precise setup on the circuit board soldering equipment and they had some problems with poor solder joints on the earlier run that were causing the problems.

I also asked what was different between the RED specific mount and the generics and he said there is an additional circuit board which they initially had only a small quantity that passed testing, which is why they were only able to ship a small number.

 

[MikeHedge]

everyone a big hug for Erik.

 

[Jason Ing]

Actually, I was going to add that I did notice a difference in his posts in that they have changed from "next week" to "tomorrow or today". So that's a hopeful change.

[big group hug]

 

[Erik Widding]

I can understand if he found himself being way too optimistic as engineers often do and he estiamted completely wrong the time he needed to sort out all issues. Prehaps he eventually realized his promises had put him into a difficult position in which the best thing is to shut up, work hard and try to get the mounts out of his workshop as soon as possible. Once this is over and we have the mounts and Erik has a chance to relax, guess we all have learnt something during the process.

Of the various posts, I think this comes closest to respectfully assessing the situation.

We are through the quality control issues. We got a new oven in yesterday, are pleased with the quality of soldering that we are getting, and just yeilded 100% on a panel containing 6 boards.

When thing are going well, we will pipeline, assembly, oven, testing etc, and build 18 mounts an hour. Right now we are waiting on each process to complete for a panel of 6 boards, before moving to the next. This produces about 4 to 6 boards per hour. We have six more panels to run this week. We have 40 more panels due in the first few days of next week. This is more than enough to clear the backlog.

As for the knobs... I had not been satisfied with the results of the various ways that we were controlling the tension. The previous designs required a tool to do the adjustment, and just did not produce a smooth enough feel. We have a new design for the knob housing that I am pleased with, and we will get it into Beta sometime next week. The electronics are quite stable at this point, but the mechanicals are going through some last design changes. Machine shop has been a little slow lately, so it should be easy to get good turnaround time.

Lastly, I made a decision that quality was more important than shipping. There is a great deal of anger floating around this thread, and our delivery schedule on the whole. I felt that it would have done more damage to the overall product release to ship something that might break in the field, and have people talk about how much a product sucked.

The product rocks, our quality control was having some serious issues. I chose to ship in a very controlled way, primarily to our industrial customers, as I could get some real larger scale field testing going, and control my customer support cost (primarily time, but shipping charges as well) for this problem to a dozen customers. This was best for the product, as it ensured that I got five times as many units in the field for the same support cost.

People are free to say as they wish regarding the handling of these matters. Any who do not wish to be customers can exercise their right to cancel their orders. I think those that stick out the ride, are going to be pleased with the result, and will soon forgive the bumps in the road that have gotten us here.

We will take the good boards from today, and those that we will inevitably make tomorrow, and will assemble them into housings, and another group of people happy with tracking numbers on friday.

I am going home, I need the sleep...

 

[Jason Ing]

I like that post.

 

[Mark B.]

...Specifically he said something about the lead-free? solder requiring really precise setup on the circuit board soldering equipment and they had some problems with poor solder joints on the earlier run that were causing the problems.

Solder is a funny thing. If you put on too little, the circuit won't close. If you put on too much, the solder blob acts like a capacitor and starts filtering high frequency signals. I have an electric guitar that's got too much solder on the pickup-wires; sometimes the sound completely cuts out. I hope Birger's soldering troubles are over.

 

[Jason Sinclair]

There are two companies i greatly admire at the moment and its because they have similar qualities. The first is Red because they dream the impossible and deliver without compromise The second is Birger Engineering because of similar reasons. These companies both have patience and their top priority is the product. The top qualities i like in a company is persistence and honesty. Both these companies above all others have these attributes. We are not dealing with normal protocols here, we are dealing with experimental designs created on the run. This product has gone from potential great to great. Erik could have slapped out a second rate product months ago and the deposit holders would have gotten what they would have gotten. I'm feel positive that when my mount ships it will be not second rate. In the meantime i will happily play with my $500 worth of nikons that i bought second hand and will sell at a similar price.

 

[lonny dill]

My group has been fortunate enough to work with Erik as a Birger Beta Tester. The Birger mount is a major part of our success. No matter how busy I am, I nearly log and read this thread daily. During the thread's lifetime, I cringed every time I saw a negative comment post. I empathise with everyone here and see their patience wearing thin. It is true, sometimes Erik has overpromised and underdelivered. Everyone here has had valid complaints, but I assure you Erik is listening. The negative comments are still necessary as they help shape the end result and must be posted. Remember, that red has had its problems too, like delayed ship dates, codecs crashing, features not working, etc. As a Beta tester, I have had my ups and downs and have had to be patient while Erik sorted out the problems. I gain nothing additional by convincing others about the value of the Birger mount; however, I cannot stress enough how great of an invention the Birger mount is and how it will most certainly change history in our industry. Patience fellow Redists, soon we will all get to be a part of that history.

 

[Lauri Kettunen]

Lastly, I made a decision that quality was more important than shipping.

Erik, Thank you for your feedback. I wholeheartly support this decision putting quality first and feel it's the only way to go. A wisdom one of my previous bosses put in words is: The transition time between something being (highly) suspicios and obvious is typically very very short.

You are just about hitting a home run. Please keep us informed of how things are going.

 

[lonny dill]

Birger on location

Birger on location

Just another update from a Birger beta tester. We have recently returned from a very successful shoot at DAV studios in Las Vegas. During the 4 day shoot we used the following lenses:
Canon 17-55
Canon 28-300
Canon 10-22
Birger worked great without any problems.

It would have been very nice to have had a set of prime lenses. We have been looking for primes for a while. Right now, PL-mount primes are hard to get. I recently found a set of used Arri PL-mount prime lenses, 20 years old for $60,000. Ouch!!

Canon offers a full set of L-series glass primes for about 1/6 the cost that are brand new and fit perfectly on the Birger mount. Thanks Erik!!

 

[Mark Thorpe]

That Model has legs all the way to her armpits!! Dayyyyuuummmm.

 

[Michael Hastings]

That Model has legs all the way to her armpits!! Dayyyyuuummmm.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right ldill?

 

[Joe Vinson]

People are free to say as they wish regarding the handling of these matters. Any who do not wish to be customers can exercise their right to cancel their orders. I think those that stick out the ride, are going to be pleased with the result, and will soon forgive the bumps in the road that have gotten us here.

Erik, glad things are looking up. We finally caved and bought a Nikon mount (recently delivered), but are holding on to the Birger reservation for the time being. Can't wait to see how the whole system works, but I just couldn't wait around any longer. It was embarrassing to keep explaining to my boss why we couldn't use the expensive camera he had bought. If we end up getting the Birger mount too, I'm probably going to pay for it out of my own pocket, just to justify all the money I've spent in the last year on Canon lenses. There's a strong sentiment of "you ain't done right by us" around this thread, and frankly, it's justified. I'm rooting for you and I'm sure you've got a great product, but if you can't make shipping projections that are realistic, just don't make them.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right ldill?

Well looks like I picked the wrong one :blink:

 

[Karl H]

Thanks Erik,

I really hope our mount ships today or on mon/tue. Of course if you're just waiting for panels to arrive as the last hurdle, you can bet they wont turn up till Wed...

 

[Joel Kaye]

Since i/data was enabled in build 16 and Birger is going to use the RS232 port for i/data is that already functioning?

 

[MikeHedge]

......

 

[Martin Weiss]

......

One of the more mysterious posts on this particular thread...:huh:

 

[MikeHedge]

Monday is soooo close!!!!

 

[David Nardini]

Monday is soooo close!!!!

Indeed ... last weeks Mon & Tue seems like a LONG time ago, then Friday, then Saturday, and here we are, Monday again :sarcasm:

Erik tells me 6 mounts shipped on Friday. By all accounts Saturday should have seen more ship (no idea how many). I guess Quality Control must be taking it's toll ... ie: they are checking each mount before it's gets boxed up ... slowing down the process; not a bad reason for the slower than expected progress.

Fingers crossed it's just this ... and not another issue