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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Birger Lens Mount Reservations

"Dear Reservation Holder,

I want to thank you with your patience to date on this development program. From this point forward, we will be communicating progress to all current reservation holders directly by email.

By now, all of you are probably aware of the announcement by RED last Thursday (26 June) regarding the warranty implications of using our mount on their camera. After fifteen months in development, Jarred’s post on REDuser is the first indication RED had ever made even suggesting that this would be the case. Yesterday (1 July), I sat down with Stuart, Jarred and a number of others, at RED to discuss the warranty issues.

We are waiting on RED to determine the warranty policy, as it applies to the removal and installation of the mounts. I am unable to comment on the delivery schedule, until we understand the implications of this policy. From the conversation, it appears RED will require the mount be installed by Birger, for the warranty to remain intact. This solution does not make me happy. It is going to add a good deal of cost to the end customer, in terms of shipping charges and labor that we will have to charge. And it seems to be in direct contradiction to the “swiss-army camera” that you all have been promised by RED.

I am committed to delivering what we have promised to the more than 200 customers that have placed reservations with us. I welcome any comments, and will do my best to keep you posted as things evolve. I would also suggest, that if the policy regarding the mounts is not what you, a RED camera owner, wants, you should communicate thatdirectly to RED.

We have made some very minor electrical changes to the RED camera adapter, to account for powering from the AUX12V on the back of the camera, rather than the AUX232 on the front - specifically limiting the surge currents, and protecting in the event of a reversed power input. Right now we are waiting on RED.

If you do not wish to wait for the warranty issues to be resolved, please let Amy (asb@birger.com ) know and we can start shipping in a few days.

Amy and I will be on vacation from 4 July until 8 July. Phone coverage will be sparse at best during that period. Please try to communicate via email.


Regards,
Erik"
 
Too bad Red can't just void any warranty covered repairs related to faulty installation of the mount - that seems like it would be the least painful solution for all involved. I mean, the Birger mount is the only reason why Red was even close to being a feasible purchase for me.
 
Interesting.

I should be one of the first orders of Birger EF but still didn't get email like this one above.

Still waiting.
 
erik just can't get a break on this thing.
 
Well, some of us will wait few more months and warranty will expire anyway.

This is the tough one.

Maybe RED and Eric should just set the price for the install.
Some of us will send camera to RED for installation of the Birger mount, mount should be included in the shipment to RED.
Some will send to Eric.
And some will DIY
And some will wait for warranty to be over.

Eric, so how much you will charge for the installation that will not void the warranty?
 
Kenn Christenson said:
Too bad Red can't just void any warranty covered repairs related to faulty installation of the mount - that seems like it would be the least painful solution for all involved. I mean, the Birger mount is the only reason why Red was even close to being a feasible purchase for me.
Click to expand...

yeah.. same here.

i just got me a red nikon dumb mount.

Erik, I feel you man. I'd be more than happy to take shipment of the mount now and screw my warranty up on the red mount. but its the circuits burning issue that im scared of, cause that would mean sending my camera back. So, are there any exterior batteries that can power the birger? or if there's an adapter to the power cable uve got on the birger mount that can make it easier to adapt other external batteries to it.

what im trying to say is..
1. removing the mount doesnt scare me.
2. there are plenty of batteries out there.
3. i would like to hook up the batteries that are out there to my birger rather than have my camera drain its power to the mount.
4. i would not mind if the birger came with a different power cable end.
 
Kenn Christenson said:
I mean, the Birger mount is the only reason why Red was even close to being a feasible purchase for me.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I only made my reservation once I saw how terrific the Birger was going to be at marrying low-cost still lenses and cutting edge control technology to the RED camera. Without Birger, I can't afford the camera.
 
me too. RED + canon or nikon = affordable indie film.
 
Akube said:
yeah.. same here.

i just got me a red nikon dumb mount.

Erik, I feel you man. I'd be more than happy to take shipment of the mount now and screw my warranty up on the red mount. but its the circuits burning issue that im scared of, cause that would mean sending my camera back. So, are there any exterior batteries that can power the birger? or if there's an adapter to the power cable uve got on the birger mount that can make it easier to adapt other external batteries to it.

what im trying to say is..
1. removing the mount doesnt scare me.
2. there are plenty of batteries out there.
3. i would like to hook up the batteries that are out there to my birger rather than have my camera drain its power to the mount.
4. i would not mind if the birger came with a different power cable end.
Click to expand...

Akube, you are getting it wrong way.

It is not the power source issue that RED is wary about.
It is taking mount out and this dangling /I cable.

Yes, it would be much better if RED will just charge for repair instead voiding the whole warranty on the whole camera.

Maybe RED should clarify its position here.

I don’t mind to pay if I damage something when installing the mount.
But to get the whole warranty void is a different thing.

I know, some will short the /I cable, some will put a screwdriver in to the sensor, some will just scratch something inside, could be expensive.

I will be very surprised if RED will void the warranty only because we plugged something in to the AUX power port.
 
sanjin, i read elsewhere that you were in contact with P&S Technik. apparently this will be the same issue with their IMS mount. it too requires removal of the back focus ring from the red, voiding the warranty. i haven't taken possession of my camera yet (3127) so i don't have the "luxury" of letting my warranty expire anytime soon. this is bleak.

nikon it is.
 
If the camera has to be shipped off to Birger Engineering (or anyone else) any time you want to change the mount, it renders the whole system useless. For me, the idea was to be able to use the Canon supertelephoto lenses I already own without having to modify the lenses (which would make them useless on my Canon DSLR). I have nothing against Nikon glass, except that I don't own any. I'll have to think this over. It's a bit more difficult to do wildlife photography without telephoto capability. It might be worth voiding the RED warranty to get the cheaper, more versatile telephoto capability that the Birger mount offers.
 
Thanks AquaVideoRed206'

also we have in Vienna one of the fastest Internet backbones in Europe
here but anyway after all what happening today, enormous oil price rise,
global warming experienced these days even directly on our skin,
a big decline of authier movies & film authier businesses & services,
also a huge decline of indie makers film, etc... I am not surprised at all...
 
I - Cable

I - Cable

My understanding is as follows: The I - cable that becomes exposed when the bottom red mount plate is removed. If this cable is pinched and shorted when installing the Birger mount electrical damage can occur. As a solution to this Red is suggesting that Birger do the install. This of course adds to our cost by shipping and Birger's labor. OK, not that big of a deal, but ... Also, this would imply that once the EF mount is installed that only Birger could swap it back to the PL without voiding our warranty. This is not a workable situation for those who need more lens choice flexibility such as to shoot indies for ourselves and rent to PL lens users on the side. It effectively will make the camera an EF mount only camera until the warranty expires. And even when the warranty expires and some of us start to swap it back and forth on our own, there is still the possibility of shorting this cable.


So, my question to Red is:

Can we pay you to modify the camera so that the I - Cable is more robust and difficult to pinch when changing the mount. This would make it possible for us to go back to the original plan of being able to swap back and forth the mounts on our own depending on the requirements of our work while still maintaining our camera warranty. This would be an elective factory modification designed for the Birger mount. Perhaps the same mod would also apply to the P&S. I don't know what you would have to charge but my guess would be between $175 and $375. I think the vast majority of us would gladly pay this to realize the original plan.


For me, if Red can't do this, then I think the Birger will stay on my camera until the warranty expires and then I will explore modifying the cable myself to reduce the risks of shorting when changing mounts.
 
What did Birger learn that makes them more qualified to do the mount swap than a RedOne owner? Whatever they learned, couldn't we just get an educational video showing us what needs to be done, thereby becoming equally qualified to do the swap?

There's a certain missing logic being employed by Red in this situation. For instance, who's going to be more careful in swapping the mount... the owner of the camera, or some Birger employee who swaps out dozens every day and has no vested interest in the camera other than as a side effect to getting paid a salary? What's more likely to damage the camera... having the mount installed by a RedOne owner, or shipping the camera across the country/world in the hands of gruff baggage handlers?

Red's not a small company, financially speaking, so why is it that they can't allow some breathing room in the warranty in exchange for improved customer satisfaction? They might take a tiny hit financially if a couple of camera mount swaps don't work out, but it will pale in comparison to the rest of the happy customers.
 
I don't mind paying the extra charge or the shipping to have birger install it. But just imagine how long that would take for him to refit all of our cameras? Time that could be spent making knobs or blue tooth remotes or nikon mounts...
 
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