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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

ldill said:
Here is an update from Birger mount #4432. I received my mount today and it is working great. I have used it with the canon EF 28-300 zoom, EF 180mm macro and EF-S 10-22 wide. I am presently trying it out with the Canon 600mm telephoto with the 2X extender.
Also, Image stabiliazation is working perfectly and the Birger software with serial control cable worked flawlessly to control iris and focus. WELL DONE!!!
The Birger mount is real and it works!
Click to expand...

Great news! Not that I'm surprised, as no matter what gripes people have had with Erik's communication pipeline, I've never doubted his engineering expertise.

For the non-Canon users among us, can you clarify if my understandings are correct:

1) You are using the Birger mount to control BOTH focus and iris presently;
2) You are achieving this control via Birger software and a computer connected to the mount via some kind of serial data cable (?).

I presume the software has either virtual sliders or knobs, one for aperture and one for focus?

I wasn't aware that the software would offer iris control right out of the box. I thought it would have to be controlled (for lenses that don't have an aperture ring) via buttons on the mount itself. It sounds like you can already take remote control of essential lens functions, which is great.

I also wasn't aware that image stabilization would work right out of the box. I thought that was something coming "down the road". You are certain that this feature is working now? If so, that's tremendous!

Would love to see some grabs from anything you've shot, and I'm sure I'm not alone.:) In the mean time, thanks for your report and happy shooting!
 
eclaire said:
Would love to see some grabs from anything you've shot, and I'm sure I'm not alone.:)
Click to expand...
sure.. i could not figure eclaire had elisabeth as name.. btw couldn't you give us some pics from anything someone had shot on you?.. i'm sure i'm not alone.. :watsup:
 
Martin Weiss said:
But with the upcoming ET rubber drive mount, you can leave the drive on the cam.
Click to expand...

This won't work in all situations, though. I was shooting in front of the speakers at a Nazareth concert. The bass vibration made the camera drop frames. I don't think the rubber mount would mitigate that, but putting the drive in a soundproof enclosure using a longer cable might do the trick.

-Thor
 
Thor Wixom said:
This won't work in all situations, though. I was shooting in front of the speakers at a Nazareth concert. The bass vibration made the camera drop frames. I don't think the rubber mount would mitigate that, but putting the drive in a soundproof enclosure using a longer cable might do the trick.

-Thor
Click to expand...

Don't discount the et mount just yet. It is being tested in helis at the moment and the results have been very good. Four bits of rubber is probably the ideal situation.
 
Could someone who knows answer, precisely, how iris and focus are controlled through the Birger Mount's current, shipping, configuration? Can I control Iris and focus without a computer?
 
Controls Available Today

Controls Available Today

Just to clarify, the current feature set available for mounts shipping in the coming days, includes the following:
  • Control of iris from the RED camera adapter using pushbuttons (top & bottom together moves iris all the way open, top opens one half stop, bottom closes one half stop).
  • Learning of focus limits from the RED camera adapter using the middle pushbutton.
  • Control of image stabilization from the IS Switch on the lens, so long as the iris has been opened (top/bottom buttons) and the focus learned (middle button) first.
  • Control focus using the focus ring on the lens.
  • Control of iris and focus from the GUI that presently runs on the PC.
When knobs are shipping, the additional functionality that will be immediately available:
  • First knob controls focus. Upon finding a new lens, mount will auto map one turn of knob to entire range of focus, and then move the focus to the knob position.
  • If you set the focus limits on the lens (as with a telephoto to only near half or far half) pressing the middle button on the mount will remap the limited range of the lens to the entire range of the knob.
  • If a second knob is found, the iris will automatically be opened, entire range mapped to one turn of the knob, and then moved to knob position.
  • When a lens is replaced, any knob will automatically be remapped to its corresponding axis, as fast as the lens is capable of moving.
All of the knob software is finished, and working in the lab. We are just waiting for some production tooling to be completed. A screencapture of the GUI is below. The engineer working on the GUI is on vacation this week, so we will have an update on the Mac prgress sometime next week.
 
At the demo Erik gave at the NAB Reduser meeting in Las Vegas, the iris was controlled by three buttons on the mount. One button was a sort of "home" button and opened the iris completely. The other two were increase and decrease buttons and controlled the iris in (I believe) 1/3 stop increments. Their was no indication of the iris position so counting clicks of the buttons was required to determine f/stop. The focus was controlled either manually from the lens or by the prototype encoding knob that was connected to the mount via a cable. The knob calibrated itself from stop to stop and vastly increased the range of focus control. NO COMPUTERS were harmed in the process.



Edit: Looks like Eric beat me to it. See above.
 
Erik, will iris control (via a future knob) be continuous or in discrete steps?
 
GLEN TRACY said:
Erik, will iris control (via a future knob) be continuous or in discrete steps?
Click to expand...

That would be amazing if Birger could do continuous iris, since (as far as I know) no Canon SLR/DSLR camera offers any control of iris finer than 1/3 stop.
 
birgerEngineer said:
Right now, two discrete steps per stop. We expect to release a software update after we start shipping that ups this to four steps per stop.
Click to expand...

Thanks Erik. For now I think most of us just want you to concentrate on shipping... and of course the wedding.

Thanks for everything
 
Amy just put the list of people on my desk that fit the criteria for shipment:
  • Authorized partial shipment
  • 107 Reservation Number (November Order)
  • Canon Mount
This is 82 mounts.

Over the next few days, we will send an email to each with the expected ship date, amount the card will be charged. The ship dates for this batch will be between 6 August and 15 August.
 
birgerEngineer said:
Amy just put the list of people on my desk that fit the criteria for shipment:
  • Authorized partial shipment
  • 107 Reservation Number (November Order)
  • Canon Mount
This is 82 mounts.

Over the next few days, we will send an email to each with the expected ship date, amount the card will be charged. The ship dates for this batch will be between 6 August and 15 August.
Click to expand...

Does this include those of us who started Nikon but have stated we'll take canon first until Nikon is available? I, for one, should be on it.
 
Erik,

Thanks for all the hard work - these last weeks have been quite a ride, eh?

On the screen-grab there is a "Update License" button; may I ask what this is for? Sounds a bit like a subscription model?

Soon you can devote more time to the nuptial planning - will the wedding be shot in 4k on a Birger mount?
 
Sorry if this has been answered and sorry to continue to ask, but where and when will we get a focus distance read-out? The markings on SLR lenses are usually too small and inaccurate to to be of any using in measuring focus. I'd just like to have some estimate as to how long I'll have to focus everything by eye. Thanks.
 
Peter Majtan said:
But I still have some waiting to do...
Click to expand...
as for instance.. waiting for jarred's pms?.. :wink: this is a constructive suggestion..

just kidding.. just kidding.. :)
 
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