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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

I was about to cancel and sell my RED ONE!

Let me read this new bit of info and see what this all means....
 
CVB said:
Eric is using bluetooth for his wireless conection.... we are using zigbee. Bluetooth gives a range of about 30 feet, zigbee is more like 350-400 feet. The zigbee radio in the Impero is an interchangeable card that you can pop out and replace with a bluetooth module that Erik will provide. the idea is that when you change out the module to bluetooth it will make the impero directly talk to the birger mount.

The upgrade on our side is the receiver unit (which normally comes with the impero),a zigbee transceiver (which will replace the bluetooth transceiver that will come with Eriks version), and a universal 0.8 Mod clamp on gear. We haven't worked out the price yet but it will be reasonable and will allow you to hook up an Inclino for zoom to work in conjunction with the Birger. I'll have more details on this early next week as we are staying up 20/7 trying to get the Imperos and Inclinos out this week.
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Is the bluetooth in the mount itself replaceable? Might it be easier to leave the Impero as is and change the mount? That seems like it would be more straight forward and less hassle overall. Zigbee all around.
 
Paris Remillard said:
Is the bluetooth in the mount itself replaceable? Might it be easier to leave the Impero as is and change the mount? That seems like it would be more straight forward and less hassle overall. Zigbee all around.
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As far as I know the bluetooth in Eriks setup is a chip on the main board... not replaceable. He didn't have much room to work with in there and theres not much room for a zigbee module in there either.
 
Which shipping notice?

Which shipping notice?

birgerEngineer said:
If you have not received a shipping notice, you will not receive one until 3 December. If you have received a shipping notice, we are working hard to get your mount out in the next few days.
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Are you referring to the email I received that said "Your shipment of the following items has been scheduled for the period of 2 October through 8 October 2008"?

This is a strange day for me... I posted both a Birger cancellation post and FS: RED One today without reading posts on Reduser only to find this excellent news! I immediately retracted both posts! That was close!
 
Great news

Great news

So my teaser post has come true. When I spoke to Erik it wasn't a done deal, but I told him that (in spite of the fact that I will have to redo/rethink a couple things on our underwater controls) for the general users I thought it was a great idea. If you think it all through this is a great bonus for us early (and patient) adopters.

I think this will also let Birger and View Factor focus on their core strengths. Birger is in Boston and never had to deal with us movie wackos before - he was mainly about the mounts for industrial/scientific/government/military users. Curt is in California near the movie industry epicenter so presumably is a little more familiar with working with us.

Erik and his company can go back to creating cool hardware and software for lens control and Viewfactor can take it from there to make it work better for the cinematography market.

And then maybe things can settle down here. I understand the frustration, but I also know quite a bit of the inside situation and with that knowledge I have to say that, even though I am not directly affected, it got to be painful to visit this thread. I look forward to coming back more often as we get more positive developments.

PS. Curt, if you are reading this, I'd like to talk to you soon about some simple mods to future circuit boards that would help integrate Impero hardware into our housings.
 
Erik -

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For posting information. It is soooooo greatly appreciated when you let us know what is going on. I look forward to the news and our new toys.
 
If all this can happen, it'll be great!. I wasn't thinking to buy an inclino, but if I get the impero.... that's some pretty good setup I wasn't thinking of in the first place. Controlling the Zoom? and then if I rent some PL lenses, have a follow focus for them and wireless?

Well, I don't want to get too excited yet, but THANK YOU Eric and Curt for making an agreement and please make it happen..... soon :-)
 
Hoffman said:
Erik -

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For posting information. It is soooooo greatly appreciated when you let us know what is going on. I look forward to the news and our new toys.
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Agreed! Having real news, good or bad, is better than no news at all.

But this is great news. I'm so looking forward to using my Canon SLR glass with my RED!
 
This is terrific news, and not a moment too soon for me as I'm still muddling through a decision on whether to complete the purchase of my RED by December 1st or just call the whole thing off until Scarlet.

Erik, I really do identify with your need to stay focused on the substantive tasks affecting product development. I'm the same way in that I ABHOR having the phone ring or having my concentration interrupted when I'm honing in on something, and the most mundane tasks (paying bills, answering emails, getting needed groceries:w00t: ) seem like the biggest impositions in the world at those times.

But this situation demands an adjustment to that mindset because delays are not what's really hurting our confidence. It's when you go dark for an extended period, as recently, with all kinds of unmet promises hanging out there. I and most of the people in this thread are extremely understanding of the need to push dates back when problems arise, but we are increasingly intolerant of a lack of communication when communication is clearly called for. Keep this in mind -- make conservative time estimates and talk to people when they change -- and you will still sell a buttload of mounts to very, very satisfied customers.
 
This is very good news Eric. Thank you.
Looks like the wait will have been worth it.

birgerEngineer said:
Curt already has the Impero working wired with the mount, and in production. We (Birger) are slated to start receiving Impero for development in the coming days/week, and for delivery to our customers in early december..........
...
Most mount deliveries will be delayed until the first week in december.
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Does this mean that those of us receiving our mounts in the December shipment will receive the Impero at the same time, or will this be a separate delivery?

Greg
 
birgerEngineer said:
I just got off the phone with Curt at ViewFactor Studios... the Impero is just too well executed for me to consider coming out with a competing product. So, I am pleased to announce, Imperos for everybody. All of our reservation holders (active reservation as of 7PM EST today, not cancelled) will receive an Impero (with no radio, a single marking disk, and a rail mount) for the price of a knob. For those that qualify for a free remote control, we will provide a plug in radio for the Impero that will talk directly to our mount.

Curt already has the Impero working wired with the mount, and in production. We (Birger) are slated to start receiving Impero for development in the coming days/week, and for delivery to our customers in early december. The remaining tasks for Curt are some minor software development that we will support, and for Birger, packaging the Radio that we already use, to plug in to the Impero.

These Imperos will be upgradeable (through ViewFactor) to use their longer range radio and receiver, as well as to control their motors. (i.e. ZOOM! your SLR lenses).

A screen capture for the Mac application is attached. Note the distance readout... also Ken wants you all to know that the Mac app is better than the PC right now. The next version of the PC app will be released soon. Griffin PowerMate knobs offer a great control surface for use with either application. Full documentation of our comm protocol has been prepared, and will be released once a last few edits have been finished. This will allow for integration into custom moco systems. Version 18 of our lens library will be released at that time as well. All of this should be available for download from our website in the coming days.

The problems with collimation unfortunately require new mechanical parts, as it appears once all tolerances are accounted for, we are just slightly off acheiving collimation with about 10% of cameras. We have about 400 sets of mechanical parts running through the machine shop with the changes. We will start receiving these around 1 December.

Sticking pins, 85mm f/1.8 camera reboots, 85mm f/1.2 manual focus, are all either understood and incorporated into a manufacturing and test procedures, or accounted for in our latest library release.

Most mount deliveries will be delayed until the first week in december. We do expect to ship out more mounts over the next couple of days. If you have not received a shipping notice, you will not receive one until 3 December. If you have received a shipping notice, we are working hard to get your mount out in the next few days.

All those customers that already have mounts, or receive mounts this week, will receive a replacement camera adapter, that will fix the potential collimation problems, and have a few other enhancements.

There are some repairs that we need to get out the door, a few tracking numbers are attached to packages that aren't yet ready to go out the door. and some customer communication to get caught up on. We are working hard, and I hope from this post it is clear that we have accomplished some rather substantial feats these past few weeks.

The ViewFactor Impero really is a fantastic product. I am quite pleased that I will be able to focus on lens mounts, rather than trying to develop an accessory that might only be as good as something that is already on the market and very reasonably priced.

More details in the next few days.
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and for the others non-reservation holders.. how much is the price?..

is there any chance for all this stuff to be compatible w/ epic?..

and about the autofocus feature?
 
wow. that's really intriguing eric. Nice!

I like the viewfactor guys a lot too so this is nice to see.
 
This is amazing news! I had an early VF control on my camera months ago at a LA Red User meeting and have been drooling over it ever since and watching the progress. I agree, Curt is a genius--I can't wait!

Ordered at the beginning of December last year. Wrote on my order, Please don't deliver before Jan 2008.

So, guys, will I have a Birger/VF Christmas?
 
Good to hear most of you have still faith. As a veteran of this thread I've lost mine as have seen this loop so many times before: 1) Promises and "the mounts will go out next week" 2) excitement among the customers, 3) silence, 4) some explanation, 5) "mounts will ship today" 6) high excitement among the customers 7) silence 8) confusion among the customers 9) real confusion amoung the fully billed customers, 10) get back to stage one.

Eric, I sincerely apologize for my cynical attitude, but can't resist, and I know you understand why! :-)
 
I was expecting an announcement of this kind ever since Curt posted his results on this thread. I'm glad you could work something out at no extra cost for reservation holders.

One thing that worries me is that we'll lose iris readout on the remote since I don't think the Impero has an LCD screen on which that function could be implemented. Any chance you could make some simple add-on device for it?
 
Joe Vinson said:
Nikon's "L" equivalent is "ED" (for "extra-low dispersion") or "Super ED."

I went with the Birger Canon mount because I have both Nikon glass (from my Redrock Micro setup) and Canon glass (from my SLR setup), and with a Canon mount and a little adapter you can use both. (My Nikons were mostly manual focus anyway.)

If you're changing gears from Canon to Nikon, are you looking to sell your lenses? I've got a Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF that's not as useful to me anymore.... maybe we could barter? PM me if you're interested.
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Thanks for the offer. I'll probably hold on to it for now and see what's going on with Red in a year.
 
I am really excited about this new partnership. I just hope that I can get my old mount back.. I desperately need it.
 
Steven-Marc said:
I was expecting an announcement of this kind ever since Curt posted his results on this thread. I'm glad you could work something out at no extra cost for reservation holders.

One thing that worries me is that we'll lose iris readout on the remote since I don't think the Impero has an LCD screen on which that function could be implemented. Any chance you could make some simple add-on device for it?
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Oh, right. I forgot about that. We MUST HAVE some sort of focus and iris read-out. The lenses don't provide aperture information and the focus scale is tiny and inaccurate. This will never be a professional product without these 2 very basic things. How is this issue going to be solved?
 
I don't recall there ever being a focus read out in the spec. I'm not sure if you can even get that info out of a canon lens.

I could be wrong though.
EDIT: I was wrong.
 
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