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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

Been out of the loop for a while. The week before my imperio arrived, I started a huge, fulltime project, that left my imperio and Red on the shelf since. I finally came up for air this week to shoot a music video today, and decided to get everything up and going.

I upgraded everything: Latest Camera build, Latest Birger library, and Imperio software. Everything is up to date. Batteries brand new out of the bag.

PROBLEM:Lens data comes and goes (mostly gone) and, I can get sync and it controls it for a few minutes, things work smoothly, and beautifully. Then, out of the blue it appears to lose sync and starts trying to reconnect. It connects for a few seconds, then beeps again. I turn off everything bluetooth, same thing. I even connected wired and, for some reason, it was still connecting and disconnecting (wasn't it wired?!) as if it was still trying to use bluetooth even though it was wired. I may not have fully understood how iris was controlled by Imperio, but I had it working for a bit, then it stopped. Sometimes I got it reconnected only to see that the knob lost all ability to control even after Calibrate or FN calibrate.

In one Camera battery charge worth of goofing around, I literally had about 3 minutes worth of bliss--the rest was hair pulling "AAAGHHH!"

I ended up postponing the shoot.

Anyone have any idea of what's going? Is it a matter of waiting for an upgrade?
 
got mine too! after a little fiddling (no paperwork or manual was included) to sync and control lenses, all of mine worked...at first.

my canon 50mm f1.0 was working for a few hours but now everytime i calibrate it with the impero, it begins calibration and then the impero goes crazy blinking all lights and beeping. it becomes non-responsive and must be reset everytime.

has anyone encountered this "error code"?

also, can anyone activate the lens limit or knob limit buttons? they do nothing for any of my lenses.

one more question...where the hell do i go for info/tech support? searching through thousands of posts on this forum doesn't seem like a good idea. is there at least a thread for just the impero/birger customers somewhere?

thanks
 
Craig Schober said:
my canon 50mm f1.0 was working for a few hours but now everytime i calibrate it with the impero, it begins calibration and then the impero goes crazy blinking all lights and beeping. it becomes non-responsive and must be reset everytime.
Click to expand...

The batteries ran out. The blinking lights and beeping is a power up stress test on the batteries, and will cause the unit to continually reset itself if it fails this test.

Craig Schober said:
, can anyone activate the lens limit or knob limit buttons? they do nothing for any of my lenses.
Click to expand...

Not implemented.

Craig Schober said:
more question...where the hell do i go for info/tech support? searching through thousands of posts on this forum doesn't seem like a good idea. is there at least a thread for just the impero/birger customers somewhere?
Click to expand...

http://www.birger.us/downloads.htm

http://www.birger.us/products/impero/docs/Impero Quick Notes.pdf
 
Hi Erik,

I really hate to do this on reduser. But I thought there's a better chance I catch you here since I didn't get an email reply from you. I just like to know when you guys are sending out my repaired mount.
Amy emailed me on the 19th of aug telling me the repairs were done and asked me for my shipping address. I think I replied the following day. But since then, despite several emails, there's only been silence.
I understand you guys have your hands full. But just a reply would be good enough. :)

thanks,

Yean
 
thanks for the quick response erik.

the impero never beeps and freezes up for any other lenses, only one particular lens. could certain lenses somehow require more power?

the batteries were brand new-at least i assume they were. however, the impero was on for a few hours. maybe that drained them already?

thank you for the links. i will look over these notes now.
 
Yean Loon said:
Hi Erik,

I really hate to do this on reduser. But I thought there's a better chance I catch you here since I didn't get an email reply from you. I just like to know when you guys are sending out my repaired mount.
Amy emailed me on the 19th of aug telling me the repairs were done and asked me for my shipping address. I think I replied the following day. But since then, despite several emails, there's only been silence.
I understand you guys have your hands full. But just a reply would be good enough. :)
Click to expand...

We had it in the system as shipped, but with no tracking number. It was here in its traveller, repaired with its paperwork. We appear to have missed that email on the 19th. It will be out today.

I am sorry for the mistake. We are still working through our own company bugs. I hope most will agree that we have improved a good deal throughout this long journey. I spoke to Curt yesterday, and he said we should have the rest of the Imperos tomorrow. (I hope that means we really have them all by the end of the week.)
 
Craig Schober said:
the impero never beeps and freezes up for any other lenses, only one particular lens. could certain lenses somehow require more power?
Click to expand...

I don't think any of the lenses require more power, but the timing of radio transmissions might vary as the different lenses move and/or communicate at different rates of speed. The radio is the big power draw that will dip the battery voltage the most, and be the first thing to cause a reset. It may just be an issue of being close to the end of life in the battery.

If you see this same behavior with fresh batteries, then we will need to tak another look.

Craig Schober said:
batteries were brand new-at least i assume they were. however, the impero was on for a few hours. maybe that drained them already?
Click to expand...

The batteries that we send out with units are probably not the longest life option available, we just include something so people can play as soon as the box arrives. There are a bunch of configurable options that can be accessed through the Mac app, that will have an impact on battery life.
 
Hey Erik,
While you're here, I'm having the same communication problem as some. I've sent at least three emails over last few weeks with no response. My new Impero arrived with the first Aux button jammed in and the switch underneath broken. Since it arrived new that way, can I exchange it? I REALLY don't want to lose weeks waiting for a repair for damage I didn't cause. Other than that, I love the system.
 
wshultz said:
While you're here, I'm having the same communication problem as some. I've sent at least three emails over last few weeks with no response. My new Impero arrived with the first Aux button jammed in and the switch underneath broken. Since it arrived new that way, can I exchange it? I REALLY don't want to lose weeks waiting for a repair for damage I didn't cause. Other than that, I love the system.
Click to expand...

We have been having such a problem getting these in any kind of volume, that we can't do swaps. We sold these at our cost, so unlike the products that we design and manufacture, I have absolutely no margin to work with. Going forward we will probably not resell third party products. Companies like Abel Cine and FilmTools are much better suited to this sort of activity.

That said, we are presently doing the repairs here, so the units do not need to go back to VF. With the exception of Yean's repair sitting here (fixed I might add), we have been turning things around pretty quickly these past few weeks. Send it in, and we will get it back out in a day or two. Lots of repairs have been going out same day. This is what we strive for, but a little too ambitious for us to promise.
 
Thanks Erik,

I'll overnight it and hope that speeds things along. Do we need RMA or anything? Oh, and official shipping address?

Warren
 
Until I devise a better solution I'm using a noga arm into the lower left 1/4-20 socket at the base of the camera to hold the Impero
 
Frazier Nivens said:
So who has the best way to mount the Impero onto the camera rails? What solutions are you using? Thanks for your suggestions in advance.

Frazier Nivens, Ocean Imaging
Click to expand...
I'm using the Manfrotto Nano Clamp:

IMG_0959s.jpg


Works fine, the Impero screws onto the end and the clamp part goes on the rails. Can be used on both 19mm and 15mm rails. Only (minor) issue is that the Impero doesn't line up exactly vertical when screwed tight but a small washer could be used to fix this. I've just been too lazy to do it ;)

HTH

Paul
 
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