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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 have put the Birger mount through the paces this week on a very intense shoot (which included some military paratrooper footage).

All I can say is, AWESOME!

The Birger has lived up to my very high expectations.

Nice work, Erik. It was worth the wait!

-Thor
 
The Mount is back on my cam and i'm having a blast with It and Impero. All the problems i had with 16-35 are gone, lens is smooth, no drifting, i-data present. The focus with 50L and 85L have always been good since day 1, only problem reported now is that, with both, the i-data are not present and they blacken the view if i start the camera with those lensens plugged.
Product is amazing, you right Thor, the wait was worth but we were angry those days, werent we?

Anyone knows if the ET 15mm adapter collides with the Birger lower Lemo?
 
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I would like to publicly recognize Birger Engineering for the excellent service that they have provided for my Impero and my mount. The communication and turn-around was top-notch.

The Birger mount for the Red has had a rocky start, and I have experienced my share of frustration, but I now hold in my hands the powerful system that was originally promised and boy was it worth the wait!

Big thanks to Erik and his team! My hat is off.
 
Thor Wixom said:
I have put the Birger mount through the paces this week on a very intense shoot (which included some military paratrooper footage).

All I can say is, AWESOME!

The Birger has lived up to my very high expectations.

Nice work, Erik. It was worth the wait!

-Thor
Click to expand...

Hi Thor,

What focal lenses were you using? I tested the mount a couple of weeks ago, the 50mm lens was fantastic, the 85mm just ok, other focal lengths were hopeless.

Stephen
 
Stephen Williams said:
What focal lenses were you using? I tested the mount a couple of weeks ago, the 50mm lens was fantastic, the 85mm just ok, other focal lengths were hopeless.
Click to expand...

Stephen, what do you mean? I've used the Birger mount with all sort of Canon lenses from 10mm to 800mm and it works without criticism. In fact, the best primes like EF 800mm are brilliant. Some zoom lenses like the 28-300mm zoom having a large range are satisfactory, but still would not say they are hopeless. For instance, one can make print outs in A2-size of frames shot with the 28-300mm lens and people believe they are taken with DSLRs. When they hear the frames are from Red One they typically get rather surprised.
 
Stephen Williams said:
I tested the mount a couple of weeks ago, the 50mm lens was fantastic, the 85mm just ok, other focal lengths were hopeless.
Click to expand...

Stephen, want to expound a little on this? Canon makes (or made) six different 50mm lenses, and three different 85s... which lenses did you use? Not all lenses are suitable for use on this system. All red strip (or "L") lenses, and most gold stripe lenses work extremely well.

What did you find hopeless about these lenses? What Birger software release were you on? Was the camera properly collimated? etc? If you say something derogatory, I think you owe it to the community to provide some substance to back up your claims.
 
Hi Erik,

I first saw your mount on the same camera roughly 1 year ago. I went back to see how the system had progressed. AFAIK "L" series lenses, you have had feedback since that test from the owner.

The 50mm had the precision of an Ultra Prime showing what was possible, the 85 had the precision of a Super Speed. Ther others jerked & were not smooth, we tried updating software & settings using the wireless connection, that itself was impressive, however no improvement.

I found the control of the other lenses hopeless, not the lenses themselves.

Should I go back, video the problem & post for all to see?

I was specifically responding to the quote "The Birger has lived up to my very high expectations" I was slightly disappointed

Best,

Stephen


Erik Widding said:
Stephen, want to expound a little on this? Canon makes (or made) six different 50mm lenses, and three different 85s... which lenses did you use? Not all lenses are suitable for use on this system. All red strip (or "L") lenses, and most gold stripe lenses work extremely well.

What did you find hopeless about these lenses? What Birger software release were you on? Was the camera properly collimated? etc? If you say something derogatory, I think you owe it to the community to provide some substance to back up your claims.
Click to expand...
 
Stephen Williams said:
The 50mm had the precision of an Ultra Prime showing what was possible, the 85 had the precision of a Super Speed. Ther others jerked & were not smooth, we tried updating software & settings using the wireless connection, that itself was impressive, however no improvement.
Click to expand...

Was the control a Mac or an Impero?

We are capable of so much more than what you describe here, and I would like you to have the owner of the system get in touch with me as something is very wrong, and needs to be fixed.
 
Erik Widding said:
Was the control a Mac or an Impero?

We are capable of so much more than what you describe here, and I would like you to have the owner of the system get in touch with me as something is very wrong, and needs to be fixed.
Click to expand...

Impero, AFAIK it had just come back from an upgrade........
 
I too am curious to know what results other people are getting. On my 50mm 1.2 and my 85mm 1.2 I am getting very smooth focus pulls via impero/birger. The rest of my lenses were moderately jerky with the 70-200 and 17-55 being unusable. I'm on my second impero and have the same results. I know Erik is working on an update that will solve the "lag and catch up" problem with the 70-200 and 17-55 but I assumed that the rest of the lenses were slightly jerky due to either limitations in the lens focus motors or perhaps fixable in an update. But is anyone getting perfect results out of the 24-70 f2.8L for instance?

I am not being critical of the system, when it works, it's really cool. Most of the lenses are usable, but not smooth. I haven't said much because I've assumed that Erik was still working out the bugs, but if some people are getting perfect results, then perhaps the bugs are on my end and I need to troubleshoot my system some more.

Is anyone getting consistently perfect results with their impero/birger?
 
Final Birger Impero Software released today.

Final Birger Impero Software released today.

Ken posted a major software release for the Impero (v2.0) and for the Birger Canon lens mount (v20c) today. Update through the Mac app or from our web site:
http://birger.us/downloads.htm

This version has a special mode for focus control with problem lenses (17-55/2.8, 200/2.8, 70-200.2.8). Need to hold down the "F" button to change modes. It is documented in the "Quick Notes for Impero" document posted on the above link. Also implemented are the remaining missing features for the Impero: Limit Lens (1:2 gearing); Limit Knob (2:1 gearing); proper record light functionality; wired pairing; and a couple of other miscellaneous things...

The only remaining releases from us on the Impero will probably be bug fixes, if needed.

If the special focus mode does not fix the focusing ability on lenses that either work well from the Mac, or work well from somebody else's Impero, then your Impero is broken, and needs to come back.

Unfortunately, VF's quality control was somewhat lacking, and a number of Imperos (about 20 known, of 180 shipped, to date) got out into the field with badly adjusted encoder magnets, or encoder magnets that had not been glued in and moved over time. If your Impero drifts, or offers really chunky focusing, or at times no focusing at all - unfortunately it needs to come back.

WE HAVE AND WILL SUPPORT ALL IMPEROS SOLD BY BIRGER. Out of respect to Curt, we tried to quietly fix the problems. Now that we understand all of them, I want to assure anybody that isn't happy with his Impero that we will make sure it works, and works well. Try the new software, and if you are you are still not pleased with your Impero, please email me or Amy and we will help you determine if your Impero needs to come back for service.
 
Hi,
just upgraded to the last versions.
I'm having a perfect focusing behavior of the Birger /Impero with the 16-35II, the 50L and the 85L, but this is old story because all of these lenses were working perfectly with the previous cocktail of versions too.

The only thing i'm having still is that, when starting the camera with both the 50L or the 85L the view through the lens goes dark after 10 seconds circa of "initializing"; after initialized, the monitor shows all the working menus but rec gives an internal fault. This behaviour happens with both protocol support (of course with no support everything work but, of course, the i-data).
With the same mount configuration the 16-35II works perfectly, showing i-data ecc ecc.
How can i fix this? Is anyone facing the same problem?
Thanks
 
Paolo Tinari said:
The only thing i'm having still is that, when starting the camera with both the 50L or the 85L the view through the lens goes dark after 10 seconds circa of "initializing"; after initialized, the monitor shows all the working menus but rec gives an internal fault. This behaviour happens with both protocol support (of course with no support everything work but, of course, the i-data).
With the same mount configuration the 16-35II works perfectly, showing i-data ecc ecc.
How can i fix this? Is anyone facing the same problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Is the GPIO input either: (1) set active low -or- (2) disabled? If not, try those settings, and report back.
 
updating impero

updating impero

can anyone step me through the updating of the impero? i've updated the birger mount firmware easily enough but when i run z-term and enter any of the codes (lv or ex) i either get no response or the number zero. it shows that i am connected but i never see the birger library version. once i got it to show me the current library but nothing worked after that. and now i cannot even connect to the mount via the bei device interface software anymore. i keep getting error message "No Valid Library Found - Staying In Bootloader"

what am i doing wrong?

thanks
 
Hi Erik,

I find your earlier comment rather hard to swallow. "If you say something derogatory, I think you owe it to the community to provide some substance to back up your claims."

It would appear that you were well aware of the issues.

Best,

Stephen

Erik Widding said:
Ken posted a major software release for the Impero (v2.0) and for the Birger Canon lens mount (v20c) today. Update through the Mac app or from our web site:
http://birger.us/downloads.htm

This version has a special mode for focus control with problem lenses (17-55/2.8, 200/2.8, 70-200.2.8). Need to hold down the "F" button to change modes. It is documented in the "Quick Notes for Impero" document posted on the above link. Also implemented are the remaining missing features for the Impero: Limit Lens (1:2 gearing); Limit Knob (2:1 gearing); proper record light functionality; wired pairing; and a couple of other miscellaneous things...

We got tired of waiting for ViewFactor so we finished the software for them. The only remaining releases from us on the Impero will probably be bug fixes, if needed.

If the special focus mode does not fix the focusing ability on lenses that either work well from the Mac, or work well from somebody else's Impero, then your Impero is broken, and needs to come back.

Unfortunately, VF's quality control was somewhat lacking, and a number of Imperos (about 20 known, of 180 shipped, to date) got out into the field with badly adjusted encoder magnets, or encoder magnets that had not been glued in and moved over time. If your Impero drifts, or offers really chunky focusing, or at times no focusing at all - unfortunately it needs to come back.

WE HAVE AND WILL SUPPORT ALL IMPEROS SOLD BY BIRGER. Out of respect to Curt, we tried to quietly fix the problems. Now that we understand all of them, I want to assure anybody that isn't happy with his Impero that we will make sure it works, and works well. Try the new software, and if you are you are still not pleased with your Impero, please email me or Amy and we will help you determine if your Impero needs to come back for service.
Click to expand...
 
the new update definitely improves the behavior of the 17-55 and the 70-200 (mine is not the IS). Strangely, for the first time the IS on my 17-55 also works.

I'm still getting some slight stickiness on all of my L zooms, but it seems consistent with controlling the lens from my mac, so more testing is in order for me I believe. Is anyone getting perfect behavior out of the L zooms? My 50 f1.2 and 85 f1.2 behave perfectly.

Thanks Erik for this update, a definite step forward. I am sure the amount of work you anticipated this taking has by now far exceeded the original estimate. I appreciate your commitment to getting this right.

note to everyone else: there is also a new version of the BEI device interface and it seems to work better if you install that first, then use it to update the 20c and impero 2.0
 
Erik Widding said:
Is the GPIO input either: (1) set active low -or- (2) disabled? If not, try those settings, and report back.
Click to expand...

I really can not understand which settings you are suggesting here.

Anyway, downgraded to build 20 and after crossing many different variables that i lost track of, no lenses are now freezing the camera and i-data are always present on screen.
It seems that the Birger do not work with build 21. Is it general or it happens just to me?
In case it is general, when can we expect the mount to work with 21? When it will come out of beta or earlier?
 
Paolo Tinari said:
I really can not understand which settings you are suggesting here.
Click to expand...

Paolo, the Birger mount does work well with build 20 or 21, and Erik is talking about the camera settings of the Aux port.

For this, go to

System -> Preferences -> GPIO

and tick Input A and Input B on and set RECORD on both. Then set

OUTPUT A to RECORDING
OUTPUT B to RECORDING

and go to

(System -> Preferences -> GPIO) -> Polarity

and set

GPIO IN 1 to ACTIVE_LO
GPIO IN 2 to ACTIVE_LO
GPIO OUT 1 to ACTIVE_HI
GPIO OUT 2 to ACTIVE_HI

After this you can use both AUX ports to power the Birger mount.
 
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