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Digital Bolex raw camera, no longer made
  • 1130 Replies sorted by
  • RRRRRRRR

    PB´s shots with the cam look rather decent (dl'ed his upload file). Organic, though noisy. But then again, there were no situations that really pushed the dynamic range to a great extent. The look is pretty similar to Ikonoskop but that´s expected since it has a similar type of sensor. If anything this bring back the faintest of hopes that there some day will be an Aaton Penelope Delta available for rent somewhere. (CCD at the highest end can look so damn good).

    No need for Blackmagic or Panasonic to worry, but Ikonoskop will need to step up or lower their asking price.

  • endotoxicendotoxic

    FILM BY DAY GH4 BY NIGHT ALL DAY , FORGET BOLEX

    Lol

  • lunalobo75lunalobo75

    @endotoxic There'll be a GH4 in my holster along with the Bolex too - don't you worry, partner;) They'll both be great cams for different uses for me.

  • goannagoanna

    Just in case anybody's curiosity is easily satisfied by the Soviet Pravda-like, (eyedrop-full of information we get fed just anytime the DB folks decide to)...

    .. we might take a look at the check list of what needs to get reviewed here before we start waxing lyrical about the Bolex, sight unseen camera. Trying to work out if the DB is any good just by looking at what the seller chooses to reveal is about as useful as reading tea leaves.

    Luminous Landscape's Panasonic GH2 Revisited is just one of many reviews where cameras get tested under lots of real world conditions and then maybe even examined up close in nice, quiet and dust-free labs by people in white coats and machines which hum..

    (Ignore what the writer says, just look at what's covered)

    A healthy marketplace has not one, but dozens of professional reviewers and thousands of user contributions!

  • DrDaveDrDave

    @lunalobo75 I asked my basic question about microphone power maybe a month or so ago. If I had access to a camera it would be fairly simple to make some basic audio tests. If I were to consider a purchase I would simply wait until a track record of shipping and repairing had been established. I'm sure they mean well, I'm just considering a scenario in which I would need a replacement or repair, which is 90 percent of my work. As far as the licensing goes, I'm not sure anyone can really answer that, but again, I don't really know. PB obviously got his cam. I think it is sort of a unique situation, most products have a worldwide license or copyright. Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex The wikipedia article does not reference a source for the license claim, however.

  • lunalobo75lunalobo75

    @DrDave When I receive my camera, I can do a voltage test for you. I know it doesn't answer your other questions, but hopefully I can help in some small way. I would try and email them directly again about repairs (which I assume would be in Canada for right now) and the international license issues; or post on the DB16 forum, that might work too.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Thanks @lunalobo75, I hope you receive your camera real soon! You certainly have waited.

  • last_SHIFTlast_SHIFT

    I see an announcement at NAB... image

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    426 x 297 - 42K
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Saw that video before. Had to turn it off. The jitters were giving me a headache. I saw someone say that it was part of the style. Well good luck with that. :)

  • thornthorn

    Perhaps the shooter was having a donut sugar rush, and then filmed during an earthquake.

    Gah. There's no "style" to that, any more than hearing someone play an out-of-tune piano. It simply looks like crap. Beyond the shakes, it's washed out, so overly lacking contrast... not impressed. It's like they use a "cut scene from HalfLife2" filter.

  • robmneilsonrobmneilson

    Damn, the Peter Pan video is some of the worst footage I've seen lately. However that donut shop is amazing, makes me miss my old neighborhood big time (especially the donut ice cream sandwiches in summer).

  • spacewigspacewig

    Donna should stop eating her profits and buy a neatvideo license instead for the guys who filmed and edited the clip of her bakery.

  • lunalobo75lunalobo75

    Blooms' review of the D16 is up:

  • nomadnomad

    If you read between the lines, he nailed it pretty well: it's more of a lifestyle item than a workhorse!

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Shorter review "I just don't see myself using this camera on a professional job (26 minutes in)...other cameras outperform it in every single way"

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Most interesting is to know source of finances that allow DB to survive still.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I did get the feeling, and I appreciate the time it takes to make a review, that the lede was buried. Just lead with "Not for professional work." I was disappointed that he thought ISO 200 was the limit. I can't film everything at ISO 200.

  • luekioluekio

    @DrDave Oh dear, ISO 200 is the NATIVE iso, not the limit.

    I'm a camera owner and I agree with bloom this is not the camera of choice for the type of work he does, which is corporate, commercial stuff. His $30k f55 camcorder would be the ideal choice :P

    D16 It is however perfect for 16mm enthusiasts, indie filmmakers and anyone who is fed up with the videoish look, moire, aliasing and rolling shutter of the other options in this price range. I've been shooting with it for a couple of weeks myself and can confirm it has NONE of those problems and the image is gorgeous!

    Not for everyone though, for example if you want to shoot weddings/events/your cats a gh4 would be a much better choice.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    @luekio If you look at the review, you can see he says over and over that 200 ISO is the usable limit. Watch the full review. It's pretty obvious that he doesn't want to totally slam the camera, but in the review the only time he is really talking enthusiastically is when he is talking about the leather camera bag. He owns up that he would not use it for professional use. That rules out everyone except non professionals. He also says "other cameras outperform it in every single way". So that means for both amateurs and professionals, you would be better off with a different camera for every single video task.

    There's another part of the review which is telling. It's obvious that the $999 BMCC combined with the Metabones gives the BMCC a huge advantage, so he talks in the review about how he suggested to the Bolex team to make a m4/3 version that can be fitted with a metabones adapter. Obviously, the 1 stop in speed plus possibly the option for DOF would make this a better camera. And there is no real DOF on the Bolex, without some option for shallow DOF it isn't really usable for indie film makers.

  • cantsincantsin

    The camera arrived too late. It was announced almost exactly two years ago, in March 2012. That was one month before it was even known that Blackmagic would enter the same market with its own raw-recording video camera, and more than one year (!) before the first announcement of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (which nevertheless was rolled out half a year earlier than the D16).

    If they actually had delivered their camera in the first half of 2012, they would have had some momentum and advantage over Blackmagic and other cameras (including Canon DSLRs with MagicLantern raw). Today, their tech isn't competitive anymore and way overpriced for what it offers.

    And yeah, all the D-Bolex fanboy talk about the image looking more like film is complete rubbish. It looks like CCD video, not surprisingly. (That includes Bloom's footage as well.) I doubt that any of these people ever shot 16mm film and know what reversal stock or a negative print looks like. It's like saying that Instagram looks like Polaroid.

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    Talking to the folks at the SXSW booth, expect 4:3 and anamorphic announcements at NAB. Speed ramp via the crank is apparently the hardest feature on their plate but I believe they also said look towards NAB for something there.

    They had a fairly cool little f/0.85 c-mount prime attached that created a surprisingly beautiful image with pretty fantastic bokeh. The bokeh issue is one of lenses, not the sensor size. If you can invest in the right lenses there are no concerns over being able to get a very cinematic image.

    I'm still waaay more sold on any of the three BMD cameras being a better deal for the money and more flexible.

  • lunalobo75lunalobo75

    Couple of videos to check out:

    and

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Something tells me that financial resources of DB is near the end.

    And Chinon Bellami will be camera for the fans of old retro look.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    @BurnetRhoades you can perhaps get good Bokeh but you can't get decent DOF which is a limitation for a cinematic image. If they could get a 4/3 mount they would have at least the option for a Metabones adapter.

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