BEST OF LUCK!!!
Specs wise looks very nice/ promising. Great perk... 50% off for 350€ in a 6000€ and 5000€ package it's crazy =)

 
Pardom my ignorance, but I don't get why having (among other things) this:

The promo video looks like this, darkish, hyper contrasted and with hardest of highlights' rolloff

We have topic about this project

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3241/apertus-project-opinions-discussion-etc./p1

The promised delivery time for Axiom Beta is April 2015

Something tells me that this date will be much further ahead.

P.P.S. Disclaimer: I'm an eager backer of the project but not a member of the development team. I'm sure your questions are welcome on the IRC (https://www.apertus.org/irc-chat)

How about using email and or Skype? As IRC is not that most people use.

An A7s with a Shogun will be able to shoot raw - and using the S-Log2 picture profile gives it much better bit depth than you'd expect in 8 bits (and XAVC-S is already pretty good for a lot of stuff).

@eatstoomuchjam where did you read that a7s plus shogun will shoot raw?im not sure about that

@RatLabProductions and @sammy The A7s has uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 output available. One of the recording formats available on the Shogun is CinemaDNG. It won't be raw in the sense of not-yet-debayered data straight off the sensor, but that's splitting hairs. The end result should be ~14 stops of dynamic range and no compression.

@eatstoomuchjam

8bit 422 is so far away from RAW its laughable. Its not splitting hairs its a massive difference. No matter what bitrate you record on whatever recording device the A7s still can only output 8bit and fitting 14 stops in 8bit is not an great solution as it leaves so little bits/stop. External recording will result in a better image than internal but it is far far from RAW. You need to do some more reading about RAW, bit rate, codec and colour space. Its clear you don't understand it the way you think you do.

"end effect is likely to be exactly the same for nearly all practical purposes. "

Likely, exactly, nearly. but NOT the same so you can't make a statement like 'The A7s with shogun will be able to shoot raw' because it can't which was what I pointed out. Nearly is not the same.

Pointing out my grammar mistakes with raw yet posting a complete factual mistake is funny. I'd rather have poor grammar than poor facts.

Your A7s has more DR than the BMPCC mostly allocated to highlights which makes easier recovery. Raw isn't all about DR and won't make a 12stop sensor into a 14stop. no one is saying that. Your A7s has far less colour information and can do far less with colour in post before it falls apart due to 8bit xavc. That is where raw is important as you know from shooting 5D3 raw.

The A7s is a great camera (save for terrible ergos and RS) and produces a great image. This Axiom is not for you but others want raw just like everyone wanted raw on the 5D3. If it didn't matter than why are you shooting raw on the 5D3? Its worth the tedious workflow & data sizes for the end results to most users and that also is what attracts people to this axiom project and what attracts people to the Black Magic products.

I don't care to muddle this thread with stuff that has little to do with the topic so I'm out. Just trying to clear up clearly wrong information.

@eatstoomuchjam , you are confusing term badly, RAW date is what sensor outputs before debayering (if it has a bayer pattern) and processing.

A7s outputs RAW data only in picture mode LOL, the 8 bit 4:2:2 what you get with an external recorder is already per-cooked. Just record some normal scenes in Slog 2 with skies and then grade that 8 bit madness and see the "beautiful" banding appear...

The RAW acronym is very well understood everywhere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format

Hiya, EatStoom!

I decided to come back here for a bit.. Not that I hope to convince you :) But I'd like to drop an example.

I've never used A7S. I'm sure it's a fantastic camera. I feel even much more so after watching Philip Bloom review it. His night shots are absolutely incredible. However this hilariously funny guy makes one complain about A7S and I would like to confirm it if possible. He says that A7S allows you to record in S-Log2 only if your ISO is 30'000 or higher. Is that true? Did I understand him correctly? And if I did understand him correctly - can you already see where I'm driving at? :)

Not ISO 30000. ISO 3200

Thx a lot! Makes more sense now

but now we're radically off topic for the Axiom 4k. :)

Bear with me for a moment.. What do you think of the decision not to use S-Log2 bellow ISO 3200?

Well my point was that this is an example of a random decision by a camera-maker that we the users have absolutely no chances of having overturned. Yes perhaps there was a technical reason. But maybe the threshold could be dropped to ISO 2400? 1200? Maybe we the users could live with the kind of technical consequences that would follow the application of S-Log2 encoding at ISO 200? Or maybe there was an altogether different way to fix the issue. Who knows? We don't have the freedome to choose.

And this is precisely the kind of thing that is impossible in the Open Source world. If there is a nagging issue concerning many users there will be one who will go and fix it. Or you can complain to the developers and they will fix it.

Very often you like the camera overall but want some little thing improved. Manufacturers may supply great hardware but not allow you to use it to its full potential. Sometimes they're protecting their business in a higher price segment. Sometimes they don't want to incur the cost of re-testing. Sometimes perhaps they just don't care?

I think that open source is great not because it's "fair" but because it allows a lot of things to be fixed much more easily.

Neither do I like being locked into a particular brand of accessories, batteries, etc. I think it's great when everybody and his dog can make accessories for your camera. I do hope that Apertus project grows into such a full blown eco-system.

Re Axiom Beta I indeed feel that the price even for the crowdfunding backers is a little bit too high. But then I trust the guys that if they can make a saving on the parts it will be passed onto us. They said on multiple occasions that price for us may end up being lower.

And I do believe that some extra features are needed above the bare box. There should be a decent way to attach a Sony NP-style battery to the cam and an internal or easily attachable M.2 format SSD. However my enthusiasm over this project is such that I'm happy to overlook these issues and get the desired features a bit later after the release of the camera itself.

Re the SSD I believe it might be worth talking to the guys more or even perhaps getting a Picozed board and playing a bit while they play with their toys. I have particular hopes on Samsung XP941 512Gb. Anand measured its sequential write to be at 600MB/sec and if my math is correct Axiom Beta 4K RAW@30fps requires just about 480MB/sec.

Lastly at least for me the big magnet which attracted me to Personal View was that it was (and is) the place of network presence of the guy who created the highly regarded GH2 hacks. I was hoping then for a GH3 hack.. If my assumption is correct and many other folks came here for the same reason then the idea of Apertus should have a lot of appeal here since it's so closely related to Personal View pedigree.

Anyway my fears seem to have been without much substance. The campaign has already reached 43% of the required funding and if it completes successfully - that's all I want. No need to convert others into my "religion". My only wish is that enough people get the word so that the truly crazy among us would lend their support to the project :)

Me? :) I don't even need 4K, HD is fine, and I already have GH3 which will cost me no extra money and which I can use today. Yet I expect the subj to turn out pretty nice and useful. Open Source here is a means not the end in my view.

!! Funded !!

EUR 100.9k and steady as she goes, 3 days remaining.

Now interesting which of the stretch goals get hit