Sunday, December 15, 2013

Long Time Coming - Digital Bolex 16

Like many people, I thought this was a pipe dream. Like take the money and run into a brick wall. It is part of the reason I try to stay away from Kickstarter campaigns. There are some that I've supported that have never hit the mark. Others took a long time; I received the product but the logistics of creating a brand new thing is and has always been a crap shoot.

Sometime you get lucky. Most of the time it is hard, nail dirty work. In 2012 there was a Kickstarter campaign that promised backers that the Digital Bolex D16, a RAW 2k camera, can be created that would look like the filmed images from the original Bolex 16mm film camera.

The project was funded in days. The actual delivery took a bit longer. People made fun of it, looked to other new products like the Black Magic Pocket Camera or just let it drift out of their minds.





This is a demonstration video recorded on the Red Line in Hollywood and then coming up for air at what looks like Hollywood and Vine. At night where the tourists and street people try not to collide with each other.

The Specs

1" CCD and records in Adobe CinemaDNG talking RAW uncompressed video.
32fps at 1080p and 60fps at 720p
Dual Compact Flash Card slots and a 400GH SSD hard drive.
Can attached an XLR microphone for professional mics and audio
This baby records anything from 480p to 1080p to 1152p or what they are calling Super 16mm mode.

It isn't the camera for me, not yet. I know that. But someday there will be a magical movie made with this camera that will go into places a full size movie camera cannot. It is an accessible bit of kit to those that know they can make a movie and they don't need the studio system to do it.

Not knocking the studio system. Just saying there is now the opportunity for expand options. The stories not yet told. Points of view not obstructed by a freaking bean counter.

I smell those bacon hot dogs, it is the future calling.

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