There's A Professional Grade Digital Cinema Camera Powered By Linux

[oiaohm]

This is actually very impressive. I'm curious how much it costs, and if it will be compatible with any existing lenses on the market.

They are testing it with Sigma lens it in the photo if you look closely. So they has to either a Sigma lens mount or a lens mount with a Sigma converter. Problem not a photos with enough angle around the lens to ID what converter if any is on the back end of it. Of course they might be releasing more than one converter plate as well.

So yes there will be at least Sigma lens on the market that will fit it. How many other brands that is still a open question.

I went and looked up the declared sensor. https://www.ximea.com/files/brochure...rochure-HQ.pdf
It should have the cannon EF-mount option. So there should be a lot of different lens that fit that have been on the market for ages..

[kpedersen]

Do you rekon we will actually be able to buy it or will it be a kickstarter / build to order / pinebook / libre-phone vapourware?

OK, fair enough, it is a bit more specialist so I would understand build to order... but I will have to see one first before I believe it is real

[wizard69]

How does it compare with https://www.apertus.org/?

I think the problem here is the same that one would have with a commercial product. That is the ability to sell enough to make a product and keep an ongoing business. Being open source does not bring a lot to the camera nor the business. The project will live or die based on its technical merit and the usefulness to potential professional users. .

[wizard69]

Do you rekon we will actually be able to buy it or will it be a kickstarter / build to order / pinebook / libre-phone vapourware?

OK, fair enough, it is a bit more specialist so I would understand build to order... but I will have to see one first before I believe it is real

This is the thing unless they are looking at the lower end of the market where mass production techniques make sense this will basically be a made to order product. Pricing becomes key here, they either drive the cost down to appeal to a wider audience and thus produce volume or they god in the opposite direction and charge a lot per machine.

[Guest]

Wow, that's awesome! I was expecting some sort of custom DSP or chip that does image processing and encoding. They're one of the few people making the best use of Intel hardware.

It would be great if we could do the same on desktop Linux, with desktop/laptop cameras (i.e encode using the GPU hardware).

[oiaohm]

Do you rekon we will actually be able to buy it or will it be a kickstarter / build to order / pinebook / libre-phone vapourware?

OK, fair enough, it is a bit more specialist so I would understand build to order... but I will have to see one first before I believe it is real

https://www.pine64.org/pinebook/ Pinebook did land. Pine has fairly much landed every product they have said they would. Pine stuff history says you can fairly much bet its not vapourware. If it will be a useful product that is another question with Pine.

I do rekon that a open hardware camera will land from someone. Its mostly due to how expensive red cameras are and how much of a bastard they are to get fixed.

You do have to remember a entry level Red Digital Camera body 5K camera body being no lens, no lens mount, no handle no display no storage... so basically a box with sensor and core electronics roughly 15000 USD . In the Red Digital Camera you want a different sensor its replace the complete box. Both the apertus and octopus are being made that you can have multi sensors on shelf and use the 1 box.

Just to point out how horrible this is lets say you change a lens over in the field and some dirt gets in and scratches a red camera sensor its time for a new box. I am not kidding to the sensor replaced in a Red is more than the camera is worth. But if you could buy that sensor outside a red on open market it would be able 10/1 of the price of the item at worst.

There is a place in the market for a decently priced and functional repairable movie camera instead of these cameras where it basically scrap the complete box every time there has been a stuff up in the field and this costing a true arm and leg every single time. I am not saying these cameras will replace red digital camera but it will at least for where red is not required and/or may get broken give you a cheaper repairable option.

Right to repair is a major problem in movie production with cameras.

[schmidtbag]

I'm thinking more like $15K. Basing the price close to a similar RED's cheapest option: https://www.red.com/DSMC2-BRAIN?quantity=1&sensor=4

I was thinking the same thing. It's probably going to be a low-volume product, it has a machined chassis, it's made in Europe, and seeks to be professional-grade. I suspect it might be a little cheaper than RED's stuff, because:
* It's using some off-the-shelf parts
* It's using a lot of open-source software
* It needs to be competitive. Most professional filmographers don't exactly care about whether their camera is open-source. Being modular and upgradable, however, I could see being a real interest.

Heck you can barely buy a decent DSLR for $2k. This is studio equipment. Add another zero, and you're probably in the ballpark for the base unit without any lens, although with 5k resolution, I'm guessing the base unit is closer to $35k without lens.

I assume you mean a DSLR kit? Because that's a bit pretentious to say you can barely buy a decent DSLR (body only) for $2k. You can buy a decent DSLR body for $1k nowadays. Sure, maybe you don't get 11FPS+, dual memory card slots, weatherproofing, hundreds of focus points, 30MP+ sensor, and so on. But, even $500 cameras today can give you very professional results with a good lens.
As any good photographer will tell you, the body isn't the most important part. Spending more money on it doesn't always mean better results, it just means you can minimize your post-processing and while adding more flexibility.

They are testing it with Sigma lens it in the photo if you look closely. So they has to either a Sigma lens mount or a lens mount with a Sigma converter. Problem not a photos with enough angle around the lens to ID what converter if any is on the back end of it. Of course they might be releasing more than one converter plate as well.

Ah, I'm not too familiar with Sigma lenses (never used one). That's good they're using a tried and tested system though.

[Vistaus]

Would the camera system cost over $2,000? Being 5K, that's what I'm thinking...

And I've been asking the same thing about file systems other than NTFS. Well, it does make sense for keeping costs low for big movie studios...

But hey, if the camera runs Linux, maybe that's something I could pay for if I have deep pockets...

And no, I'm not trolling about the price. I'm trying to be realistic here.

This is all they currently have to say about the price:

"We haven’t published pricing information at the moment, but our sensor range is intended to accommodate from the budget filmmaker up to the more heavily financed."
(source: https://www.instagram.com/p/By26dNDp3OH/)

[AndyChow]

Do you rekon we will actually be able to buy it or will it be a kickstarter / build to order / pinebook / libre-phone vapourware?

OK, fair enough, it is a bit more specialist so I would understand build to order... but I will have to see one first before I believe it is real

I've had a pinebook for two years now. Granted, it's not great, doesn't have hardware video acceleration, and the battery takes 2+ hours to charge and barely lasts 4 hours, but it's not vaporware. Just ... a bad product.

[oiaohm]

I assume you mean a DSLR kit? Because that's a bit pretentious to say you can barely buy a decent DSLR (body only) for $2k. You can buy a decent DSLR body for $1k nowadays. Sure, maybe you don't get 11FPS+, dual memory card slots, weatherproofing, hundreds of focus points, 30MP+ sensor, and so on. But, even $500 cameras today can give you very professional results with a good lens.
As any good photographer will tell you, the body isn't the most important part. Spending more money on it doesn't always mean better results, it just means you can minimize your post-processing and while adding more flexibility.

That is a interesting part of the problem DSLR body costs 2K but those are built very compact so they in fact fit in your hands not sit on your shoulder. Smaller is more complex construction. But even the most expensive part is going to be the sensor you would expect. The developed board for sensor so far in https://www.apertus.org/ sensors the Cmosis CMV12000 line have a market price around 2000USD each. If you want the Cmosis development board for the CMV12000 without sensor kiss good by to 25000USD but the board is that expensive in individual parts.

I would say $2000-4000 USD for everything bar the sensor would be possible. High end sensors are 2000-5000USD this is why throwing away a 15000 dollar red because a sensor is damaged is so wasteful. Cameras on movie sets do get broken sometime its been a lens change and something got in a scratched the sensor other cases it like its got drop and a truck drove over it damaging the body. Reds and other movie camera are built modular to a point due to breakage. Even so a red is not a modular or repairable as a fully open design would be.

Movie set main cameras being tough is important it does not matter how tough you make a camera someone will manage to break it at this point repairablity comes important.