the ISO-unlocker site is offline [UPDATE 2: the site is online again, with the following note: “Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.” Ian also said in the comments: “The pre-order system was handled through the Celery crowdfunding service so all user data was protected.”]
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UDPATE 1: I just received an email from Steven. He has received the following email from Ian Norman:
“To all the supporters of the ISO Unlocker project,
Thanks so much for your pledge to support the development of the ISO Unlocker for the Fujifilm X-T1. I am sorry to inform you that we will not be pursuing funding any longer and you will not be charged for your order. As of this moment, all orders are cancelled. You will receive a separate email confirming the cancellation of your order.
Please note that your initial order was just a pledge and pre-authorization and no orders were charged at the time of placing the order.
I developed the idea for ISO Unlocker when I and so many other X-T1 owners felt that their photo shooting experience could be improved by a simple fix. The initial response to the project idea was very positive and I was very excited to seek funding to produce something that would help other photographers enjoy their camera even more.
Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.
Thanks again for your support, I’m sorry we didn’t see it happen.”
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Original Post
As you may remember, on March 2 I told you here about the ISO-unlocker for the X-T1, a “fully machined aircraft grade aluminum cover for your X-T1âēs ISO dial. It keeps the dial lock button held down so that you can more quickly change your ISO setting on the fly“.
The news quickly spread around the web, as many considered it a useful accessory in order to improve the ergonomics of the X-T1.
At the ISO-unlocker site we could read that “designs for the ISO Unlocker are finished and prototypes are on the way but we need your help to make ISO Unlocker a reality.â So they needed 250 pre-orders in order to make this accessory become reality.
Just a couple of days ago I stopped again at the ISO-unlocker site and saw that it got 92% of the requested pre-orders. So the goal was almost reached but…
…but was it all just scam? In fact, if you now click on the isounlocker site here, you’ll see that the website no longer works. According to the anonymous FR-reader who passed me this news, the “owner is not responding to emails. Pending PayPal refund request.” [UPATE: Other FR-readers received an email with the text published in the first part of this article]
I’ll keep you posted in case I get some news about it. And if you got some more information, please contact FR at fujirumor [at] gmail.com.
39 Responses
It probably was a scam, especially since it wasn’t a kickstarter (which could still be a scam but not as likely). I expect we’ll see more of this in the future where thieves use rumor sites to round up victims. They’ll only get more sophisticated and bolder. Same as how hackers have ratcheted up their tactics (see Code Spaces).
Just note that the iso-unlocker people never contacted me personally. I stumbled upon it because someone I know very well and I absolutely trust told me about it, and he said he’d like to have it also on his X-T1. So he asked me if I can talk about it on Fujirumors.
For sure that was a pretty clever and sophisticated move. But I don’t think it will be that easy to fool us again, as we will all now be more careful.
Crowdfunding a startup by PayPal preorders, what could possibly go wrong?…
(it seems that I’m quite heavy on sarcasm lately)
The pre-order system was handled through the Celery crowdfunding service so all user data was protected.
Just out of curiosity: why not Kickstarter or Indiegogo?
That’s a good question.We considered both Kickstarter and Indiegogo but found Celery was a better interface for pure pre-orders, rather than a tiered level of support pledges where you have things like “donate $1000 and we’ll fly you out to the manufacturing facility and take you or to dinner” , etc. We just wanted a simple interface for pre-orders and Celery was the most obvious choice.
While I understand that your business is none of mine, let me think out loud for a minute.
Maybe the choice of the pre-order platform as opposed to crowdfunding platform was the root of the problem. Kickstarter and (to a lesser degree) Indiegogo are well known and trusted names, while Celery is something that most photographers expect to see in a grocery store. Oh, and Paypal has a hard earned bad reputation among many users (read http://www.paypalsucks.com, for example).
Besides, specialized crowdfunding platforms have a community of habitual backers. People who would routinely spend $5 every morning at Starbucks – and while they are drinking their coffee, they’ll “invest” another $5 at Kickstarter as a way of “liking” some project or a cause.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that many people might support your project while not needing your product, at least not right away. Maybe they are just dreaming about buying X-T1, maybe they hope for a fix in X-T1S or something… Or maybe they just like diversity. Whatever. It’s much easier to get backed for $5 than for $20. And you can have all kinds of perks set up, starting with $5 “thank you” postcard and ending with $20 product (heck, you could’ve done your first batch as a limited edition!)) or even a $100 multi-item bundle. How about a $500 perk of a gold plated, numbered limited edition ISO dial for Ibelux 40/0.85 target audience?… Sky’s the limit.
Give it another try.
Sometimes projects don’t work. As long as you didn’t lose money, and credit cards numbers were not revealed I don’t see it as a scam. He probably had factory issues, and realized it’s not a sustainable business. It happens.
He wrote some time ago on the forum where he first announced it, that if the project wouldn’t get founded in some weeks, he would take it down. So I think that’s what happened now. (Unfortunately I can’t find that forum now. Anyone know where it was?) He said from the beginning, that he needs 250 pre-orders to start producing.
Also no reason to call this a scam, I would say. No money has been charged, that would only have happened it the project would have been founded.
Yes I know, 250 pre-orders were needed. But he was soo close to the goal. I saw it a couple of days ago. I also thought I should maybe post the iso-unlocker again on Fujirumros to get the last sales needed.
btw, the first feedback I got was from a person who said it could not contact the ISO-unlocker maker and that he didn’t get any notification about the dropped plans. Therefore I asked if it could possibly be scam and I also asked for more feedback… which came immediatly and we now know what happend.
All the backers were notified by email that the project was canceled. Since it was a pledge system only, no one was ever charged for the order (I wasn’t able to do so unless we met the goal). Your headline made my heart stop for a second. I’ll be putting a cancellation notification up on isounlocker.com
maybe it’s better that the isounlocker.com site doesn’t open a error page, but an article where you explain why you dropped plans for it
True that. Working on it now.
oh, and sorry for making your heart stop for a second ð
ISO Unlocker creator here. We merely didn’t receive enough funding requests and support for the project stalled. No one was charged for their order. If anyone has any questions about it, they can email me: info@isounlocker.com
you almost got the pre-orders. 92% is pretty close. If you open them again, I’ll write a post for you and maybe you’ll get the 100% needed
It was a little more complex than just reaching 250 orders. The funding extended past the original quote request deadline and machining rates increased. It could have just broke even but we decided that it would be difficult to sustain past 250 orders to where the manufacturing work would be worth the profit. I think it was an interesting lesson on crowd funding and now we understand the importance of a hard deadline for similar campaigns.
got it
Not just a hard deadline, but a tight one, no more than 30 days from the start.
Agreed!
I was one of the backers, and are sorry the project didn’t went on. The item really would have improved the handling of the X-T1 – imo.
I have on a regularly basis checked the site to see how many was interested, and noticed how slow the backing was. I fully understand that Ian, on basis of that, decided not to continue.
I have seen other claims on various sites, that it all was a scam? Nothing have at any point indicated a scam, and I don’t understand why some people will, unsubstantiated, claim this as a fact. I follow Ian on various social media, and have never distrusted his intends.
In cases like this, it will suit FR to investigate the facts, before making tabloid headlines like the above. Keep your rumours to Fuji products, and give individuals benefit of the doubts, until otherwise proven!
I just wondered why the website has been taken off. A FR-reader told me he tried to contact Ian, and he didn’t get any reply.
Therefore i did 2 things:
1) I wrote a post where I told you that the website is no longer online, and a FR-reader said that he didn’t get any notification from Ian, even if he tried to contact him. It would have simply been better to write an article where he explains why the ISO unlocker won’t be produced anymore, instead of shutting down the whole website.
2) In the same post I asked FR-readers if they have some more information about it to check if it really was a scam (as the first FR-reader, who told me about the closed website, suggested). I got some emails and updated the post within 5 minutes.
Clearly that FR reader was not a backer, since he would have received an e-mail from Ian explaining the situation, like all the rest of us.
Taking the site down after termination of the project, does not necessarily indicate a scam – does it?
Ian is posting regularly on Google+ and other media. I’m sure it would have been possible to contact him there, for a comment.
Just to clarify. I’m not involved in the project other than as a backer, and I don’t know Ian personally, and I’m sure he have never heard of me.
I even didn’t knew that Ian Norman run this isounlocker thing. I never pre-ordered one, as I’m happy with X-E2.
Of course Ian is a good and fair person, didn’t mean to attack him.
Btw, the FR-reader told me that the “owner is not responding to emails”. So I thought that he tried to contact him.
btw, that’s the mail. It was the only feedback I had at the time of sharing the post
I do not want to bash around with this forever. I just want to point out, that pass on more or less true rumours about which products and features to expect from Fuji is one thing (which I enjoy by the way). Indications of a possible scam is a more serious thing, you should be very careful about (despite whatever any source might claim).
Google “ISO Unlocker” will give you Ian’s Google+ account, as one the top hits. Just saying.
Oh, I see you have changed the headline now. Like that!
it would have been the proper thing to notify the costumers (those onboard) of what happened instead of leaving them in the dark, expecting them to do research. like, seriously?
Well, that’s why we all got notified by e-mail – without any research. Are you a backer? Did you not get notified?
If I type ISO UNLOCKER in google, I do not get Ian’s google+ account. As you may know, google personalizes your search looking at what you generally browse.
So all users get different results.
If you look for a search engine where all users get the same results, no matter what you looked for in the past, try duckduckgo.com
Patrick, I’d like to see you remove altogether the headline words “Was the Unlocker for X-T1 Scam”. It’s a very unfair, unreasonable and unsubstantiated leading question. Those of us who pre-ordered and pledged received prompt notification of the cancellation. We then received a detailed explanation (which you have since published) of why the project would not proceed. I responded personally to Ian, thanking him for at least taking the initiative albeit unsuccessfully. I promptly received a very courteous note of appreciation. It is grossly irresponsible for Fuji Rumors to continue to suggest that its readers consider the possibility that the project, pledging and website might have been a scam.
Done
I think it’s now pretty clear what happened.
A FR-reader saw that the website was taken off, tried to contact isounlocker, didn’t get any response and told me about it saying that it is a scam (that is his version, at least).
I checked the site, it was really down and I had just this one feedback to rely on. So I actually wrote an article asking if it could be scam, and if any other reader has news about it to share them with me.
I received answers within minutes that other readers got a notification, and I changed it immediatly.
So I just reported, step by step, the news I got from readers, correcting and changing the article in real time.
And, if the site would not have taken off, but, as it is now, there would be a simple page explaining that the project failed, then this misunderstanding would never had happend.
Thanks for changing the headline.
no problem… I just hope that now nobody will critizise me for changing the headline ð
Patrick,
I follow FR almost every day and I like it. To be honest: till yesterday. The reason why I write this is you wrote in your blog if it all was a scam after the ISO-unlocker stopped. Following your replies you do not seem to have much evidence for a scam. I think you should have investigated more carefully like you do with your sources and rumors when it comes to new camera’s or lenses. You mentioned a few weeks ago you were holding back a rumor because it needed to be checked with trusted sources. Now you get an anonymous message and you post it. You have to realize when hosting a successful blog it comes with big responsibility which should not be taken lightly. Accusing people they are a scam is a serious matter. It is good you changed the headline.
So take a deep breath and continue your good work! Good Luck!
I asked if it “could” be scam, never said that it “is” scam. I decided to share quickly because, in case it is scam, people should know it immediatly.
In fact, if you read the post, I asked for more feedback from readers in order to see what’s the truth behind it.
While I know Ian Norman (I shared his blog several times on FR), I didn’t knew that he was the man behind FR. And when I search for isounlocker on google, I do not get any result about the fact that’s Ian the man behind it. Otherwise it would have been so simple, and I’d just dropped an email to Ian.
Luckily, as said, within 5 minutes I got information from different readers and I updated the post, so that everything was cleared up (even before Ian worte his comments here on FR).
Oh, and A3Jan, I wrote 350 articles in 2014. I’m sorry to lose you as a daily reader because one post wasn’t accurate enough.
I give my best with the time and energy I have, 365 days a year (running this blog together with a full time day job). And this service is free for all of you. This means often staying awake at night, or waking up in the middle of the night any time my iPhone rings and there is an important news to give.
Looking at the rumors, I can’t say that I’m not satisfied with the results. Sure, one can always do better, even with the isounlocker thing. But as a human being writing restlessly and alone 350 articles in 179 days (and countless emails), pardon me, for one time, the lack of accuracy.
Yeh, I’ll take a breath, but I’d need a week off ð
What a whole load of baloney. I read the article and at no time did I think it was a CONFIRMED scam. It was more of a prompt for anyone involved to carry out their own research into it.
that was indeed my intention… thanks for actually reading the whole article