Sebastian Pichlofer just introduced me to his amazing full Hardware and Software Open source 4K camera project! I am not going to talk a lot about it. Just read everything you need at Indiegogo.com where he also collects the necessary $$$ to realize the idea.
Note: Philip Bloom also supported the project. Just to say how important and cool this is!
3 Responses
Cool idea but… have indie filmmakers really been opining over needing machine level control for filmmaking? Also, this device already costs more than a GH4 that can already passively use all the lenses the Axiom can. Is it the global shutter that makes it so cool? Or the idea that you could, in theory, upgrade the components? Maybe I’m missing something here and someone else can enlighten me as to why this is such an important development because, I’m not seeing it.
Open source isn’t about making the best product. It’s about democratizing the technology so that anybody can have access to the details of how the technology is implemented. This has advantages for the market even if the product itself isn’t widely accepted or used, although that certainly helps. Looks at Linux, for example, or other open source software. They’ve changed computing immeasurably, changed how software is developed and distributed, changed how people think about the notion of paying for software and forced commercial software to become better quality and more transparent. All this would still be true if Linux didn’t run 80% of the internet’s web servers and a big chunk of the mobile and embedded market.
Because it’s open, it will eventually get much more lenses than GH4 able to control.