Apertus Newsletter - Breaking News Edition: Apertus and Dynamic Perception have teamed up to create an entire open source digital cinema camera

[Sebastian Pichelhofer]

This is huge! This is the moment we have all been waiting for! We’re sending this special edition newsletter to announce our first giant steps towards a completely new Open Source Camera. You heard us right! We are doing so much more than just developing a Sensor Front End.

Apertus will create an entirely new, complete digital cinema camera!
A High speed Super35 global shutter 4K CMOS sensor camera, powered by free software and open hardware, with a target retail price well below 10K$. How does that sound?

We are currently ironing out details, creating 3D models and animations to illustrate our concept. Wait until you see them, they are just awesome!

Once our preparations are complete we will make the entire plan available for review and feedback. We will engage in discussion with the community, as well as the broader public, for 2 weeks of intense consultation. During this time, we will be able to make appropriate, informed revisions to our final plan. The next step is officially launching the crowd funding campaign and turning this project into reality.

There is another thing we are very excited about and want to share with everyone.

Apertus is not going to do this alone!
We have established a partnership with Dynamic Perception. Chris ‘Shutterdrone’ Church and Jay ‘Milapse’ Burlage are the pioneers of HDR Motion Control Timelapse. They are the developers of the Open Source Motion Control System - OpenMoCo and popular open source sliders; The Stage Zero system released in late 2010 and the soon to be released Stage One System.

There are many benefits that will come from this cooperation: in addition to contributing with personnel resources, Dynamic Perception has committed to funding part of the development of our new camera project. The Apertus camera will work seamlessly with Dynamic Perception motion control systems and offer freaking brilliant new possibilities. Finally, they will also help us establish a recognisable Apertus legal body in the United States.

This legal, non-profitable structure, is something we are discussing in our forums right now: the creation of an Apertus Foundation, based in the United States. The U.S. is the best strategic location for crowd funding our project on the scale we require.

We are currently researching the best avenue for creating this foundation, and you can join in the discussion at the specific forum thread.




Here’s the official announcement from the guys over at Dynamic Perception:

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Official announcement:

The Apertus Project and Dynamic Perception team up

Dynamic Perception and the Apertus Project have teamed up to produce the first fully integrated camera and motion control system. Together we will expand the capabilities and tools available to filmmakers everywhere, while pushing the envelope in creativity and openness through open-source electronics and hardware.


About the Apertus Project

Born by the community in 2006, the Apertus Project seeks to design and build all aspects of a digital cinema camera using open-source technology, to create a truly unencumbered platform for professional production as well as experimentation, education and artistic expression.

The project has not only focused on software and hardware for recording video and interacting with the camera, but also to provide open-source alternatives for several key areas of post-production workflow. In pursuit of this goal, the Apertus Project plans to create a RAW video conversion software suite. Work is also currently under way to develop a Blender based post-production workflow.


MoCoBus

Dynamic Perception is bringing its new MoCoBus technology to market, which will provide an open framework for numerous types of devices to be connected and controlled both in the studio and in the field. Unlike other existing motion control and studio automation technology, all aspects of MoCoBus will be truly open and available for integration by open-source and closed-source products.

As a long-term project, one of the goals of Dynamic Perception and the Apertus Project are to provide product alternatives for all "intelligent" devices in the studio that are both open-source and competitive on pricing, features, and capabilities. We believe that not only does open-source technology work well in the hands of creative individuals, but the rapid pace at which the technology can adapt to new situations helps prove out new capabilities which will impact traditional products as well.

The nanoMoCo controller board will be the first product released by Dynamic Perception using MoCoBus technology -- allowing DIY and OEMs to create stepper-based devices with high performance and capabilities easily and at an extremely low cost.


A New World, a New Camera

The result of this project will be a full-featured cinema camera with complete MoCoBus integration built directly into the camera's user interface, allowing control over all recording, motion, and other studio automation tasks directly from the camera without the need for several other controllers and devices that must be independently configured and started.

By reducing the number of devices that need to be interacted with, not only can we reduce the time between concept and execution, but also reduce the overall cost and labor required to create the most expressive shots you can imagine.

Ultimately, we believe that a solo filmmaker should be able to produce expressive shots that would normally require an entire team to execute today, and to be able to do it on an independent's budget.

Of course, all of the control capabilities in the world wouldn't matter if the camera can't record breath-taking video, and to this end the Apertus team is investing heavily in creating a camera which will be on-par with any production cinema camera at a fraction of the price. Details on the specifications of this camera will be released soon.


The Open-Source Studio

Our goal at Dynamic Perception is to support the creation of open-source alternatives for all tools used in filmmaking.  While our roots are in motion control - our heart is in the entire creative process. Over the next year, we will be creating or supporting projects covering everything from automation to lighting, and on to post-production.

These tools are only as good as the connections between them, and knowing this, we are working to make intelligent, network-able tools that allow you to control each of these devices from the most appropriate interface for your needs -- whether it be in-camera, in a specialized hand-held controller, or on your desktop with your other applications.

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Discuss this announcement on the forums here: http://apertus.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=504

See you next month,

The Apertus Team