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Digital Bolex
ManufacturerCinemeridian, Inc.
TypeDigital cinema camera
Release dateMarch 12, 2012 (Kickstarter)
December 16, 2013 (Retail)
Introductory price$3299 (256GB model) USD
$3599 (500GB model) USD
$3999 (Monochrome) USD
MediaAdobe CinemaDNG
Storage256 or 500 GB internal Solid State Drive or CF card
Sound24-bit 96kHz AIFF[1]
PowerInternal battery
Dimensions3.6”H (91mm) x 3.3”W (84mm) x 7.8”D (199mm)[2]
Mass5 lbs
RelatedBolex H16
Websitewww.digitalbolex.com

Digital Bolex was a partnership between Cinemeridian, Inc. and Bolex International to develop the Digital Bolex D16 digital cinema camera. Development was funded via a successful Kickstarter in March 2012, raising $262,661.

Company profile

Digital Bolex is headquartered in Downtown Los Angeles[3] and Toronto, Canada. Cameras are designed and manufactured in Canada.[4]

Name

In 2012, Cinemeridian licensed the named Bolex from Bolex International, the Swiss camera company that created the first consumer 16mm film camera, the H16, in 1927. The name Bolex is derived from that of its inventor, Jacques Bogopolsky. The Digital Bolex D16 is named after the H16.

History (2011–present)

The Digital Bolex was initially developed as a side project of CEO Joseph Rubinstein's LA-based photo booth company Polite in Public. Rubinstein wanted to develop a video booth that would require a raw-capable video camera under $10,000.[5][6] Rubinstein decided to start a new company to pursue the endeavor in early 2011, and partnered with Canadian design firm IENSO in summer of 2011 to produce the first prototype camera.[4]

In Fall of 2011, Rubinstein hired USC grad and filmmaker Elle Schneider to co-develop the camera. Both film school graduates, Schneider and Rubinstein collaborated on a short film entitled ONE SMALL STEP to test their prototype.[5][7] ONE SMALL STEP premiered at the Short Film Corner of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[8]

Digital Bolex announced their camera at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival where they had a trade show booth. Unable to announce the licensing of the Bolex name before the event, they are cited in the Festival Catalog under the name Cinemeridian.[9]

Kickstarter

Rubinstein and Schneider announced their collaboration with Bolex via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform on March 12, 2012.[10] Billed "the first affordable digital cinema camera" the project came to the attention of notable film bloggers Philip Bloom[11] and Stu Maschwitz,[12] and by the campaign's second day the $100,000 goal had been met. Within the first 48 hours the campaign exceeded $250,000 and the limited run of 100 cameras had been sold.[13] Rubinstein and Schneider have said they purposely limited the number of cameras to 100 in order to avoid the manufacturing delays that had plagued other runaway crowdfunding successes.[citation needed]

As of December 2012, the Digital Bolex was one of the top 50 Kickstarter campaigns of all time, alongside the Oculus Rift, Double Fine Adventure, and Pebble watch, all of which were profiled by CNN Money for their late deliveries.[14] The Digital Bolex had an original estimated delivery date of August 2012, and cameras began to ship in December 2013.[15]

The Digital Bolex received a large amount of press in print and on the web during and after its launch, including stories by Mashable,[16][17] Engadget,[18] PBS,[19] CNET,[20] Vice and Intel's The Creator's Project,[5] and Wired.[21] With 440 backers and $262,661 raised, the Digital Bolex Kickstarter had an unusually high average pledge of $597, nearly twice the average pledge of similar Kickstarter project Oculus Rift ($256 average pledge)[22] and four times the average pledge of the Ouya game console ($136).[23] With 77 backers pledging $2,500 each, the Digital Bolex may have the highest median pledge of any Kickstarter project.[citation needed]

Products

D16 cinema camera

The Digital Bolex camera was the second camera to utilize Adobe's CinemaDNG open RAW file format after the Swedish-made Ikonoskop which debuted in 2008. Both cameras utilize a Kodak-designed CCD sensor.[7] The Digital Bolex D16 shoots raw still frames per second instead of a traditional video stream. In addition to its raw capabilities, the camera is notable for its Super 16mm sized sensor,[19] allowing the usage of vintage 16mm lenses[21] with no crop, and its unique crank wheel encoder.[6] The Digital Bolex is the only digital cinema camera with a native C mount, a nod to the original Bolex 16mm film cameras.

The Digital Bolex was the first-announced camera aimed at the consumer market to offer a 2K recording resolution,[20] however competitor Blackmagic Design started shipping their Blackmagic Cinema Camera (announced a month later at the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas) in December 2012, one year before the Digital Bolex began to ship.[citation needed]

D16M Monochrome

At the 2014 National Association of Broadcasters convention, Digital Bolex announced they would begin selling a Monochrome cinema camera, the D16M.

The D16M is one of a few dedicated monochromatic cinema cameras developed in the last few years. Other monochrome cameras have been created by RED, Leica, and Ikonoskop.[24] The first units shipped in July 2014.[25]

Kish/Bolex Series 1 Primes

Digital Bolex released their first series of lenses online in September 2014.[26] These were previously announced through their website.[27]

Digital Bolex in use

The Digital Bolex has been used in mainstream film and television, including Netflix series Hemlock Grove,[28] Fox series Glee,[29][30] a Kelly Rowland music video directed by Spike Lee,[31] the opening title sequence of Joe Dante's upcoming Burying the Ex,[32] and an Airbnb commercial directed by Bombay Beach filmmaker Alma Har'el.[33] At an #AOLBuild event hosted by The Huffington Post on May 12, 2014, Lee, himself a Kickstarter veteran, called the Digital Bolex "his favorite gadget of the year."[34]

Rubinstein, Schneider, and the Digital Bolex are subjects in the documentary Beyond The Bolex, a biographical film about Bolex founder Jacques Bogopolsky (later anglicized to Bolsey), directed by his great-grand daughter Alyssa Bolsey.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gates, Chris. "The Digital Bolex D16 Brings Movie Magic Back: A Digital Camera for Film Lovers". Videomaker. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Tech Specs". digitalbolex.com. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  3. ^ "Contact Page". digitalbolex.com. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  4. ^ a b Lancaster, Kurt (2014). Cinema Raw: Shooting and Color Grading with the Ikonoskop, Digital Bolex, and Blackmagic Cinema Cameras. Burlington, MA: Focal Press. pp. 4–22. ISBN 978-0415810500.
  5. ^ a b c Poritsky, Jonathan. "Work In Progress: The Digital Bolex Camera Is A Crowdfunded Filmmaking Revolution". The Creators Project. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  6. ^ a b Kreindler, Sarv. "What Exactly Is A Digital Bolex? Fusing Past and Present, D16 Records 2K for Under $3K". Creative Planet Network. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  7. ^ a b Lancaster, Kurt (2013). DSLR cinema : crafting the film look with large sensor video cameras (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Focal Press. pp. 270–271. ISBN 0240823737.
  8. ^ "One Small Step: Release Dates". IMDb. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  9. ^ Krause, Kelly. "South by Southwest Trade Show: The Exhibition for Creative Industries Announces First Round of Exhibitors". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  10. ^ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joedp/the-digital-bolex-the-1st-affordable-digital-cinem
  11. ^ http://philipbloom.net/2012/03/13/digitalbolex/
  12. ^ http://prolost.com/blog/2012/3/13/digital-bolex.html
  13. ^ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joedp/the-digital-bolex-the-1st-affordable-digital-cinem/posts/190176
  14. ^ http://money.cnn.com/interactive/technology/kickstarter-projects-shipping/
  15. ^ Rubinstein, Joe. "The D16 begins Shipping This Week!". Kickstarter.
  16. ^ Skelton, Alissa. "Retro Digital Cinema Camera Is a Hit on Kickstarter [VIDEO]". Mashable. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  17. ^ "The Digital Bolex Reinvents a Classic Camera for the 21st Century". Mashable.
  18. ^ Cooper, Daniel. "The power of Kickstarter: Bolex Camera project raises nearly $250,000 in a single day". Engadget. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  19. ^ a b Delaney, Edward. "Introducing the Digital Bolex". PBS.org. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  20. ^ a b Savvides, Lexy. "Digital Bolex camera brings 2K recording to everyone". CNET Australia. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  21. ^ a b "Old-School 16mm Moviemaking Goes Digital". Wired. Retrieved 13 August 2014. {{cite web}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)
  22. ^ "Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game". Kickstarter. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  23. ^ "OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console". Kickstarter. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  24. ^ Hardy, Robert. "Introducing the D16M, the Digital Bolex Native Black & White s16 Digital Cinema Camera". No Film School. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  25. ^ Haas, Peter. "First Digital Bolex Monochrome camera hits the streets". Red Shark News. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  26. ^ Red Shark News http://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/2042-digital-bolex-announces-kish-lens-prices. Retrieved 21 September 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  27. ^ Marine, Joe. "New Lenses for the Digital Bolex D16 Camera Make the Traditional Follow Focus Obsolete". No Film School. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  28. ^ Kish, Bert. "Guest Post: Bert Kish, editor of Netflix's HEMLOCK GROVE". digitalbolex.com. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  29. ^ Marine, Joe. "The Most Gorgeous Footage Yet from the Digital Bolex D16 Camera". No Film School. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  30. ^ Rizov, Vadim. "New Digital Bolex Footage is Here". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  31. ^ Gottschalk, Karin. "Spike Lee Shoots The Game on Digital Bolex D16 Cameras, and Scores". Planet 5d. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  32. ^ BURYING THE EX Official Twitter Account https://twitter.com/BuryingTheEx/status/410591008531832833. Retrieved 13 August 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ^ Stout, Lyndy. "The way to go". onepointfour.co. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  34. ^ Littlewood, Daniel. Twitter https://twitter.com/dahlzel/status/465953459594747904. Retrieved 13 August 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  35. ^ Jones, Mark. "The BOLEX Goes Digital & Becomes A Documentary". Kickstartermovies.com. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
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