Aapo Lettinen

and making some music for old short film projects too. small sample from today. will mix the more complex ones probably in Summer when the birds are singing too loudly that one could record anything. Maybe this kind of stuff is not everyone's cup of tea but I think one can at least hear what I am talking about when comparing making something for real instead of just checking internet for references and then trying to get some stupid AI "compose" something you kind of like. Playing every single note by yourself is just entirely different universe, I think one can catch something real that way instead of the endless mirages the pop culture and internet drown us in. Especially people need to shut up about "not being good enough to make something by themselves" because that is total bs and just leads to the whole human culture being reduced to nothingness

I would totally expect Fomapan to have tolerances all over the place as even my projector sounds different with it and it had lower stability on our ACL shoot. but it is surprising Kodak messes up with negative stock. They do know better and have no need to cut corners because they set the pricing by being the market leader. The balance is important yes and it can be surprisingly small details at times which do matter a lot. For example on the 10-speed motor I installed on a forum member's K3 there was a tiny invisible soldering joint issue on one small 1206 resistor on the mainboard. The -12C° weather I exposed the camera to revealed the issue, the resistor shrunk maybe like one tenth of thousand of a millimeter and temporarily lost connection and the motor started behaving weirdly. I solder these really carefully and manually inspect every joint like 20 times but this was totally invisible microscopic fault which was only exposed by the huge temperature change. If it cannot be detected it cannot be repaired. People get annoyed when it takes so long for me to get stuff built and shipped but it is partially this why it takes so long. Every freaking small detail needs to be manually checked a million times if you want the device to be reliable. Otherwise it would be just like that Ursa Mini G2 which I have talked about many times, the one which came to the set in factory package totally new and did not even turn on and had to be sent immediately back. They did not even bother to check that the camera would turn on before shipping it to the customer.

There is nothing wrong with making mediocre commercial slop but it is wrong to call it "art" and pretend it is somehow exactly similar than real self expression one pours one's heart and soul in. If one needs to make mediocre slop to pay bills then one does that. But it is an indicator of extreme cultural degradation if people have this midset that nothing else than the slop can be made because the slop pays the bills so anything else is waste. Bragging about gear is of course another issue. So one says that only slop can be made and at the same time wastes 50k on camera kit which is not really needed for that slop making. One could instead spend 10k or 15k on gear and then spend the rest on making tons of slop, or alternatively have 35k or 40k left to make real arts stuff. If the end result is incredible instead of the meh result the slop attitude gets, then one would still get the job with the 10k or 15k kit. People are like compensating for bad script and lack of vision and lack of courage to make radical unique storytelling choices and the set becomes just another cine gear expo where one shows off cool expensive gear to somehow try to look super professional. Putting on Arri or Panavision baseball caps and everything. I am composing and recording music for my documentary projects at the moment and having very basic gear. Zoom recorders, basic condenser mics, nothing fancy. I could have afforded Neumann mic or two if wanting to show off but went with NT1 and AT2031 and similar very basic stuff. The instruments are very basic models too. I think the most expensive guitar cost like 200 euros or so. And recording at home, not in a cool well known studio. The results are still great. It is because I do care, I don't have any reason to make mediocre slop or use AI for anything and I don't need to follow the artificial made up "rules" people are confined with if they want to "look professional". The videographer attitude would be to buy the most expensive most drooled-after Neumann or other high end microphone, then having no money to buy any musical instruments to play and resort to using AI to make some slop mediocre music to get something usable. The expensive gear was just a smokescreen for the sweatshop really used to make the end product. Grab the cash and run before they realize it was some AI drawing you claimed to have spent 200 hours making by hand...

I think there is three kinds of people here...if comparing to the music world. those who only listen to the lyrics and say the music itself does not matter as long as the lyrics tell the same story because the music piece is the same if the story is the same. Kind of text-only based approach to storytelling. Those who listen both the lyrics and composition but think it can be played with different instrument without affecting anything as long as the notes are the same. They kind of think that certain notes always translate directly to certain feelings. Kind of rules-based approach to storytelling claiming that everything is interpreted through the same cultural translation filter and thus one always have to tell a story the same way. Those who are picking up nuances and details so well that the color of the sound is extremely important. One cannot change the instruments or even the persons playing them nor the singer without the whole music piece changing to completely different one. The lyrics are not actually the most important aspect because 95% of the story is told by the raw emotion of the music itself. People like this often listen to foreign music which they don't understand a single word of the lyrics and still kind of understand it fully on subconscious level. I don't say there is anything particularly wrong at forcing all culture through the same filter to make it "easy to interpret as the rules are always the same" but I am completely fed up people doing that on independent and arts stuff. It is completely unnecessary and strictly speaking waste of resources to make more of the same commercial-style slop on limited indie resources. One could make something new, look outside the box. Still 99.99% of people choose to just copy the same storytelling "rules" everyone else uses. Thus making more of the same slop, only cheaper. Makes no sense to me. It is like the sound designer joke where the experienced designer teaches that "when you see a cow you always hear moo"

I have never shot any drama film or even part of it on real film. They always complained about price or inability to shoot trillion takes and improvised stuff. Ended up with 100% video origination. Arts stuff and documentaries allow mixing formats easily so using film is the perfect choice on some scenes. On narrative stuff people have this mindset that cinematography must always stay invisible so they intentionally block out any film use

I will likely make public tutorial videos about servicing the magazines so likely there will be very detailed material available in May or June. At that point would have the possible second batch orders collected so would not be such a financial risk anymore to reveal how they are made

I chose to only send pictures to the customers who have partially paid their order to prevent some of the design choices being copied too soon if I would publish them. Mechanical designs attract too much wrong kind of attention, I want my money back from the project first before publishing anything 😅 Likely will post lots of videos in April. Maybe something in March already but probably will remove some details from the early images

I used to think Krasnogorsks being hipster cameras but on the last week's test shoot I found lots of good uses for a crystal modified one so it is not so black and white. The overly expensive K3 modifications generally are hipster products though. For example the "k4" which cost 5000 bucks having no advantage over anything. That is the exact reason why I designed my K3 crystal mods to be as affordable as possible. No bluetooth control but if it is 500 bucks for the cheapest model then it is entirely different universe compared to those russian 5k costing scam cameras😅

It is still possible to order the 100ft mags from the first batch but very limited quantity available, I am sending the rest of the parts to machining around 20th February so all orders need to be in before that and they need to be fully paid for to avoid delays with machining orders. The first batch will be around 10 magazines out of which 8 are already sold, thus if wanting to order these it is advised to contact me asap. I can make another batch at some point in 2026 if there is enough orders. These are rental house oriented products which are expensive to make so I won't make extra ones and they need to be preordered. There has been some interest towards the 400ft magazine version but no paid orders yet. If you want the 400ft version, please let me know as early on as possible because I need to start the project in May latest to be able to design it.

The camera side mounting plate and axle adapter are now finished so the motor drive can already run the camera. Just need the electronics box casing and the lower mounting part (the "boot") with tripod threads for this to stay upright.

Just loaded some super expired Vivid250d to my Konvas1m, will make a similar shoot with it next! Testing how the 4-speed motor can run 35mm camera in cold. Experimentation and bold creative choices. Make something interesting even if you can't fully control all the tiny details. It will still be much better than the safe-plaid copycat project which is designed to impress by the "professional working methods" and gear but is in practice just some Alexa or Venice test with some mandatory boy-meets-girl story forcibly developed to justify showing off cool video gear 😁

I see the film camera use as completely different pov to the same story which is tried to be told. It cannot be replicated with digital nor needs to. Emulation is not the same either. It is like oil paint vs acrylic, both can create nice results but the interpretation is different. I prefer shooting both film and digital on same projects ever interchangeably like changing lenses. Or like on the Saturday test shoot where I shot the sunset material on b/w Foma on Krasnogorsk and then switched to gh5s when the film ran out and shot as long as the camera could see anything. I think it is much better to make something truly special and interesting than to try to mimic the dull old times approach which was like "this type of scene MUST be lit that way because it is the tradition. And one cannot use different lens kit or change film stock in the middle of the shoot or mix film formats, that will show in the final result and some viewer may get distracted". Well yes absolutely we want them to see it is different look and it is a benefit not a fault! If people want slick and dull and boring invisible cinematography they are free to grab the nearest video camera and go learn to write some brilliant dialogue because that is the only thing which even COULD be interesting in that movie anymore once all the experimentation and visual expression was forbidden for being "too extreme and someone might notice" 😱

No, the camera does not have any protection and one could shear the axle pin or damage gears if the motor would not have any protection device. Additionally the 8mm versions need precise stopping by the mechanical trigger so that they stop shutter closed and the previously exposed edge of the film is not fogged mid take

Started to design the axle adapter for the 1:1 version. Ordered a test version to see how the fitting works with the current dimensions. Looks like the adapter can just be aluminium but will run tests. The motor will have a kind-of-secret-for-now slip disc design to protect the camera mechanics when the motor is stopped or if there is film jam etc. Working on the prototype and will show the final one when the time is right and it is tested and everything 🙂

Shot some test footage with Krasnogorsk3 and 10-speed crystal motor yesterday. Worked fine and was pretty handy even in cold condition. It was -12°C , luckily no wind. Shot some ice formations on sea shore, the 100-300 zoom was handy for those long-range compositions where the foreground subject is 15 meters away and the background ice formations are half a kilometer away 😄

I am adding some kind of support for the magazine motors. Either small external box can be ordered which switches on the power to the mag motor each time the crystal motor is running, OR if seems possible I may integrate this feature to the crystal motor itself if it does not take too much internal space. The magazine motor connector needs to be changed in any case but otherwise should work fine

Better view of the finished 10-speed installation on K3 and showing variable speed mode with manual speed ramps! the camera can go to about 80fps with this motor in variable mode so it is pretty cool setup for indie films and arts stuff.

the spring motor system has these three locking "claws" which can create noise when running with crystal sync motor. They can be removed but on this K3 camera I did the same trick than on my own camera, just used superglue to lock the claws in open position so that they don't hit the axle.

I talked about a 3d-printable 4-speed crystal motor earlier. Printed a prototype last night, there is a sneak peek of it on this video where I am finishing the 10-speed installation on Krasnogorsk 😄

Longer video of finishing the camera after plate installation including fixing light leaks. After the cheeseplate is fixed to the camera it is pretty easy to remove and reinstall the motor, one just needs to listen from the sound if the axle is at correct position or needs tiny bit of tweaking to the motor placement. Like mentioned the installation process is the same for both 10-speed and 4-speed motor. This video has a sneak peek of my upcoming 3d-printable 4-speed motor btw which would also be possible to use with Krasnogorsk if needed!

10-speed motor on Krasnogorsk3 ! the 4-speed motor would install exactly similarly with same mounting parts.

10-speed crystal motor installed to the Krasnogorsk3 camera. Have tutorials and more videos on my youtube channel. Will post photos in the following days. Crystal sync works fine and tested that the variable works too even at the top speeds, this motor can go close to 80fps in vari mode! with 10-speed motor one can run manual speed ramps with variable speed and other cool stuff.

Started a new forum thread about how to install my Universal Crystal Motors specifically to Krasnogorsk. The process has been tested on Krasnogorsk 3 and Krasnogorsk2 and should work similarly with Krasnogorsk 1. Other people have installed my 2-speed and 10-speed motors to K3 in the past separately using their own methods. When making the 4-speed Universal Motor, I developed a universal style installation kit which makes the installation process standardized and the necessary motor holding plate and axle adapter are available as CAD files for all people who purchase a suitable motor from me. Even for those who purchase the 4-speed motor electronics without casing as I am developing a 3d-printable 4-speed motor body where those electronics could be installed and then used with the same Krasnogorsk mounting parts than the "factory made" motor units assembled by me. Here is a link to the tutorial videos I made about the installation process. At least of the method I think is most practical when installing these https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvIUtmF3OxuiM_ycDLanahHpvIbTNyN1&si=UxWQs_HibXRYwSgh I like to install the side plate to the camera using M3 screws with some screwholes tapped with M3 thread and others made oversized and using nut on the other side. One figures out the approximate plate position, drills some of the holes. Tests with motor to find exact position, locks down screws, removes motor, marks more holes, drills, then finishing the holes with threads if needed, then reattaching plate and testing again, then locking down when good placement is found. The camera needs to be disassembled for installation to get to the necessary areas for drilling and to protect movement, gears and viewfinder system from damage and metal dust from drilling and cutting. A hole needs to be cut for the motor axle to the edge of the camera body outer casing. Tutorials show this process well. The spacer between camera front and main body needs to be slightly modified to make cutout for the motor axle and the end of the axle adapter. There is cad files of my self designed replacement spacer with different thicknesses available which already has these cutouts added, one can 3d print a test version and fine tune it with tape to correct ffd when waiting for a metal version to be made in China or other affordable place making custom cnc machining or metal 3d printing. If the original spacer is in good condition then it is easiest to make the necessary cuts to it with Dremel or similar multitool. This thread is especially for questions about the installation process and for guidance if someone needs help on the process. There has been so many questions about the specifics that it is easier to post them on a public thread so that others can find the same info too and lots of time is saved.

I uploaded these Krasnogorsk spacer files to the same folder than the 4-speed mounting parts are in. There is files in 0.05mm steps for spacer thickness and one can cut a custom thickness from the 5mm version in cad software. Normally Krasnogorsk cameras have a spacer of about 2mm thickness but it can vary a tiny bit from camera to camera so one basically needs a custom thickness for every camera. For example my Krasnogorsk2 had a thickness of 2.12mm but it does not fit my Krasnogorsk1 and is wrong for Krasnogorsk3 too. I think it varies by manufacturing batch, likely not from camera to camera but that could be possible too. And if your camera has gone through a lens mount change then the ffd may be way off and you need to make new custom thickness spacer after figuring out the exact new thickness for it by testing. Anyway, I think metal 3d printing from stainless steel would be good way to make the final spacer when knowing the exact thickness you want. A plastic 3d printed temporary version would probably last for couple of months in use as long as you make sure every now and then that the ffd has not changed too much. So one could basically probably manage with plastic spacers even but when knowing the exact thickness it is pretty easy to get a permanent one made out of metal.

3D printing a temporary spacer for Krasnogorsk3 camera to correct the ffd. The K3 I have here does not have the original spacer and they are different thickness for different camera models, I think might be different for individual cameras so it is easiest to try to replicate the shape of the original spacer and make the crystal motor axle cutout to the cad model at the same time. Installing my crystal motors requires cutting a hole to the side of the camera for the motor axle and the spacer needs a cutout as well. The 3d printed temporary spacer can be used to determine the exact thickness needed to focus to infinity and when knowing that exact number, one can get the final spacer made out of aluminium. Testing the shape of the model still but it should work already, will see later today. I will include the spacer cad model with motor orders, the way-too-thick 5mm one which one can cut to the desired height in software and then get made. And precut models which are spaced in 0.05mm steps. One can use aluminium tape to get the close-enough thickness to exact one quickly. On my own K2 camera the original spacer was 2.12mm thick and it was different on my K1 so I really guess these do vary and I have tested that using another camera's spacer on different camera often does not work. Additionally DIY lens mount modifications may ruin the original ffd and require different spacer thickness.