Aapo Lettinen

Did not watch the video but it is common to use all kinds of cameras on nature stuff and mix and match the footage afterwards. I have never been on a production where there was less than 10 different camera models used and the max was around 20 or 22 different camera models on a single production. For example using Sony and RED and Panasonic cameras with tele zooms, both S35 and FF sensors and with all kinds of different sensor crops depending on framerate and other stuff. Then smaller like Sony mirrorless and Z-cam cameras like the older E2 with M4/3 sensor and E2-F6 for quick macro shots, often on locations where not possible to charge batteries easily and for most remote camera shots of animals. and often intercut with all kinds of other material back and forth. Multiple different drones as well depending on what was available, logistics and if there was airspace restrictions etc. And yes GoPros used too if it was the most viable option to get good material. No gopro shame, just use the gopro and match it in grading well enough so that it works as quick extra shot which helps with editing. If it looks bad don't use it or fix it with different editing. It was common to order an interesting piece of gear from the first possible preorder batch, then grab it from the store as soon as it arrived often on the way to location and they tested it the first time "on set" or when driving to the set. Cutting edge technology all the time. Light sensitivity, framerates, codecs, power consumption, material logistics, size and weight, remote options, reliability, etc. When the Inspire2 with X7 came out we had one of the first ones in Europe and they shot landscape material for the movie already when started to train with it. So I would not trust AT ALL any depth of field estimations or some footage looking like this lens and some looking like that lens. The nature doc stuff is the ultimate mixup of cameras, it is NOT about trying to make things match perfectly BUT about getting the shot in the first place. You use whatever you have to get the good shot and then save the rest with editing and grading and even slight vfx if you have to if there is some extra stuff in the image which does not belong there like tire tracks etc. I used quite a lot of time on a doc episode of Atlantic Salmon where some of the fish had these white long antennas sticking out of their back, they were transmitters which were used for tracking the fish in the river for scientific purposes. I had to remove the white antenna from pretty much every drone shot where a fish was seen swimming and then fix the water surface reflection. Typical small VFX similar to the period drama films needing to remove fire alarm sensors and motion detectors sticked to the walls from background of almost every interior shot if shooting on real location

Ordered the electronics box + camera mounting plate assembly combo today for test motor. Chinese have the New Year holidays coming soon so will take longer to machine but should receive the aluminium version this month. Please remember the ordering deadlines and that I will raise prices in March! contact me asap if wanting to order this 4-speed motor to get it at good price. I will run tests with it in March already, at least with the upper part, and then shoot a shortfilm with it in April and start assembling sales motors after that. The lower part ("boot") design is tba as I am making tests but it is approximately similar style design than the 3d printed prototype shown earlier. Just making more tests with the shape once I get the upper part back from machining. So it will be somewhat similar kind of approach than on this earlier 3d printed test piece but the shape more refined based on tests. Possible the lower part will be a tiny bit narrower. Will see.

Yes the scam artist in the White House causes severe economic issues which can really ruin the US economy and part of the other World Economy as well. It can be something as small as him reading some tweet which pisses him off and he will release abdolute shitstorm with unexpected results. I already started preparing to change my trading very quickly to Euros and GBP when needed unless absolutely have to use USD for some reason. My USA sales were about 80% of total sales before Trump precidency but now they are constantly falling being about 50% at the time and expecting only something like 35% in May. Almost all new customers are from Europe and UK. If usd loses its value then it may only be possible to sell bare circuit boards to the US and one needs to 3d print the motor body by oneself. I am actually preparing for this with 3d printable 4speed universal motor. If I were living in the US, I would honestly spend spare cash on survival gear and pickup trucks and canned food and guns at the moment. If using it on film cameras, then only combat camera stuff which can be used to shoot artistic b/w civil war footage for historians to preserve🫡

Kodak's choice of "testing the AHU stock in production" is not very convincing for a business model which is entirely based on tight quality control and expectable results which can be trusted every time. I mean to me the uncertainty with AHU results actually causes me seeking for lower cost options for film stock. If I may get good results OR may get bad results and it can randomly vary from day to day, then I feel safer just shooting lower cost stock which I know is lower quality but I can at least know what to expect and can use the saved money to shoot more footage to make up the quality difference or improve set design etc with it to get more interesting result. For example the Foma base is lower quality and there is noticeable difference in stability because of the perforation quality being lower. But the price difference to Kodak b/w stock is just huge, the kodak is about double price or more. I like orwo un54 look the most but it is impossible to get anymore so rather shoot tons of lower quality Foma than waste money on AHU stock unless it is some specific ahu test like I need to do on Aminima 100ft magazine. Damn than Wolfen ruining un54 stock production, it was wonderful stuff with great look, good perforation quality, great quality control, cost 120 euros for 400ft when doublex was 200 for same lenght with worse look

On that regard, what I think you guys should REALLY direct your attention towards is: HOW TO MAKE OPEN SOURCE FILM PERFORATING MACHINES FOR 16MM AND 8MM FILM in good enough quality that one can use the stock in pin registered cameras like Arris. Also investigating 35mm BH perforating machines to smaller extent if you want to still shoot with the BLs and Moviecams and such in the future (unless converting all the cameras to KS). Stills film will be made much much longer than motion picture film in any case and it will always be available in one form or another. One can ask the same factory to make unperforated stock which you slit to smaller width and get perforated. IF THERE IS PERFORATING MACHINES AVAILABLE WHICH REALLY ACTUALLY WORK WELL ENOUGH. At the moment there pretty much is not. Or there is somewhere maybe one or two which someone might get an access or not sometimes or not. If having enough money or not. Or even then maybe not. This would actually be relatively simple to resolve compared to making all these cool new VistaVision and "65mm-Almost-Imax-Though-Cannot-Call-It-Imax-Due-To-Copyright-Stuff " projects people are all crazed about. It would solve a whole world of problems in an instant as one could just order whatever exotic photo stock one wants and just like "let's throw this to the SR3 to make some tests" slitting and perforating it overnight locally. Instead of hunting for a year if someone willing to let you pay money for them to maybe get them perforate it for you on the two existing machines in Europe or maybe not. A chinese machined perforating tooling with manual finishing and calibrating in Europe would work just fine. Tolerances can be worked out if there is time and enough revisions. You don't need to coat the film stock by yourself for a long time as there is always something to use easily available, but you very likely need to arrange the tooling to perforate it properly. Just start working something out. At least on film-lab level so that there would be at least something available for each country to use to perforate stock to common film formats. It does not matter if it needs to sit idle every now and then. There will be time coming soon when it is run 24/7 and another unit installed next to it.

I think there is more like 4 main types of cameras in addition to research/high speed stuff: 1. Amateur/beginner cameras which were never meant for true professional use. Krasnogorsk, Bolex, everything made for 8mm, most non-rx stuff. 2. Durable MOS cameras made for picking silent footage in challenging conditions. Often simple and easy to repair, may still be professional quality. Often have roots as newsreel and battle cameras. Arri2, Konvas, Cameflex, etc 3. Professional documentary/newsreel/tv production cameras. Stuff like most Mitchells, the more advanced Auricons, Arri ST, Eclair NPR and ACL, Arri BL and Sr1/Sr2, the 35BL1, cp16r, Aaton LTR and XTR, etc. Made to shoot enormous amount of film through but not the abdolutely most complex cameras to repair or make spare parts for. Because of the TV usage origins, needed to be fast to repair affordably with minimum down time and costs. 4. True cinema-mostly cameras. All Moviecams, all Arris from BL3 and SR3 upwards, most Panavision cameras ever made, all Arricams, all 35mm Aatons. More complex and difficult to repair design choices, limited spare parts, difficult to remake anything. Stuff which was meant to basically live in the repair shop on all the downtime it was not on gigs. This stuff dies fastest because it was meant to be constantly overhauled and the whole parts supply chain has vanished and no one affording remaking them. Most simpler cameras need consumables like belts and bearings. Often they have one standard belt or one standard and one special belt. Most other stuff is either not unique or does not break/need to be replaced regularly. The complex camera is full of special stuff which can brake and is non-standard. Like the 35BL belts I hear horror stories about. I think the complex cameras will extinct in the next decade unless they are re-engineered partially to use more common parts on critical areas. The future is for simpler cameras, hands down. And for cheaper cameras because they can always find the right project by going smaller. And can switch to b/w if needed to continue longer. The future of film may be b/w and full of experimental and art films. Making the dull Hollywood-ripoff indie stuff will die out in the next 10 years I think. It is both the difficulty to get good colour film cheaply and the style of those films needing flawless image quality. The future will absolutely support experimental arts stuff in b/w. One can make the stock in garage if Foma goes bankrupt and it can be developed with home made developers in freaking literal toilet seat if one has to. If the factory making buckets burns down. 🤣

I am moving forward with the 3d-printed 4-speed motor design now in Spring. Will make something similarly working than the 4-speed motor but larger and with motor body which can be 3d printed so that one can attach the DIY 4-speed kit inside with minimum amount of work. I may have to design a control panel for it here as they often need to be aluminium and I can make them much cheaper here, typically about 2usd a piece which is way cheaper than getting them made by yourself. The idea is that I would sell the "DIY" 4-speed kit like seen here and the control panel included. And then you would have the cad file of the motor casing you can print by yourself. If someone wants to order this kind of kit is is already possible but you will need to wait with the shipping so that I will have time to test the casing design fully to finish the control panel. this 3d-printed 4-speed motor would use the same mounting parts than the normal 4-speed motors. the mounting parts need to be cnc machined metal so you can't save on those, but it is possible to save a lot if the motor casing is made of plastic. not as good as the metal one but may be just what is needed for certain applications 🙂

I am pretty sure that most of the future film productions will be black&white. Just because the color film manufacturing and the developing chemicals manufacturing is such a single-plant Kodak monopoly that it quickly becomes prohibitively expensive to arrange alternatives if something happens with them. OR. more likely. Our funny little "Orange President" causes some financial stuff, trade war or something which leads to either Kodak going belly up or the exporting/importing of their film stock to other countries becomes way too difficult and expensive to continue it reasonably. We are really walking on thin ice here especially because of the US-centered manufacturing. It worked fine for decades but under this regime, I dunno. I personally have mostly switched to Foma and only shooting Kodak if needing some test material as reference on colour film

The 1:1 version of the Bolex motor is moving forward now! I just ordered a reference H8 Bolex to run tests and take dimensions from. Contact me asap if wanting to order, it speeds up the development if getting more orders early on and I can then run more tests and the end result will be more refined. Dm on Instagram(aaplet14) or here on the forum. Prices as mentioned in the previous posts.

These would be possible to make as reproduction too if you can't find original one. But there is original mounts available for sure and should be pretty easy to find. If it somehow seems impossible to find original mount then we can arrange a similar functioning new product made. Just takes longer and might be tiny bit more expensive than the original. If you don't need the square mount for the handle then it is even easier to make

Yes will definitely want to see the 16BL modification! The form factor of the boards is interesting to see and especially what kind of limitations there is and how long it took to get customised enough to get working on BL. ----- If someone is planning some camera modification which would work with my 4-speed crystal sync electronics, the 4-speed v1 electronics are possible to buy separately now and the price is pretty good, around 400usd. I am normally soldering them to fully working and tested kit here so that one just connects a battery and it just works out of the box. 6 crystal speeds and works best at 14.8v batteries. Meant for cameras with 1:1 gear ratio between motor and movement. I have noticed people generally want to design mechanics and user interfaces but would want to get some easier solution for electronics so just wanted to point out that this is the absolutely easiest solution for the electronics one can possibly find. just connect a battery and it works in crystal sync 😄

Universal 4-speed motor electronics are now possible to order separately for diy projects and good discounts if buying more than one kit. One can design one's own motor casing and sell them if wanted, I am happy making the electronics boards as long as getting my money back and it helps getting more cameras to working condition 🙂

It is now possible to order the 4-speed Universal Motor electronics kit without casing if you have always dreamed about designing your own custom camera system with cool mechanics but just need something readily working for the crystal sync electronics. The installation kit looks like this one in the image. I am connecting the parts together with extra long wires and adding some basic switches which can be used for testing or even for the final device if needed. You can install this to your own designed casing or inside the camera and shorten the wires and replace switches if needed. I will test the kits here so that they are fully working, just attach battery. Can't get any easier than that. This kit would allow making a 3d-printable camera motor too, I will probably design some 3d-printable casing which fits this kit and others can try too 🙂 Price depends on how many you need and when they can be paid vs when they need to be shipped. For example if ordering now in January-February and the shipping is in May-June the price would be 420usd with shipping. One would of course get good discounts if ordering more than one 🙂

Yes yes I know, only cute animals count. No one cares about the crickets. Silly me. Will go worry about some gaza kids now🙄

No they are not. Humans are only able to process one issue at a time and if there is multiple ones then they need to be altered back and forth or concentrating on one and casting everything else aside. For example Trump trying to invade Greenland. Immediately Gaza completely forgotten. Minneapolis: Greenland forgotten. Someone harassed at workplace: Minneapolis forgotten. Ukraine bombings: the workplace incident forgotten. That is why I think it is so dangerous to concentrate on "small things" if there is something larger scale unjustice happening elsewhere. It is not about caring but about directing the human tunnel vision to somewhere where moral debate would be more beneficial at the given moment. Yes to me it is worse to kill 10 000 animals without cameras present than one with the cameras rolling. People grow crickets for food, that cannot be more ethical than feeding one of them to spider no matter whether cameras rolling or not. Directing people's tunnel vision deliberately is the normal tactics of news media, politicians and activists. In most cases it is malicious intent. It is not about what they want us to see and talk about, it is about what they want us to ignore. Sometimes it is, though, about concentrating deliberately on trivial things because the large scale injustices are just too much to bear and one needs to protect one's mental health. That is completely understandable because it is a protection mechanism. I do care about the one little cricket but I care much more about the 10 000 crickets which are just about to be ground to protein powder. By my opinion it is necessary to handle those first and come back for the one little cricket after that if there is still time. In movies they would save the one little cricket and sacrifice the 10 000 else but real world does not work like that most of the time unless saving the one is for propaganda purposes like the thanksgiving turkey pardons

Yes electronics take tons of work but they are often not that expensive to make if not taking into account the months of work needed designing and testing them. For a professional camera and professional use it can take from 1 to 2 years so the time costs. This thread was mainly about costs of custom made precision mechanical parts which need to be close to original Arri quality in precision and finishing. That kind of stuff IS very expensive to make right and new technology does not really help much with costs because the level of quality is so high that super skills and hand finishing is needed. Making a camera which cost 50k todays money in the 80's would still cost about 50k today with modern technology if same finishing quality is needed. The only way to cheap on costs is to lower the quality which would ruin the idea of making original-replacing spare parts in the first place. Modern cnc and 3d printing makes replacing casings and lids and such cheaper. No casting needed, a camera door can be milled or 3d printed. But it does not work with mirrors or movement parts, they still need to be traditionally made and hand finished to get enough precision to work correctly. Even basic non-precision metal parts cost a lot. For example on my 4speed npr motor the aluminium body costs about 250usd when all the electronic parts cost maybe 70 bucks. Making a metal sr magazine door by cnc machining costs hundreds even in China in lowest quality. The cheapest circuit board able to control a camera can be made for like 20 bucks if large enough batch. A single precision part made as reproduction for Arri would cost hundreds or even thousands depending on what it is. These add up quickly. One could spend two years making SR running good enough on Arduino for peanuts but if it needs newly made movement it can quickly go closer to 10k to make

I think the professional users and higher-end amateur/hobby/indie users really need an attitude change on spare parts and accessories if wanting to keep having some kind of supply in the future. The normal way to this point has been "I hope the gear stays in usable condition. Thoughts and prayers. Fix it with superglue and tape. If something breaks so badly that it cannot be repaired anymore, AT THAT POINT will I start to look for if someone can make a new part for it". Making new spare parts is definitely possible but the only way to make them is to collect preorders and make a batch of parts. Then if further orders can be collected it might be possible to make another batch. After second batch you are pretty much done and it is not possible to collect enough orders to make third batch. Waiting for something to break and only after that starting to look for replacement parts makes it impossible to finance newly made spare parts batches. Cameras break one by one and there is never enough them at single given time to allow collecting the minimum amount of orders to make a parts batch possible. This causes unusable broken cameras piling up and people losing interest and financing for repairing them because it took years to look for replacement parts and they moved on to something else. If camera owners really want to get new spare parts made, they would need to order them BEFORE SOMETHING BREAKS. This is the stuff people hate because you need to buy expensive spare parts stuff without actually needing it yet and not knowing for sure when/if you even need it in near future. But it is the only way to get good quality spare parts made as new reproduction if all the original spare parts are long gone. Attitude change is the only way. People need to look up and start asking for spare parts which are not needed yet. Make a list what you need and gain enough interest and paid preorders so that someone can make them for you at good quality.

Designing the motor+mounting plate side of the 4-speed NPR casing. I decided to add a seam between the lower part of the motor body, the boot so to speak, and the upper part which connects to the camera and has all the electronics. This allows me getting lots of extra time to fine tune the design of the lower half of the motor, but it also allows someone else to design the lower part if needed. I can sell only the upper part with fully working electronics and the buyer can design the lower half it needed. Price is maybe around 800usd without the lower half but can calculate better if someone actually orders this upper parts separately. Will first develop this upper portion to fully finished version and then concentrate on the lower half. motor drive mounts under the electronics box and the integrated mounting flange connects the motor to the camera. I will experiment if I can integrate the start switch to this upper portion but can't promise anything yet. It is in any case possible to route additional start switch to the motor if needed.

reproducing some critical parts may be necessary if wanting to continue shooting with Arri SR or Aaton XTR style cameras. For MOS there is so much more cameras available which can be scavenged for parts that they should not run out anytime soon. I think the issue is with high end sync sound capable cameras, especially S16 ones and especially Arri because they are common cameras but spare parts were always too expensive to stock in large amount so there was never enough parts to begin with. The future may be hybrid cameras where some part of the old camera system is taken and the other half is newly built out of scratch. Like taking the movement parts out of Bolex and making everything else new. This kind of "scavenge-half-invent-rest" type of projects may be what people are mainly shooting with 10 years from now. Making completely new cameras entirely out of scratch is too expensive. Most people can never afford them. The people who can afford completely new 40k+ cameras can perfectly fine afford to get some precision engineer to reproduce Arri or Aaton spare parts in close-enough-to-original quality. Again it is mainly 16mm because 35mm is such a niche market new-camera-wise and dominated by rental business that I think Panavision can perfectly fine build new 35mm rental cameras and some new players might try too if there is enough demand for them

In most countries at the moment, human beings are treated worse than animals. Tortured and killed for profit and show in much worse ways than those animal docs accused of. I find it just very weird to concentrate on such tiny little single animal cases when countless people are treated similarly or worse than production animals. The next worst treatment reserved for production animals. Then the pets of the bad pet owners. THEN these animals supposedly tortured on the nature docs if it is true. I think the extreme tunnel vision is really an issue. There is no perspective, like at all. Shouting about animal rights and eating meat at the same time. Seems the only thing mattering is whether cameras were running or not. I mean, kids are tortured to death as we speak. Burned alive, starved, frozen, shot at. Caring about one little cricket fed to some spider when the cameras are running just feels like super hypocrite when not caring a single bit about a dozen kids WITH their innocent pets bombed to little pieces at the same time. Cameras filmed that too but somehow people explain that they somehow deserved it so it was totally fine, take a nobel peace price and whatever

There will be price raises in March2026 and further raises in April-May and June. These are to counter the rising material costs due to Trump's trade war. If it gets worse I may need to switch to dynamic pricing where the price changes every week or is calculated when order is placed. If someone interested in these motor models it is recommended to order asap

There will be price raises in March2026 and further raises in April-May and June. These are to counter the raising material costs due to Trump's trade war. If it gets worse I may need to switch to dynamic pricing where the price changes every week or is calculated when order is placed. If someone interested in these motor models it is recommended to order asap

Known price raises: March2026, raising all product prices from 10% to 15% . This is for sure. April-May2026 : raising product prices a further 10% to 15% on top of the March price raises. This is probable and can't promise the exact amount, it can be anything between 8% and 30%. June2026: further raises, no possibility to know exact amount but likely from 15% to 40% on top of the other price raises made previously. I can fix the pricing for a product when it is paid for. For USA customers it is possible to alter the tariff costs by charging different % of the software vs hardware but I need to pay Finnish 25.5% tax for software sales so it affects the pricing if I value the software differently. Fully legal just causes extra costs.