Aapo Lettinen

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.

Trump pretty much declared a trade war against Europe so may affect availability and prices of all products sold to the US. I would expect from 25% to 45% price raises to some of the materials I use. May need to dynamically raise motor prices according to the US>EU tariff situation, the prices will probably change every two to four weeks. Import tariffs to the US need to be worked out by the customer. They are entirely up to what mood Trump happens to have so there is no way to know, can chage day to day even. There is so much uncertainty that I can't promise pricing more than couple of weeks to the future anymore. I have told this before but saying it again: we are running out of time. We are really running out of time and soon it may become impossible to make these products anymore. There may be just mere months left to order anything. I hope there is time until June but I don't know anymore, no one really knows

I start to concentrate on the v2.0 version of the Universal Motor. There is some v1 motors still left to order. Additionally it is possible to order diy assemble kits of the v1 model. Minimum order 5 kits for 2000usd. Further discounts if ordering more. Includes assembled and tested circuit board mounted to the control panel and the necessary aluminium parts and electric parts to make the rest of the motor. Soldering needed. You can resell them if you want

If the building is acoustically bad then no reason to record room acoustics. You could maybe try to make it better by hanging huge pieces of molton on stands behind the camera and mics, might help with the sound bouncing back to the mics from other end of the room depending on how large space it is. Can help a lot with the awkward reverb if you get tons of surface area on the molton. Using the kind of micscreen sound absorber behind the mics they sell for home studio vocal recording might help too if the mics are not seen in the video, I use them behind mics when recording guitalele and other instruments in living room and help a lot with acoustics even if there is nothing else. I like to put a fleece blanket on top so that the mic does not capture bounce from ceiling

If possible, for the string quartet it could be a good idea to try adding two extra mics if you have them depending on how good acoustics the room has. If the xy is capturing the quartet directly it could be useful to try to get more room acoustics with a ldc pair and you can then mix in that super wide stereo pair for extra width if needed

No reason why it can't be stereo. I am often recording single instruments for my own stuff with a stereo pair behind of which is a large diagram studio mic centered a little farther away. Then mixing the ldc to center and stereo pair to their own channels, often not fully panned but maybe 60 or 70% width. With convolution reverb added sounds really nice and one can adjust the balance between width, depth and detail. If guitar type instrument will often add fourth mic to the neck or bridge position to get the basic sound. I am recording a lot of improvised stuff at the moment so four mics is common for me to get enough adjustment possibilities afterwards. Because I may not be able to play it exactly similarly again

Testing single frame feature with the prototype. The single frame working reliably is essential for shutter parking feature. Working still on mid and high speeds. Estimating it would take about 2 or 3 weeks before the 3-speed models starting assembling. We have working single frame and shutter parking and the display software also works. Just need some time with the motor controller to get the mid and high speeds working reliably.

Forgot to mention. It is probable that I will change pricing to Euros in April to anticipate Trump affecting USD rates negatively and me needing to switch to euros for parts ordering

Have seen someone shooting on them every now and then but I think most people have migrated shooting 16mm or digital nowadays and 35mm sync sound cameras don't see that much use. Or that's at least my impression from social media posts etc have seen in recent years. Kinors are good cameras but old Soviet electronics may not be the most reliable in the World. If you haven't fully tested the camera yet I would first check that the electronics work perfectly and worry about accessories and finder after that. The magazines also have electronics for the takeup motor etc and the connector between mag and camera body can have issues like on Moviecams these were originally copied from, I think the Kinor is a Moviecam SuperAmerica ripoff of a kind with some re-engineering applied to make it better to use with Soviet lenses and accessories. If the control electronics somehow seem to have too many issues and can't find anyone repairing them, I might still have possibility to make new ones this year if the schedules would work out. Probably would cost something around 2000 euros or a little over depending on the features and complexity, could be figured out better if having the camera here. but takes at least 6 months to make, probably like 8 months at the moment

4-speed v1.0 motor is this model which is compatible with the widest range of cameras by just changing the camera side mounting plate and camera model specific axle adapter https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/103252-alcs-4-speed-universal-crystal-motor-for-kinor16-eclair-acl-etc-cameras/page/2/#comments I am working on a newer v2.0 model of the 4-speed which has same outer dimensions and user interface but the software updated a little and extra functionality added so that it can be used with my Aaton Counter to get very good footage counter features and some extra speeds. Without Aaton Counter it works just the same than the normal 4-speed motor so has 6 internal speeds and one button to select the speed between 16fps and 50fps. The v2.0 model is better at 16fps and lower framerates and the Aaton Counter enables lots of extra speeds so it can go both higher and lower crystal speeds than the v1.0 model. The old 10-speed model can run crystal sync up to 66fps and in wild variable model goes up to about 80fps if battery voltage is optimal. So there is three different options to choose from. I could technically make the original 2-speed version too if you want but would recommend the 10-speed instead to get lots of integrated extra features. The 3-speed model mentioned in this thread was developed into the 4-speed universal motor so 3-speed versions are not available and the 4-speed model is much better than the original 3-speed concept. If needing a compact simple motor without extra features then the 4-speed v1.0 is the way to go. If needing counters and extra speeds occasionally then the v2.0 version of the 4-speed would be ideal. If need to have variable wild speed and simple counter integrated with good speed options then the 10-speed is optimal, especially for Kinor style cameras. Though if you want to use the motors with ACL the 10-speed is not compatible with it and you would need to use the 10speed motor mounted upside down, thus for ACL it would be necessary to order either of the 4-speed models which are ambidextrous and can be used with almost any camera just fine no matter if mounted on the left side or right side of the camera

Thanks! Yes I still have parts to make one of these motors. Would recommend getting it with 10-speed panel to get 20 crystal speeds and simple 0-99ft footage counter. The current price with the 10speed panel is 950usd for the final available one and takes couple of months to build. Can include mounting parts for one camera model. If you don't need variable speed functions or display and 50fps top speed is fine, then my 4-speed crystal motor is newer and more compact model with higher quality metal parts

second part of installing the 4-speed and 10-speed to Krasnogorsk3 : drilling holes to the camera body to install the side plate which holds the motor and closer look how the axle adapter works. Will make part 3 when having the installation finished.

preparing Krasnogorsk3 camera for crystal motor installation. One needs to take the camera fully apart to install but it is a great way to learn about film camera mechanics and these cameras are inexpensive so there is very little risk doing this despite it being quite extensive modification. Recommended to do CLA to the camera at the same time when needing to full take it apart anyway 🙂 will post second part later when having the motor installed and tested.

Ordering deadline for the first batch of this motor is March 15th, 2026. Price 850usd including shipping if ordered before 1st February, otherwise 900usd. The first batch will be delivered somewhere between May2026 and July2026 though I likely have a working test motor in April already to shoot short film stuff as test. The ordering deadline for the second and final batch is June 15th, 2026. Price 1000usd including shipping. If there would be dramatical changes in world politics before Summer then it is possible the second batch would not be made at all so please order from the first batch if you already know you need this motor. Paid orders will always be delivered whether wartime or not.

All the rest of the orders for extra batches made in Fall/Winter 2026 will be collected in June2026 latest. If earlier deadline mentioned for certain product then that is followed instead. Depending on the political climate and your location it is possible that the orders also need to be paid in full when placing them. This may change suddenly but looks like that most of the stuff which has April2026 or earlier ordering deadline is still possible to get by payment plan unless otherwise mentioned. Partial payment plans are likely only available for Europe, UK, Australia, NZ from June2026 onwards. If the Orwellian downfall of democracies continues and worsens at this pace and these horrible incidents become everyday thing then I will start to migrate to other industry already in Summer2026, a year earlier than planned, which would likely cause me quickly cutting off all product lines which don't generate profit

Ordering deadline for 100ft A-minima magazines is 10th February 2026. If wanting fully assembled full quality mags the deadline is strict as I need to test them individually with the camera. Later orders missing the deadline would get unfinished magazine which needs manual maching and adjustment before can be used. Prices apply to orders paid for before the deadline. Higher pricing for later orders and as mentioned manual finishing needed if missing the deadline and ordering too late. Should get first cnc parts soon to continue with the prototype. The goal is to have usable prototype in January so that I can order all the parts for the whole batch in early February

I have access to reference GSMO and I'm working on the update at the moment. I am replacing the whole right side cover of the camera with new cnc made aluminium cover and build the new control electronics inside that. It also allows making mounting points for modern battery plates like v-lock plates. The project is moving forward now. Ordering deadline is March15th, 2026 for all orders, need to be at least partially paid by then. Only one batch will be made as I need to order all the aluminium parts at once and manually finish them to fit perfectly to the camera. Not available later. Price 1200usd with shipping for the installation kit if fully paid for before deadline. 1400usd if partially paid before deadline and the rest afterwards. Shipping somewhere in Summer2026. It is likely the side panel will have a oled display with similar style speed selection and footage counters than my Aaton Counter but will need to test it. In any case the new panel will have a framerate display and a footage counter display.

Ordering deadlines for the Spring2026 motor and accessory projects: Aaton A-minima 100ft magazine: February 10th, 2026. Absolute deadline and paid fully when placing the order. I may not be able to make these afterwards at same quality and the price will be very different so please let me know in January or early February if needing one. If missing the deadline you would need to manually finish the magazine by yourself before it can be used so it is very critical to order in time. NPR 20-speed Advanced motor v2.0 : March 1st, 2026. This is similar than the v1 version of the NPR motor but has different aluminium body and slightly lower price. I need the orders when the final v1 motors have been shipped to be able to guarantee pricing and calculate batch size and order parts early on. One batch made in Fall2026 or early Winter. CP16R 45-speed update, the final batch: March 15th, 2026. After the deadline I will raise prices and it may not be possible to get the full installation kit anymore as I will sell my reference camera in April-May after which can mainly make circuit boards. Very limited supply because these are time consuming to build and I usually don't make extra ones. If still wanting this cp16r update please contact me asap. ACL2025 crystal motor with 20-speed controller, compatible with other cameras too: March 15th, 2026. I will make one batch before Summer and likely second batch in Fall2026. Original price of 1600usd only applies to orders which are paid before the March deadline, will raise prices after that. CP-GSMO update electronics: March 15th, 2026. Every and all orders need to be in and at least partially paid before that date because this update has cnc machined parts which need to be individually tested with the camera body and manually finished to fit so need to order them all at once in March. Only one batch will be made, this has too precise fitting to be available later. Aaton Counter v1, the Spring2026 batch: March 15th, 2026. I have parts to make 10 more devices if needed. If missing out you can still get one from the late Fall / early Winter batch in October-November2026 but can't guarantee pricing. NPR 4-speed "affordable NPR motor": March15th, 2026. I have plans to make another batch in Fall2026 but it is slightly different model and more expensive. If wanting the most affordable version need to order now in Spring. 4-speed Universal Motor V2.0 : March15th, 2026. This model is otherwise quite similar than the pink v1 version but has connections to input extra speeds from Aaton Counter and to use Aaton Counter as footage counter with it. Additionally the crystal sync algorithm is newer than on the v1 motor so it is better at low speeds. One batch will be made in Spring2026 and another batch in early Winter2026 with different pricing. Original 4-speed Universal Motor: order asap if needing one. will assemble devices until the supply of aluminium casings runs out. Contact me ASAP if wanting the original model in pink or champagne colour. When the supply runs out I will concentrate on the V2 model. 50-speed crystal stroboscope light: March15th, 2026. led display to select crystal speed and high power led for stroboscope. I will make one batch and then consider if it is practical to make more so please let me know asap if needing this product, preferably before deadline to ensure you get one Bolex 1:1 axle crystal motor and 8:1 axle crystal motor: March15th, 2026. I will need to purchase a reference Bolex to make these so will raise pricing after the deadline, needing the camera in March. There is enough orders for 1:1 motor to be made but no orders yet for 8:1 model so if needing the 8:1 please contact me asap even now in January-February as I will rearrange the development work if 8:1 not needed by now which would affect its pricing and schedule. Early orders for 1:1 will speed up its development by one or two months so if already knowing you would need it then it will speed up the project if placing the order early. Arri 16S 20-speed crystal motor: approx April15th, 2026. This may change as the project is dependent on the schedule and tests of the ACL2025 project and I don't have reference camera body yet. Early orders will speed up the development. You can DM here on the forum or on Instagram (aaplet14). Email also works. (Don't send facebook messages, they DO NOT WORK and I can't read them at all)