Aapo Lettinen

I don't see any future in open source crystal motors. It is like inventing wheel over and over and over again on every single piece of camera and every singlevperson modifying it. People want too different things everyone pulling to different direction. I think it is waste of time really. Additionally there is the cost issue of custom electronics and mechanics. They are annoyingly expensive to make one by one. Economy of scale does not work if every single person wants different thing and parts need to be machined unique and no two can be the same. So someone would need to do enormous amount of work for open source project and it is thrown to garbage bin by the next person because they want to be stars and invent their own from scratch. Readily available modules would be possible to benefit from economy of scale but by my 6 years experience making crystal motors I am very sceptical people would use that possibility. The closest one can get is to make a large batch of custom circuit boards with software uploaded and people can order the cnc metal parts by themselves even though it costs more than purchasing them with the circuit board. For example I could sell my 4-speed universal motor main circuit boards separately and even supply cad files for aluminium motor body and adapters if someone ordering larger amount and guaranteeing they mark on the control panel the board was made by me. The issue is people don't want to share the glory, they want to be youtube stars and invent their own spending tons more money and time. One reason I am quitting after next year is the frustration of seeing people wasting resources to diy tests instead of using them more efficiently to actually restore cameras. Not gatekeepinhg or elitism, I just can't understand the waste of resources and time and all going to waste when people give up and abandon the projects. I would rather build 100 of my Universal Motors instead. Just defluxed 12 main boards today

So local cheating is better than cloud cheating? 😂 I will buy myself a NASA baseball cap and call myself a rocket engineer and astronaut 😁 nowadays "fake it till you make it" is not necessary, it is enough to "fake it till you get caught and then get extremely arrogant and gaslight everyone to praise how clever and wonderous the scam was and give you a freakin medal" 😂

"I'm a real mountaineer, I just use helicopter as a tool to get to the top without all the strenous climbing" 😂 "Using Photoshop to fake vacation photos at home is exactly the same than really being there" 😆

Art is all about strict ethics and deep human expression and the unique pov of an individual. Replacing any of the variables is not possible. The end result would be entirely different then. One of the biggest issues is that people are constantly mixing 'content' and 'art' like they would be the same thing. Content is expendable, replaceable. It does not matter who or what creates it. It can be replaced with other type of content in an instant and no one will notice. Most movies nowadays are content, not art. They are engineered media products designed to generate maximum profits with minimum effort. Using more effort is only allowed if it has potential of generating more profits. Content is expendable and replaceable, it does not matter what it actually is. Minimum amount of effort is exactly what is needed to make it "good". Maximum profits with minimal effort. I think there is a chance of the AI slop raising a counter-movement of pure hand made films using traditional techniques and the audience polarizing to those who watch "real movies" and those who watch any sloppy content thrown at then including ai generated zero effort crap.

Oh I figured out a perfect analogy! dying here 🤣🤣 "Watching porn is the same than having real sex" - AI users

Imagine the AI tools advancing so much that you don't need to do anything anymore to create content. Just push a button, or blink an eye, or think some keyword the computer catches direcly from your brain to trigger the content creation cycle. No need to go outside anymore, no need to leave the chair even really. Actually you don't need to even sit, you can perfectly well lay down on the bed and still generate the content by just thinking about it. No need to even move your finger anymore to click the button. Pretty soon you have been still so long that you can't even lift that finger anymore even if you try. You are confined to the bed now. They take the bed to the hospital, but why would you get out of it anymore, you can still create new content by just thinking about the click, no physical action needed. Confined to the bed for years and decades, they take you to the retirement home now. You are essentially paralyzed now because you have not moved at all since you got to that bed. Too comfy, too convenient. No muscles left anymore, the nervous system does not even know how to control them if they would still exist. Why would you even want to get out to the real world if the content still flows in and you get enough money from somewhere to pay for the life support. Breathing is not essential for the "virtual clicking experience" so you stopped even that and let the machines do the work

the biggest issue of GenAI content creation is that it replaces human creativity in full. Too easy to use, it is like a "too helpful friend" who has too many ideas flying all over the place and talks so much that the real human brain just gives way and shuts down. One does not even try to make anything for real, just ask genAI to generate the nearest half-passable approximation and it has to do. It only takes couple of days of use before a creative person's mind just goes to standby mode permanently because it is way too easy and convenient to just let AI to imagine new things. It is like a brain eating fungus really. I have couple of friends playing with AI generation tools and it is so sad to watch. From indie music to album covers to novels to screenplays and even basic ideas one could invent by oneself in 30 seconds they ask from AI to create. still-creative persons who praise genai content generation just let their lazy producer brains to think and shut down their creative mind using "practicality and economy -based arguments" why something cannot be done traditional way anymore when new lazy "tools" are available.

AI is the next step of the "democratization of content creation" meaning now they are democratizing incompetency and complacency too 😂 AI use is specifically "content creation" and "content generating", it has nothing to do with arts and everything to do with tiktok and youtube culture where one just wants to generate maximum amount of clicks with minimum amount of effort, preferably fully automatically without the 'influencer' needing to do nothing more than claim the cash and use it for immoral purposes 😝

AI is a producer's tool to cheap on costs and time. It was never about artistic expression nor meant to be used by artists. There is not much difference between making some scenes with ai and making the whole product with ai. It is still 100% about saving time and costs no matter what the end result is

Here they sometimes use spike vests on hunting dogs to prevent wolf attacks if they run on wolf territory. Small pet dogs are just kept on leash. We have eagles here but never heard them harassing dogs. The wolves do attack hunting dogs often

If one has possibility to choose, I would only look for camera options which have orientable viewfinder and which are easy to get serviced for reasonable price. One really does not have much reason to use fixed finder camera on 4k price range when one can get much higher quality mechanics and better tripod operating ergonomics with orientable finder models from Eclair, Cinema Products, Kinor and the arri16bl is ok too. Fixed finder cameras are for backpack documentary stuff and home movies and film students who cannot source better camera for practicing

I sold my spherical 37-140 last year and never had the anamorphic attachment but 6kg sounds excessive for the combination as the spherical lens is pretty lightweight, maybe around 2kg or so. The anamorphic combination is rarely used because it is not very high quality lens CA and sharpness wise and the contrast is not that good. More of a retro effect anamorphic than general use lens by my opinion

In the about 4k price range one can get Eclair ACL or NPR or the cp16r and have plenty of money left for lenses and cla snd mods. Gsmo prices have gone through roof nowadays but it should be less than 4k when serviced to working condition if you get one for reasonable price they really should cost. I would not bother trying to crystal mod R16's. As a larger project (over 10 cameras modified in the first batch and more immediately after that) might work to gain enough resources to do it right but beaulieus are relatively difficult to modify especially if you want to replace it with brushless motor and especially if trying to make commutation logic by yourself. Too little room to do anything with cots modules

but it is possible for example to have shorted transistor and the resistor burned because of that, etc. You will figure it out from the board connections

depends on what they are specifically used for. Normally one would replace with similar value tantalum. it is possible that the burned resistor is just a "protection resistor" meant to be burned down if the tantalums short. in that case one may not need to know the exact value, only a close enough ballpark. if you can figure out part of the schematics from the boards by inspecting them and can figure out what the power the tantalums are smoothing is used for, then can estimate what kind of resistor could work even if not knowing the exact value it originally was. If it is just a protection resistor then can be something like couple of dozen ohms or less and depends on the power draw too. Without knowing the connections and original value I would guess it could be something between 5 and 20 ohms or something like that, probably it would work with that kind of value at least if it is just a simple protection resistor. If it is a resistor voltage divider then the exact value needs to be known because you would change the output voltage if using anything else

I calculated that the 15mm Konvas baseplate is 150usd if purchased with my 4-speed Konvas motor kit. I may have campaigns every now and then but the normal price is pretty good too. Or 200usd if one wants to buy only the baseplate and nothing else. The baseplate includes a set of black 15mm rods which are about 20cm in length on the current batch. The local store sells Smallrig rods and usually possible to arrange different length rods instead if needed.

I calculated that the 15mm Konvas baseplate is 150usd if purchased with my 4-speed Konvas motor kit. I may have campaigns every now and then but the normal price is pretty good too. Or 200usd if one wants to buy only the baseplate and nothing else. The baseplate includes a set of black 15mm rods which are about 20cm in length on the current batch. The local store sells Smallrig rods and usually possible to arrange different length rods instead if needed.

I don't know the original electronics well enough to repair them but please make a video of your repair journey whatever the end result would be. Would be interesting and useful for other people

Yes tantalums usually used for power filtering on smaller currents. They are notorious for shorting and burning down or even exploding sometimes. I don't use them on my designs because the faults would destroy half of the device. And for higher current use their ripple characteristics are not very useful. People tend to hunt down and replace all tantalums on old devices just in case. They are like ticking time bombs if old. And burn down stuff if shorting

A burnt resistor is quite often caused by a shorted capacitor down the line. Resistors don't normally fail burning down, they fail opening/raising resistance. something else causes it. Caps can fail without it being visible from outside, some people just swap them all on old devices the moment buying it just to avoid another short later

Shorted capacitors are common. The bases may have tantalums and old ones notoriously suspectible blowing up

If wanting arri rosette to the original base, it might be useful to cad model a small aluminium plate which has M6 threaded hole and the smaller M2.5 or M3 holes to mount the rosette. Then holes to mount the plate to original base with screws. I was thinking adding rosettes to my ACL baseplate when getting designing it in Spring. It is indeed easier for handheld to have standard Arri rosettes available so that you can use extension pieces to get the handles to good ergonomic position. Acl generally needs a dedicated custom baseplate designed for it because of the height of the camera with base and the nasty offset of optical axis from the centerline

Edge code is mainly needed for photochemical finishing. All scanners don't even have setup to read them anymore and for pure digital finishing it is hard to imagine scenario where they could be of any use

On my camera and one of Heikki's cameras that disc was not connected to anything. It just had a locking washer on its axle to keep it in place. Maybe it has some purpose on some model of acl and they just added empty disc for others to fill the hole. The shape and placement could work for film speed selector for exposure meter but not sure because never seen it actually used

I think the biggest challenge would be the edge of the film chambers on spots which typically take damage from rough handling. And of course the doors. One option would be to cnc machine or metal 3d print the aluminium "skeleton" which has the most vulnerable edges and other easily damaged points reinforced with aluminium, and the screw holes for parts mounting. The door latches positions etc in metal. Then the rest of the structure is made on top of the skeleton with woven carbon fibre structure and 3d printed parts where applicable. The metal skeleton would not add that much weight because it is thin and hollow with only mounting thread points and reinforcements made out of metal. Everything else is composite materials. You would potentially get better dimensional stability too. And protect the carbon fibre from cracks. One should be able to 3d print titanium but surely a tad expensive. Less so than cnc machining it so could be an option if you find a place doing it for less-than-insane price