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Aaton cheese plate & full HD video tap


David Sekanina

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hi

in order to mount more devices on my Aaton, i designed a cheese plate that also allows you to attach a top rod - so finally i can reach the iris gear on my short elite primes. this wasn't possible with the bottom rods.

cheese.JPG.a5c8c2747925613c804daac315247227.JPG

 

Also my fullHD video tap is working:

fullhd.thumb.JPG.26a9242e13cfc09ac2872d3f9b3670f6.JPG

 

not as compact as AZ one but still very small ?

smallhd.thumb.JPG.e23696a59745396feb0bc738b3974aef.JPG

 

Edited by David Sekanina
typo
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waiting for the final PCB for the front arrow keypad (where the circle is cut out)

it's almost flicker free at 24fps. you can judge focus on a fullHD monitor and focus peaking works too , if the monitor provides it.

I will post final pictures soon, and a video

Edited by David Sekanina
typo
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As I'm planning to sell the fullHD video tap for 900-1200$, I don't want to disclose which camera it is. The potential group of buyers is so small, that the machining costs of the housing and other parts stay quite high (total BOM roughly 540$).

I hope you understand.

Edited by David Sekanina
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Glad to hear Tyler.

I will have more details, images and videos by the end of the month. Then I have see how it handles hot and cold environments, vibrations, shocks etc. So end of April would be the earliest the system is available.

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On 3/21/2020 at 1:09 AM, David Sekanina said:

As I'm planning to sell the fullHD video tap for 900-1200$, I don't want to disclose which camera it is. The potential group of buyers is so small, that the machining costs of the housing and other parts stay quite high (total BOM roughly 540$).

I hope you understand.

Totally understood - In your opinion, could this be adapted to the 35III ? If so i'm in as well

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This is an upgrade of the standard def video tap of an Aaton XTR Prod, meaning the old electronics and sensor are removed, but the existing beam splitter and relay lens stay in the camera. They form the image on the newly installed fullHD image sensor.

So this would only work on your 35III if you already have an old standard def tap installed. I would still have to check the sensor size of that old tap and adapt the mounting mechanism. to the port.

I'd rather invest the time into adapting my solution to upgrade ARRI SR III and 435/535 taps, as I feel only very few 35 III owners would upgrade.

 

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34 minutes ago, David Sekanina said:

This is an upgrade of the standard def video tap of an Aaton XTR Prod, meaning the old electronics and sensor are removed, but the existing beam splitter and relay lens stay in the camera. They form the image on the newly installed fullHD image sensor.

So this would only work on your 35III if you already have an old standard def tap installed. I would still have to check the sensor size of that old tap and adapt the mounting mechanism. to the port.

I'd rather invest the time into adapting my solution to upgrade ARRI SR III and 435/535 taps, as I feel only very few 35 III owners would upgrade.

 

Yes there's a standard def tap attached to the camera, it's very easy to remove. The camera is a SONY XC-77 black and white. 2/3rd sensor size.

here's a doc on it: http://www.ccdworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/xc-77-Brochure.pdf

 

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In that case, it would be possible, if I adapt the attachment of the sensor and the housing - I would need the camera for a couple days to do the measurements and it's a heavy beast to send half around the globe. Send me an image of your camera and tap and I will try to find one in Europe with the same tap attached.

EDIT:

Reading your document, your tap has a C mount - is that correct, is it attached directly through this mount to the 35 III?

Edited by David Sekanina
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14 hours ago, David Sekanina said:

I'd rather invest the time into adapting my solution to upgrade ARRI SR III and 435/535 taps, as I feel only very few 35 III owners would upgrade.

I'd be in for the 435 tap adaptation!

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16 hours ago, Nicholas Kovats said:

Nice see to your work, David. Are you still working on your Super 8 prototype design? 

The Y8 is currently on hold - the longer I worked on it, the more I thought, why am I not putting all that energy into a really small 16mm camera ?

David, thank you for the images, it would help if you could open the cap of your video tap port, to see how it looks concerning the relay lens.

New pictures are up on the site now, videos will follow soon

AATON_TAP_2_800SQ.thumb.jpg.76fde524d4281c211c41dda359647719.jpg

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Here's the tap showing flicker free operation at 25fps, and almost no flicker at 24fps.

Menu can be accessed directly with the front buttons, to flip the image, change to B&W, change to 30fps, 50fps or 60fps for flicker free operation at these frame rates etc.

https://vimeo.com/404338635

Edited by David Sekanina
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The sensor has a readout of 25, 30, 50 or 60fps.

Running the camera at 24 fps, it is one frame off the sensor readout of 25fps, hence the pulsing wave that travels through the frame.

Edited by David Sekanina
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7 hours ago, David Sekanina said:

The sensor has a readout of 25, 30, 50 or 60fps.

Running the camera at 24 fps, it is one frame off the sensor readout of 25fps, hence the pulsing wave that travels through the frame.

But you have to run the film camera at 25fps to get a clean 25fps signal. Sadly, nobody shoots 25fps, generally it's 24 or some high frame rate for slow mo. So not like the PAL video taps of the past, which had a flicker free 25fps OUTPUT, but the camera could run at any frame rate with no flicker.

The rolling bar isn't a huge issue, but getting a camera that does 24 perfectly, is something people will want and it's for sure possible. The HD tap done by AZ Spectrum in Arizona, has a 24fps HD camera that is completely flicker free and is $1700 installed. It also doesn't have any external boxes or controls, it's all internal inside the camera body. 

 

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I thought the full HD video tap from AZ for the XTR Prod (and the taps from other vendors) had the exact same issue, because i suspect we all use the same camera module (judging from the menu layout).

My tap can be installed by the end user, hence the external DC/DC. For the AZ solution, you have to send in your camera.

But if he has a tap that shows no rolling bar at 24 fps, then you should definitely get his. I can't provide that.

 

EDIT: I looked again at the AZ full HD tap for the XTR Prod (PDF and video) and it has the exact same rolling bar at 24fps.

Edited by David Sekanina
typo
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