Marco_A

$500.00 is a good price if the unit is in good working order. Please make sure it has the latest firmware (HP provides an upgrade tool) otherwise LTFS won't work on OSX. Marco

What was most disconcerting with my Hackintosh experience was lack of stability. Although I had turned automatic software updates off, the version I was running stopped working with Apples cloud services (iMessages, Backup, ...). I also experienced way too many crashes and apps that ran on vanilla OSX would not work on the Hackintosh version. I hope your experience would be far better than mine. BRU has many features and allows you to perform, full, partial or incremental backups and restores. It allows you to tune its parameters (buffer sizes, read/write blocks, etc.) to get the best transfer rates out of your controller and LTO drive. It also has a reasonable UI (not as elegant as Apple's) to navigate volumes and archives. I have been using it to backup my 12TB RAID and make archival backups of my RED mini-mags after shoots. BRU is primarily a Mac app (they also support Linux), if I were you, I would ask users on reduser.net or Tolis Group if Hackintosh is supported and viable. They do offer a free trial for their software - you should try before you buy. Best, Marco

Ty, You may have better luck posting your questions on reduser.net - there are numerous LTO users (a must for raw workflow backup and archiving) and a handful of Hackintosh users. I gave up on Hackintosh many moons ago due to lack of 3rd party driver support and instability caused by OSX software updates. I have been using the HP LTO5 drive you are considering on a 2013 Mac Pro with BRU software (http://www.tolisgroup.com/) with great success! LTFS never worked for me - too slow for large directories and somewhat unreliable. If I were you, I would start with Windows and explore LTFS and see if it meets your needs. Best of luck, Marco

Nicely done Ed! I admire what you do and the causes you stand for - you wear your heart on your sleeve. Marco

You are absolutely correct, a bulky and heavy setup such as the FM module + cinelux on rails is not conducive to fine adjustments. If I come up with a better solution, I will definitely let you know.

Looking at the 3D CAD drawing and the photo of the FM+Cinelux+PL-mount with the Amira in the PDF, it seems the exact flange distance is not required. The PL-mount is merely a hollow cylinder accommodating the rear element of the spherical cinelux and allowing it to slide towards or away from the Amira's sensor. Once focus at infinity is achieved, the 3 screws on the PL-mount are used to lock the lens in place. I ordered 2 spherical lenses for my cinelux and plan to explore getting a PL-mount made with CNC. Marco

Rook, thank-you so much for restarting this thread and also the link to Boyd Hobbs' very informative writeup! I love the look of the FM module + cinelux but have yet to use it with a taking lens shorter than the 58mm (Helios). Using 15mm LW rods, setup is very straightforward, but swapping out the taking lens is a real pain. Also, except for cinelux I had little luck with my other anamorphic adapters. I was looking forward to using my Isco ultra star. :/ Quite intrigued with Boyd Hobbs' very clever solution. The pl mount option is extremely appealing to me since I recently acquired a Sony F3 - hope BH is willing to share his 3D design. Thanks again, Marco

I agree 100%! I purchased one months ago after reading the FM forum posts and I use it with Schneider Cinelux - it works as advertised. Love to learn more about Boyd Hobbs' clever solution he used for the Delta spot. Unfortunately the link is broken: http://boydhobbs.com/delta Please let me know if you have a copy of his writeup. Thanks, Marco