JamesDrum

2 hours ago, Bold said:

definitely a cheaper option than what my brain was considering. 

I was curious if anyone has successfully created a single bodied housing for their anamorphic setup? I would imagine 3D printing would be the easiest, but if someone used a fabricator to create a housing for their taking lens, anamorphic, clamps and singular follow focus. 

15 hours ago, squig said:

Ebrahim Saadawi: you've got 7 days to return the money you stole from James Drummond. If payment is not made in that time I'll contact Sebastian at cinema5D. When I was a cinema5D forum moderator we banned a guy for much less brazen offences. I can't imagine Sebastian allowing a fraud and a thief to continue posting on his site. I meant what I said Ebrahim, pay up or I'll have you banned from every site. I happen to be a respected member of all of them, and I'm friendly with a lot of the mods. We're a global village; people from all nations, races, religions, and sexual orientations are accepted. What we don't accept is thieves stealing from other members of any filmmaking forum. One way or another you are going to pay for your crimes Ebrahim Saadawi. Don't forget Ed's threat to out you to your friends, family, and school either. Me and Ed have put a lot of time into trying to put you on a righteous path. Don't fuck this up son, you will live to regret it.

It's definitely past the timeframe that I gave ES to repay me and he is not responding to any of my messages. I emailed the school of Dentistry about what happened, and have contacted his brother. So far nothing. I would recommend contacting 5D to warn them. He even recently posted about buying a new rig soon, probably from the money from all the EOSHD guys http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=30545.msg615042#msg615042 

3 minutes ago, Nikkor said:

Is there going to be a lynch mob, or not?

Would be pretty funny. 

Alright, many members of the forum kept up with the charades that happened with Ebrahim Saawadi (one of the highest contributors on EOSHD) on this link:

It was an extensive mystery case involving a scam that 3 members (myself included) paid for a SLR Magic Rangefinder for a cheap price, from a "trusted" member. He took approximately $250 each from Timotheus and Tomas, and $340 from myself for the item. Long story short, he got away without paying anyone their money back. He eventually sent the rangefinder to Tim and Tom, which turned out to be a test type (that had unusual thread sizes" that wouldn't work on most DSLR's as the original does.

We got scammed. Just a friendly reminder that even "trusted" members can still be criminals trying to rip you off.  Be aware of the many profiles and personas that Ebrahim Saawadi has on this forum, and more importantly, DO NOT TRUST HIM!

Here are two different profiles that I am aware of:
http://www.eoshd.com/comments/profile/33816-ebrahim-saadawi/
 http://www.eoshd.com/comments/profile/20775-ebrahim-saadawi/

Stay alert folks, and learn from my mistake. 

P.S. Thank you all forum members that participated in the most interesting posts I have seen on this forum. Especially those trying to help make things right between those involved.

8 hours ago, jgharding said:

Any progress here?

Nope. He hasn't paid me in the agreed time frame (which was more than enough), and he isn't responding to my emails now. 

On August 6, 2016 at 1:50 PM, andy lee said:

Ebrahim Saadawi lets get this repayment made to James asap

Keeping you informed, Ebrahim has not paid me in the agreed amount of time (1 month). He is now not responding to emails, and I doubt he is going to comment on this post again. I guess he made off with about $850 USD. and really tried everything to get out of repaying people. 

As we near the end of the timeframe of agreed upon payments, I keep getting the same responses from Ebrahim that I received when I was supposed to get the Rangefinder. It's a lot of, "WU was closed today...tomorrow I swear", then I don't hear anything for a couple of days. I expected this. He has a couple more days to actually send me the money, which doesn't look like that's going to happen, or at least all of the money. Just keeping Andy posted.  

6 hours ago, 'Ebrahim Saadawi' said:

I was informed by a message that i Am restricted from posting in the forum except from PM with the 3 people involved in a previous forum  situation. But it seems that there's been a mistake or glitch and I am now restricted from even sending PM to the 3 men. 

Tim & Tom have been resolved and I can contact them through Facebook.

I need to contact James Drummond now to refund him but unable to.

Please solve this moderators (Andy?) by lifting the restriction or finding away to keep the restriction letting me PM James, timotheous, and tomas. And delete this thread if needed. 

Thanks

J89drummond@gmail.com 

I've emailed the info you previously gave me, but no response from that as well. 

Also, you've created a new account, so you could have just messaged me from this one. 

3 hours ago, lafilm said:

James, the authorities will not help you. Period. Read my last two posts. I lost nearly 10 X  the amount of money you did.

It's over. You got scammed. Life sucks and you move on.

You'll never receive a cent from this clown. BTW, nothing he posted is true.

True, but WHEN that happens, then I'll let you guys do your thing. PATIENCE PEOPLE!!!

39 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

So, its up to the scammed victims to decide within the legal boundries and/or  their will and successful

ability to negotiate with the scamming person(s).

It is NOT up to anybody else on this forum to initiate  web2.0 contacts of the person believed to have the alias of EbarhimS.

 

And this is not only about the scam victims nor the scammer.

This is Andrew´s forum, not anybodys communicational infrastructure to planning out a web2.0 campaign.

 

Guys... calm down. I am sorting some stuff out with E.S. Yes, I am unsure if I will actually get my money. We can AT LEAST give him a day to send the RF to Tim and Thomas. As for myself, I can wait a couple days to receive a payment. If I don't, I already have my legal documents together with all of his information/scanned ID, written confession, and handwritten confirmation. I will take it to the authorities if he tries to keep my money. 

40 minutes ago, mercer said:

Okay the 0 is a 5... He told the truth. Does he have another lens I can buy?

I'm lol'ing so hard

EOSHD peeps: I have sorted out some payment issues with Ebrahim Saawadi, and the other guys came to an agreement. This was one hell of a thread folks. Lots of mystery and confusion, and a lot of creative stories. I hope I get my money back as soon as possible.

I have a hand written letter confirming that he will, in fact, pay me what he owns me. 

We can drop it. Everyone will get their payments, and E.S. owned up to the dilemma. That's it. 

What a crazy thread. 

1 minute ago, tweak said:

Or the forum... I'm yet to read anything from the account that's suggested to me it's been written by anyone other than a 19yo.

From what I've read, I believe the same thing. Just Jr. 

1 minute ago, Emanuel said:

LOL Practically, at same time ;-)

Man, I see you didn't read the whole thread... ;-)

hahah true. I've had a few moments here and there to gander at it. Trying to get caught up. This shit blew up way more than I thought it would. On FB, it was only 15 people who responded. This is a little bigger.

1 minute ago, Chrad said:

Likely they were the details of Jr. There's no evidence that the account was ever used by Sr.

Thanks for clarifying. 

2 minutes ago, Chrad said:

Not as difficult as proving that Sr. as represented on this forum exists.

Very true. I mean, I have addresses and numbers that I had to fill out in order to send him money, but we all know from scams that they could be fake. 

What's makes this hard is that I am trying to sort some stuff out with my bank. I'm glad this forum existed because it helped in some of the paperwork I am going to have to do in order to get my money back. Good news: We got a confession. Bad news: Not really. The point is that multiple people (BOTH Ebrahim Saawadi Sr. and Jr.) are using the account. Proving the 'right' one is going to be difficult. Also, it was typed out in a post, not a signed document. I am going to through the process to try to get my stuff back, but we will see if that happens. 

PS: Even though this sucks for me, and I am out $340, it was cool to see this Sherlock Holmes mini drama take place. Thanks for the critique and analysis of everything guys. 

1 hour ago, The Chris said:

At this point, how does anyone believe anything posted under that account? One would hope its a real confession, but with all the twists and turns it doesn't seem likely.

Fool me once...

Yeah, I mean, I know there is a big time difference between Egypt and New York, but he hasn't reached out to me. I am talking to Tim and Thomas, and I think they are getting some things straightened out, but I unfortunately am left in the dark. I don't believe he is going to pay them back, and I don't think I am even going to get a message back. I think he is just trying to smooth things over, but we will see if he delivers. 

3 hours ago, Ebrahim Saadawi said:

This is Ebrahim Ebrahim Saadawi junior. The 19 year-old one. 

I'll do the right thing and end this investigation and reputation travesty.

I lied. I scammed these three people out of the lens payment money. around 600$ 300$ each as you can see in their posts. 

I was desperate. I actually needed the cash to pay for my sister's pregnancy operation and hospital fees and just found no other way to do it other than let her face death at home. 

I lied. And I am sorry to all of those involved. I am a kid and I do stupid things. 

But let's end this please as it's giving me severe depression and now understand how teenagers could take their lives about cyber bullying but now I totally understand. It's unexplainably hurtful to be in a spot of shame and mockery. 

I love this place and spend some of my funnest time here and I made a lot of friends, learnt and contributed to thousands of people with love and passion. 

Now I lost all of it for a stupid childish mistake. 

I think confessing is the right thing to do. 

I will make this right. I will send the lens to Tomas and Tim for now. The two agreed to have it and sell it and split the cash and let it be. 

And I really, really, promise I will refund the rest through every penny I make. In small amounts of in large. As much as I can. I like to think you know me enough to trust me,

I am deeply sorry. 

I am sorry to everyone. If I have one request, just for the sake of our long friendship and my contributions here with Andrew over three years, is that I really really want this thread to get deleted as I just can't take this anymore. it's destroying me. 

This is the whole simple truth for everyone who's been searching for it in these 250 posts. You now have it. So please, I urge you to stop. 

This is my confession, so that I can finally be able to sleep at night with a clear conscious. 

I can't type any more in this state of tears and tremors and will fall asleep now knowing that I did and will do the right thing no matter what the consequences might be.

But I sincerely hope that I wake up in the morning and find this topic non existent. And let me deal with those involved privately in PM. Please. I beg you, Andrew. 

I will make this right and return anything I've taken to those who were hurt. I am sorry.


*This has nothing to do with my grandfather Ebrahim Saadawi Sr and any guilt is completely upon me. 

 

Whelp.... I just got to this... sucks for me because he isn't sending shit to me or talking to me. 

5 hours ago, Ebrahim Saadawi said:

Hello Andrew. Glad you're here. 

1- I am in contact with the buyers privately. I will send the Rangefinder now to Tomas and Tim to split it either way and they agreed to let it go. 

2- I will refund all of those scammed including the other 4 buyers (1 for the RF and 3 for a Nikkor 28-70mm). And including the second half of of Tim and Tomas' money.
 

Just curious if I am getting overlooked. I have sent you emails, and responses through the messenger here, and you have not responded to any of them. 

2 minutes ago, Michael Coffee said:

Doh - glad to see you are real James! Thanks for going easy on me! I still think there are some "phoney baloney" accounts going around.. thanks for the video!

 

Of course! Maybe one day I'll sit down and send you a pretty video. 

7 hours ago, Michael Coffee said:

Mr "James Drum", I think you should share what you have here right now.. I think you are made up. Prove me wrong!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBfjnHyVtUA&feature=youtu.be

Also, lots of people are questioning the validity of the people who got scammed. If you are one of those people (mainly on pg. 9), pm me and I'd be glad to share with you some of the discussions that I have had with Saadawi to prove it. 

On July 15, 2016 at 1:55 AM, sanveer said:

8- For anyone who wishes to keep in contact with me, I'd happily do so through Ebrahimsaadawi@gmail.com as this is probably my last contribution here. 

Thank you and I am deeply sorry.

Also, for the others that got scammed, this is great and all, but I emailed him a week ago, no response and his profile picture on gmail, is jr. I haven't heard a thing from him, and I don't expect money back which sucks. 

Hey guys, I too got hit with this... and now I'm down $340 ($300 for the rangefinder and $40 for shipping). Ultimately it was my fault, everything screamed SCAM to me, but I put faith in Saawadi being the highest contributor to this forum and me being a newbie. 

Western Union and money to Egypt to a person I have never met was a huge red flag, but he was extremely charismatic in his writing and seemed generally able to help me. He also went through the process by taking pictures to make it seem legit. I was banking on getting the rangefinder to shoot my first shot anamorphic, and this would have helped with singular focus, but I guess I have to pull focus with both taking and anamorphic if I still want to make it work. 

For some reason, I assumed this forum would be relatively safe by the sheer nature of a group of people trying to attach weird lenses to dslr's and production cameras. But, all in all, there are shitty people everywhere and this should be a lesson (definitely was for me) to NEVER put trust in someone you have never met.

On July 14, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Ed_David said:

I think the op needs to now reach him again and point him to this thread. He has 7 days to reply before I go medieval on him.

And that wont be fun.

I told a few people that were messaging me on the FB page that you aren't going to see your money back... neither am I. It's gone and he's a dick who scammed us. It sucks, but there isn't much we can do about it. 

I too fell victim to this scam. I'm so pissed. All I wanted was a singular focus and "Dr. Ebrahim Saawadi" screwed up my hopes and dreams. For being a new member of the community I put faith in someone that was the "highest ranking member of EOSHD". Whelp, I'm down a bunch of money and can't make pretty videos. My loss...

On July 13, 2016 at 10:17 AM, Timotheus said:

 

Hell yes. You will be hearing more very soon. So angry man.

On April 22, 2016 at 8:04 AM, Bioskop.Inc said:

Peaking a complete waste of time when you're using the Bolex as a focus through, especially @ f4  - viewfinder is the way to go. You need to get used to focusing by eye - TBH i've never liked focus peaking, just don't trust it at all, for anything. I use a cheap £10 one from amazon - there are more expensive ones out there, its your choice.

A tip: if you're doing a lot of racking, then its best to use a lens with a long focus throw.

My peaking always falls off on my A7 when using a Jupiter 9+ Sankor 16C combo. Nailing focus is always tricky, and some people recommend measuring, but I just go by eye. If you had a nicer viewfinder with peaking, do you think it would still have the same problems? Or do you just use the viewfinder to nail by eye more accurately?