BTM_Pix

Enjoyed that. How many more of us on here were at that Converge conference ? We should have a 10 year reunion next year. Not that I actually spoke to any one at the first one obviously.

That new $295 edit controller is very nice. Particularly as for a limited time you get it for free if you buy full Resolve Studio license. Or the other way round.

I'm not sure how many people will either so the primary purpose of a lot of the static stuff is to illustrate speed and accuracy. From a low level system point of view, the sensor doesn't differentiate as it is always in continuous feed mode to the processor which then acts on it based on the current mode and settings that the user has active. The target motor positioning is fast enough to cope with big distance changes but also extremely accurate in terms of repeatability to deal with smaller movements. More videos soon though as its easier to show than tell !

As with the calibration response above, you can place the AFX in different positions provided you respect the relationship between its position when you calibrated it and the focus points. There will be more example videos in the coming weeks, particularly with motors. Bear in mind that the transition journey between the current focus point with both electronic and motor driven lenses is user definable between four different levels of gradation as well as a setting called Natural which automatically bases it on the distance between the two points. This will also be described more fully in upcoming example videos. With electronic lenses, the Canon 50mm f1.4 being an example, the available focus steps are not always particularly helpful so a lens like that is far less capable of attaining the smoothness of something like the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 which has not far off ten times more discrete points.

This may sound counter intuitive but the relationship between the AFX position and the actual focal plane of the camera is more or less incidental. Or, more accurately, it is as incidental/critical as each user needs it to be. Fundamentally, the only thing the AFX cares about is the relationship between the focus position and distance from the target you set in the calibration with where the AFX was positioned at the time you captured it. For users of electronic lenses on the Pocket4K/6K where the distance markings are indicative rather than accurate and especially the MFT ones which often have no markings at all, the relationship to the focal plane is fairly arbitrary. This is similarly the case for users of adapted manual stills lenses with motors too. So for these cases, all that matters is wherever you had the AFX mounted when you did the calibration and made the connection that when the sensor is reading 141cm the focus position was x (even though it may have said "kind of somewhere near 2m" on the lens itself ) is still the same place it is in when you want to use it. In most of those cases, the AFX will likely be mounted in a position that roughly equates to somewhere adjacent to the focal plane of the camera but it doesn't have to be precise or even anywhere near it as long as you stick to it. However.... For calibrated cinema lenses and on sets where measurement is a given then, whilst exactly the same principle applies under the hood from the AFX's perspective, there are obviously operational conventions to adhere to. So in this respect the displayed distance and its relationship to the actual focal plane obviously becomes far more critical. But because of the flexibility of the "Put it where you want as long as you leave it there" calibration process of the AFX then, in the diopter example, you do have the option of it permanently being mounted at the focal plane and hence still giving the real distance to the subject but the motor being calibrated to the focus position of the diopter. In practical operational terms, its far simpler than this description is making it sound !

Funnily enough, we have some new firmware for the PBC that adds a couple of things, one of which is to be a wireless relay display for the AFX. So anyone who wants it will just be able to buy a PBC and then attach it to the wheel like it is in this example. It can be switched to display camera settings or distance (metric or imperial) The AFX is a multi client server so it will support more than one PBC relay in this mode.

Detection range is 1cm to 12 metres.

It is already with the board fabricator and we'll have the production samples back in 10-14 days so it will be added to the campaign and be deliverable with the AFX. Three motors.

It would depend on demand as there would be a fair amount of development work to incorporate its protocol.

It depends on the stiffness of the lens but although the motor has a USB power input so can be powered from 5v it can actually take up to 14.8v which improves its torque to help this situation. Tilta make a P-Tap to USB cable to enable you to do this and the extra power increases the torque from 0.65N-m to 1.00N-m.

There is a switchable preference for out of range detection in AF-C which is to hold at current position or move to your calibrated infinity point.

To be fair, the clamp weighs 125g so its not bringing too much to the party weight wise. The interior diameter of the ring of the controller is 22.5mm so fabricating infill donut for that with an interior hole for a 15mm or 19mm rod is doable for someone if that is their preference.

You would treat it as two different lenses (i.e. lens without CU is Lens One and regular lens + CU lens is Lens Two) so you would make two calibrations. There is a limit to the number of calibration points you can make per lens but in reality it is so hight that you will get bored of the process before you hit it. The detection range of the sensor is 12 metres. Yes, this is an additional new interface that will be available for order on the Indiegogo campaign page in the next 10 days and will be ship at the same time as the AFX. In all likelihood, it will actually support three motors. I just hope that Belle and Bingo, not to mention Aty, can forgive me the favouritism.

For BMPCC4K/6K everything is automatic. For manual lenses, you are prompted to load the last one that you used.

Yes and then it stores them in its database for recall as and when you need them. For the BM cameras, this recall is automatic as we can read the camera name from the lens as soon as you attach it but for other cameras it will have to be selected from a list. When you calibrate the lens for other cameras you select each element from a list so : CAMERA BRAND >>CANON,NIKON,SONY etc. MODEL >> 1,2,3,4 etc LENS BRAND >> Canon, Nikon, Sigma etc LENS MM >> 18,20,24,28 etc LENS F >> 1.4,1.8,2.0 etc SUB >> 1,2,3,4 The reason that the MODEL field is numeric is that an exhaustive list of every model from every manufacturer is to cumbersome to manage, the storage space is better used elsewhere and we would be needing to issue firmware updates every time a new model is released. So if you have an A7Riii, an A7Sii and an A6500 then you are going to have to decide for yourself which one you designate as 1,2,3,4 etc. Realistically, if you have two Sony full frame cameras and mount the AFX in the hotshoe then you will likely not need to calibrate for each camera but it takes less than five minutes and is only done once so its not much of a hardship. With regard to SUB that is there for if you have multiple lenses that share the same brand, focal length and f stop as a way to differentiate them and again in the interests of overhead the onus is on the user to decide that. In terms of capacity, there is one but its set at a level that can accommodate all of the cameras and lenses owned by @Andrew Reid so the rest of us will be barely scratching the surface 😉

We've experimented with some beacon stuff but the accuracy isn't there for critical focus applications without a lot of setup and tuning in a very controlled environment so isn't practical at the moment. Thank you for the support. We slipped the announcement back to finalise some component and design choices and make the delivery schedule more accurate. It will be hardware and connects via BLE to the AFX and the AFX will ship with the support for it already in the firmware. Price is subject to finalisation but it will certainly be less than €200 with an additional support reward discount for AFX backers.

Optical Manouevres In The Dark https://www.eoshd.com/news/autofocus-in-the-dark-an-interview-with-cda-tek/#more-25140

Almost forgot, if you press the bottom trigger, while holding the stick to the right and double tap the C button you get a power up combo

No, as with the the electronic lenses on the P4K/6K, everything is done on the AFX itself with the controller. You tape a focus target on a wall (nothing fancy, anything contrasty will do so you can just put a piece of newspaper up if you want), focus the lens at minimum focus with the controller operating the focus movement, mark the point using the A button on the controller and this stores the focus point with its associated distance. Move back, re-focus, re-mark etc until you reach infinity and thats it done. Takes no more than 5-6 minutes per lens and only has to be done once as the calibration is stored on the AFX in its database and re-loaded when you put that lens on. In the case of the P4K/6K it is done automatically as it can read the lens name but for motor versions you just select it from a list. If you want to re-calibrate for any reason, you can pick the particular lens from the database in the setup menu, delete it and re-do it. As above, no app required as everything is mapped to buttons/joystick positions on the controller. Left Stick - Toggles between AF-S and AF-C Right Stick - Cycles through focus transition times for QuadLock Stick Up/Stick Down - Manual Focus (far/near) Top Trigger - Record Start/Stop (P4K/P6K Only) Bottom Trigger (Short Press) - AF ON/OFF (in AF-S mode re-triggers focus) Bottom Trigger (Long Press) - Engage/Disengage QuadLock focus target limiter A (Long Press ) Store current focus position in QuadLock Position A B (Long Press ) Store current focus position in QuadLock Position B C (Long Press ) Store current focus position in QuadLock Position C D (Long Press ) Store current focus position in QuadLock Position D A (Short Press) Move focus to QuadLock Position A (sets target to A if focus target limiter engaged) B (Short Press) Move focus to QuadLock Position B (sets target to B if focus target limiter engaged) C (Short Press) Move focus to QuadLock Position C (sets target to C if focus target limiter engaged) D (Short Press) Move focus to QuadLock Position D (sets target to A if focus target limiter engaged) In addition, the operation mode for buttons A,B,C,D can optionally be set to Command mode for P4K/6K where functions such as Aperture/ISO/WB etc can be mapped to them.

Thanks for your support. Have to play that one close to my chest for now. But it won't be far behind the AFX so the suspense won't last too long !

Yes, they will connect wirelessly. The AFX acts as the hub device controlling the camera (and lens motors for manual focus lenses) and receives/sends data to/from the additional components. An example of this that is built in already is the Tilta control wheel when using BMPCC4K/6K. It connects over BLE to the AFX and the AFX then translates its movements into controlling the native electronic lenses on the camera. This means that P4K/6K cameras can have the advantage of the more tactile control of a focus wheel without having to have focus motors and powering them etc. So in the same way, the additional module to offer AI based focus detection will process the data onboard and then pass that wirelessly to the AFX to action on the camera/lens motors.

It will auto focus to closest point in the central area. You control the switch between AF and manual modes with a trigger on the controller. So you can be manually focused and then press the trigger and it will engage the AF. In AF-S mode it will then not re-adjust until you press the trigger again so you can just use it to get and initial lock and then manually adjust from there or you can switch to AF-C mode where it will constantly re-focus on whatever is in the central area. The QuadLock system lets you set four different focus points in the scene either manually or using AF-S and then switch between them with adjustable transition time. QuadLock also has an additional function where you set one of the previously stored points as a target and then manually focus and it will automatically stop when you reach the target focus position ensuring that you do not overshoot. It will work with those cameras with manual focus lenses but it will obviously not do any of the camera parameter control and motorless operations that the BM cameras can use. The core AFX module does not support eye or body AF. But the next add on module for it does.

Yes it does. So if you have the Nano wheel you can also use it to set focus points for the QuadLock system etc. You can use one of these clamps like this and then that gives you the 1/4 20 thread so the ability to mount it on an arm etc etc A two pack of them with ball head adapters are £17 on Amazon and will give you a lot of flexibility and are just generally useful bits of kit. https://www.amazon.co.uk/2Pack-ChromLives-Camera-Clamp-Monitor/dp/B07GZ1D4BB

Its an option but would require an additional USB module for the AFX too. I'm not ruling that out (as it would suit other cameras too) but there a couple of other modules ahead of it in the development queue.