Le Faux Bolex

[Clark Nikolai]

I stumbled on this GitHub project. Not sure what to think about it (and suspect it might not be real). They're using the same sensor as the Digital Bolex and 3D printing a similar shaped body. No mention of an A to D board, just the chip going in to a Raspberry Pi. I remember the original Digital Bolex team took a few years to get the sensor's quadrants aligned and to get the colour science sorted out and these guys' sample images look great after only a short time. Maybe all this stuff is just faster to figure out nowadays.

https://github.com/lafauxbolex

What do others think? If real this would be great! They're changing some things from the original: A M4/3 mount, a big monitor and compressed DNG files.

[eatstoomuchjam]

Well, that's just great in concept!

I'd actually prefer smaller with a smaller screen and a c mount, but if the whole thing is open, I'm sure that mods will come fairly quickly.  Looking forward to seeing more from the project!

[fuzzynormal]

10 years down the road when computational photography in your phone allows an obviously superior IQ than that of a FF cam, who's gonna be clamoring for the old gear enough for corporations to make $$? 

Once that market truly dries, is this the kind of project that'll be left for the enthusiasts?  Will niche' little private companies fill the void?  Will there even be a void?

[Clark Nikolai]

On 7/8/2025 at 7:12 PM, Clark Nikolai said:

They're using the same sensor as the Digital Bolex and 3D printing a similar shaped body. No mention of an A to D board, just the chip going in to a Raspberry Pi.

I had a better look and they're not going directly from the sensor, they're going from an already made machine vision camera.

https://machinevisionstore.com/Catalog/Details/992

https://machinevisionstore.com/content/downloads/basler/AviatorDatasheet.pdf

These are used on assembly lines and such. It connects with Camera Link (which is an industrial standard for these kinds of cameras.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Link

Maybe this thing isn't "faux" after all.

[Clark Nikolai]

I got in touch with the person who's doing this project and we've been emailing back and forth about it. There's now a YouTube channel and a sample video (with more to come).

 

[Clark Nikolai]

Looks like someone else is making a "digital bolex". This guy in Paris.

https://davidbross.fr/#about

Former cinematographer is building one. I don't know what the plan is though, if it's going to be a cottage industry and he'll make and sell them or sell/give away the plans. Like the Faux Bolex guy, he's using the same sensor as the Digital Bolex. In this video he shows his menu system he's working on for it(which resembles Blackmagic's menus). 

He also has an iOS app that takes stills and video in open gate with the look of Kodak Vision3 500T film stock or Arri Alexa look.  I played around with it and it seems fine. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/digilog-camera/id6753213428

 

 

[tupp]

Great find!   This is an exciting project!

[Andrew - EOSHD]

Certainly has a much better screen than the original 😉

[Chrille]

I have no clue why they do not contact the digital bolex makers and just take it from the OGs. 

How much would they want for their knowledge? How much would it cost to produce such a camera today. How small could it get? 

Really wondering when Brands such as Lomo will start creating fun to use video cameras - Fuji just went the first step...

[Clark Nikolai]

12 hours ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

Certainly has a much better screen than the original 😉

Oh, for sure, eh? I remember forgetting to bring my external monitor cable with me so I used the little built in screen and while I could frame the shot up fine, I didn't see that there were rain drops on the lens until later when I got home. 

I understand though why they did it, if you have to skimp on something to save money (not just monitor but all the electronics to send a signal to it) to put resources elsewhere (like the image quality), then it makes sense to do it to the monitor. Probably every D16 owner uses an external monitor or EVF because of that. The idea of it being a handheld, one piece thing that you just pick up and start shooting isn't really true. It's too heavy to hold for a long time, the screen is tiny and low resolution (I don't have the shark fin mirror thing so don't know what that's like), there's no built in microphone. Still it's a great camera, amazing image and sound quality making it all worth it. Love it!

[Clark Nikolai]

4 hours ago, Chrille said:

I have no clue why they do not contact the digital bolex makers and just take it from the OGs. 

There are two different people working on a DIY digital bolex. One is La Faux Bolex (pictured above) who is using an industrial camera that has the same image chip, connected to  a Raspberry Pi and is using every open source thing out there.

The other is David Bross who mentions in his video that he's in touch with, or working with Joe Rubinstein of the original Digital Bolex company. He doesn't say much about it though.

I think it's great that people are working on this again.  There were only so many of the original made. If you want the nice colour depth you either pay $12000 or you make your own.