Have you been thinking about getting a Digital Bolex D16?
There has never been a better time to get in on the RAW-shooting Super 16mm digital camera. Not only are they shipping cameras with a Micro 4/3 mount, but they have hard drive sizes up to 1TB internally, which gives you more than 3 hours of recording time in 2K.
Best of all, we've partnered with Digital Bolex, and with an exclusive code just for NFS readers (COUNTDOWNNFS), you can save 10% on a D16 through January 2nd with a purchase of at least $3,500 (which is extended one day from their normal holiday sale):
And here's the entire 5 day sale that's been going on, and will be up until midnight on January 1st (keep in mind our deal is extended one more day):
And more of what's new from the team at Digital Bolex, which includes a 1TB option, and the ability to upgrade your current camera if you already own one:
And here's the new D16 MFT, which has a passive Micro 4/3 mount (you can also just get the mount only if you've got a D16 already):
If you haven't seen the quality that's possible with the D16, here's a recent commercial for Cafe Breno shot by A. Burak Turan on the Digital Bolex:
Don't forget, Digital Bolex also sells a completely Monochrome camera, which gives you far richer tones than simply converting RAW footage to black and white. Here's some footage shot by Peter HP Stadelmann on the D16M:
Video is no longer available: vimeo.com/100414580
For more, head on over to the Digital Bolex site.
Your Comment
12 Comments
Considering the crop factor, what will the normal lens be on this camera? I assume it's not the 25 (for normal 16) nor the 30 (for Super 16).
January 1, 2015 at 1:12PM
I have a D16 with PL mount and various S16 format lenses.
The sensor is a Super16 size CCD @ 2048 x 1152 (2k DCP).
There is also a standard 16mm mode at 1920x1080.
The 'crop factor' is the same as for a film S16 camera compared to a 35mm movie camera (roughly APS-C on a DSLR). As an example. (35mm movie film / APS-C -> S16/D16 CCD)
35mm (APS-C) S16
20mm 9.5mm
25mm 12.5
35mm 16mm
50mm 25mm
100mm 50mm
January 1, 2015 at 6:15PM
According to a Google Docs link posted on their user forum, the "normal" focal length is 19mm. http://www.digitalbolex.com/forum/lenses-and-accessories/d16-references-...
January 1, 2015 at 4:05PM
Thaks for the tip! I will have a look!
January 1, 2015 at 5:23PM
footage looks ok, but i think price needs to come down a bit considering other cams like the a7s and panasonic gh4 more featured packed and priced more agressively.
January 2, 2015 at 3:28AM
I understand you see the price is high. But the D16 is much more in line with cinema style camera's, not just in look but functionality. Even down to the maximum DR achieved. When properly lit, and exposed, the shots are much richer than anything in its price range.
January 2, 2015 at 1:28PM
I don't think the D16 and A7s / GH4 are in the same market segment.
The D16 is a DCP compliant 2k S16 cinema camera that shoots 12bit uncompressed RAW in DCP color space to a built in SSD recorder. The camera also has a built in battery and uses a Kodak developed CCD with a global shutter. The audio recording capabilities of the D16 exceeds even those of cameras that cost a magnitude more. Theoretically you could take the D16 out of the box, add a lens and shoot footage that meets the requirements for DCP theater projection for about $3500. That's pretty impressive considering that even jsut 5 years ago this would have required a camera that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Both the GH4 and a7s are mirrorles DSLR cameras that out of the box shoot a highly compressed cosumer grade format and need a considerable investment in an external recorder to reach their full potential. The Shogun recorder plus media for the A7s comes to about $3000 and the GH4 needs the recorder and an aditional module from Panasonic that drives the cost up even further. The low light capabilities of either camera is greater than the D16, but you don't get a global shutter with either, so there is a trade off.
January 2, 2015 at 1:38PM
As a side note, those aerial shots of Cafe Breno tvc was taken with BMPCC. The ground shots were shot by Digital Bolex.
The aerial shots of that commercial can be reached here:
https://vimeo.com/113408287
January 2, 2015 at 3:11PM, Edited January 2, 3:11PM
With the current firmware of Digital Bolex, there is an issue with the sensor. The sensor consists of two parts. If you are working in cold environment, you need to power on the camera and heat the sensor. Otherwise, the colors of the two part sensor will be different. Once the sensor is heated up, the issue is gone.
Other than this issue, the color that you can get from this camera is just very good. And it's a long camera and almost impossible to fit gimbal systems like Movi and Ronin with their stock lengths. You need to extend arm of these gimbals if you want to fit this camera.
January 2, 2015 at 3:16PM
Cause i'm looking and i'm like... that texture looks too familiar! All Hail BMPCC! :D
January 4, 2015 at 10:09PM
The D16 output doesn't really look like what you get from the BM cameras. The Truesense / Kodak CCD used in the D16 costs about four times as much as the machine vision cmos in the BM cameras. The color filters in the D16 CCD are of a much higher quality, as is the OLPF. This results in very rich colors and eliminates aliasing problems. The output from the D16 looks more like a Sony F23/F35/Genesis and the ikonoskop, all of which used a CCD. It also cuts very well with the output form other highend cameras. It a very organic analog looking image that has a very film like quality. Even the noise looks like film grain.
The biggest problem with the D16 is that usually the footage is not properly processed in the DI resulting in a nasty pink / magenta cast and general murkyness. But if handled properly the results are pretty darn impressive.
January 5, 2015 at 3:49PM
TrueSense's chip is nothing special these days. The lack of rolling shutter is literally the only advantage of this outdated CCD sensor. Maybe using vintage lenses and proper LUT you can get blooming highlights, masking harsh digital clipping a little, good luck with that though.
If I'm to buy DBolex, I'd pick Monochrome and go hipster all the way.
January 5, 2015 at 6:23AM