Hand-cranck for the AXIOM
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Description

Hello all,

While I was preparing a shooting, I (re)discovered a hand-cranck on the (non-digital) Bolex, and all the magic you can do with it ! For the record, a hand-cranked camera is a camera running manually (i.e. no electricity, no spring motor), as this old one : Williamson 35mm Hand Cranked Movie Camera

I automatically made a link with the Lumière brother's cinematograph (very first moving picture camera, and projector and printer at the same time !). Since the AXIOM Alpha's design is very similar to the Cinematograph (the world famous "shoebox" design), this idea came up to make a handcranked Axiom !

Based on the Pong 4K hardware, it would be possible to make a hand crank with a sensor or a controller that can transmit the speed information to the AXIOM. The AXIOM would then adjust framerate and exposure time regarding the speed of the rolling crank.

The interest of such a device is to emulate on the set/field the early movies default, and for the cinematographer, to be able to manipulate directly the feeling of the shoot (and not "do it in post") ! I think this is a major issue for moviemakers, cinematographers and artists in general, who prefer to feel what they are doing (in front of the actors and set), rather than to reproduce the perfect "hazardous shaking" (in front of a computer).

The code developped for this application could also be a based for a variable framerate implementation.

Overall, this could be a good demonstration of the benefits of open-source : try to ask proprietary camera manufacturers to develop such a particuliar demand for your project !

Who wants to help me doing it ?

Best regards,

Max

mxf created this task.Jul 15 2015, 2:14 PM
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Walter added a subscriber: Walter.Jul 17 2015, 6:57 PM

yeah, playing pong was fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNAdtkSjSps

and the rolling shutter effect of the cmos sensor used is also nice to have in that scenario,
you would maybe rotate the sensor 180° so it runs in the right direction ;)

other than that it shouldnt be that hard to realize if you are happy with 255 states the handle
can have to know the rotation state.

i would be definitely up for watching the footage shot with it :D!!