An initial look at the Digital Bolex D-16
Now…onto the camera. I backed the Digital Bolex on Kickstarter back on March 13th last year. It was a very nerve-wracking thing to do. Despite the legendary name of Bolex attached to it, itself not exactly doing much these days, this was a camera being made by people with no apparent experience in making cameras. It was also a fair amount of money to put down, around $3000, especially with Kickstarter’s scary way of operating in that you give all the money straight away and HOPE a product one day turns up with no comeback if you don’t.
Why was this of interest to me? Super 16mm is a lovely format to shoot with. With a much deeper depth of field than S35 it has it’s pros and cons. The pros being it’s a hell of a lot easier to keep stuff in focus! I had shot a little with the lovely but very quirky Ikonoskop, it produced lovely images but at around 10,000 Euros it wasn’t cheap. This camera however was cheaper, it had the Bolex name, would shoot raw and looked lovely and retro design wise, it looked like a Bolex.
It helped that I spoke to Joe and Elle from Digital Bolex for my post to put them the questions that I needed to the answers to. The answers helped a lot so I backed it. I was worried still as me backing it meant others followed…that’s a lot of responsibility.
It has felt a lot longer than just over 18 months waiting for the camera as so much has happened in the camera world. In that time I have met Joe and Elle a couple of times and spoken to Joe on email many times. But, as I sure you are all aware, we now have a very cheap Super 16mm raw camera on the market and two slightly larger sensor versions from Blackmagic. Massive competition for Digital Bolex and very importantly…you could get them more or less now (Pocket Camera is still in short supply) which made me and I am sure many other patient backers worry about out investment. 21 months later a very valid question to ask is “do we REALLY need a Super 16mm video camera anyway? Don’t we all love Super 35mm and larger?” An important question and one I will ask myself a lot in my video review.
Now we all know the BMD cameras are far from perfect but they are damn cheap. So why is the Digital Bolex still of interest? To be frank that is totally subjective. If we just go by the camera with the closest specs and more importantly the same S16mm sized sensor, the BMD Pocket Camera as comparison, it doesn’t fare so well in some areas, but does much better in others.
This is not a full review, I will do that as soon as possible. This is just my initial thoughts….so please take them as that as my thoughts always change over time once I shoot more with a camera. So far my experience with the D-16 has been very limited.
BEAUTIFUL packing!
What the Super 16mm Digital Bolex has over the Super 16mm BMD Pocket Camera from my initial observations
Global Shutter so no skewing.
Proper audio with 2 balanced XLRs with Phantom Power.
Internal SSD of up to 512gb and two CF slots for offloading to. Very fast offload with USB built-in and camera can be switched off when doing this as drives simply operates like any USB 3 external drive.
Absolutely no moire or aliasing that I have seen. Zero, zlich.
A very filmic image, more so than the BMD Pocket Camera. It really has a proper S16mm look to it, not just a S16mm sized sensor.
Audio meters! Audio Pots!
60FPS at 720p and 90FPS at 480p as well as the up to 30p in full 2K.
The ability to format in camera, but not delete clips yet.
Accurate time remaining on media and battery life indicators. The Pocket camera does not tell you how much space you have left on your card. It just stops recording when it has run out.
Surprisingly a really nice form factor. Especially with the grip, it’s a lovely handheld camera. You actually hold the trigger to keep rolling and release to stop…like a Bolex film camera. Of course the grip comes off and it can go on a tripod.
C-mount built-in means there are LOTS of, currently, cheap lenses to grab. More lens mounts will come which will replace the front of the camera, most importantly MFT as hopefully we will be able to use the Metabones Pocket Camera Speedbooster.
No mini or micro HDMI nonsense here. Full fat, full size HDMI connector for clean out to use with an external recorder or more likely, like me, a Zacuto EVF as the screen is utter pants and doesn’t tilt enough up anyway. With a side hot show it’s actually really easy to mount the Zacuto EVF and hand-held is a piece of cake. You don’t actually need a rig with this camera unless you go down the heavier lens route or mount external batteries.
With the Zacuto Z-Finder
With the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 Nikon mount…heavy!
With one of my vintage lenses.
What the Super 16mm BMD Pocket Camera has over the Super 16mm Digital Bolex from my initial observations
Better sensitivity…the Pocket Camera is rated as 800, the Bolex I believe is around 200-300. It cannot currently go higher than 400 but this will change to 800 with imminent new firmware. I don’t like to use the Pocket Camera over 800 as it gets too noisy. Neither are low light cameras but the Pocket Camera fairs better here.
ProRes internal recording OR Cinema DNG. This makes a difference for quick working. ProRes HQ is a wonderful format and most of the time shooting raw is not needed due to the increase in workflow time and the much higher cost in capturing media and storage media due to the massive files that raw create.
Playback of clips. This is coming in firmware to the Bolex but as of yet. No Playback. Although when I first got my Epic I had about 6 months of no playback! There is still no ability to format the cards though!
The active MFT mount is great with all the choice of glass and many adaptors out there PLUS the wonderful Metabones Pocket Camera Speed Booster
Removable battery (although you need a lot of them), Bolex has internal that lasts around 3-4 hours.
Recoding onto SDHC media, whilst the cards that work are hugely expensive, it is more convenient that currently only being able to record onto the internal SSD
Much cheaper…without the accessories.
It’s a lot smaller…and a lot lighter!!
The screen on the Pocket Camera sucks…it’s still WAY better than the absolutely awful one on the Bolex…lets just use that for menus only!
So which is better? They are VERY different. Let’s just wait until my review where I will do some direct comparisons. So far though I really enjoying shooting with it. It just feels lovely in the hand and makes me feel like I am using one of my old film cameras. After all the whole point of this camera according to Joe is to make a true digital Super 16mm film camera. Have they succeeded? I will find out soon…after all, I have MANY Bolex film cameras so I know them very well! But also as I mentioned before…do we really need this camera? Is it simply a hark back to a past that we don’t actually need anymore? Or is it a brave and maybe even successful attempt to make a true digital film camera?
My Bolex collection, including bottom right, my Digital Bolex
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