Apertus Interview

We recently answered questions in an interview we did for the Russian website Blackbyrd. Now since we do not speak Russian very well - извините! - we thought it would be a good idea to also publish our answers here to the community as we originally provided them - in English.

I. Company

We answered:
Regarding all above questions:

Maybe the website doesn't state this clear enough: Apertus is a community project and has no direct connection to Elphel Inc. Elphel Inc. is aware of the Apertus project of course and does list it as one way for their camera application. Elphel Inc. also kindly offered to host the Apertus website but Elphel Inc. does not fund the Apertus project. All Apertus community members work for free and on their own.
Apertus is a group of individuals not a company, we do not have an office and we do not have any customers.

II. Apertus Project and Elphel Camera

There are some similarities and some differences. The first thing that comes to mind is that the chip diameter in the Elphel camera is much smaller than the ones in a Red One or HDSLR camera. We are aware of this and are eagerly waiting for the next generation Elphel 373 camera that will sport a new range of bigger diameter sensors.

In terms of video quality the Elphel camera offers RAW recording and resolutions above Full HD what only the around 20 times more expensive Red One offers. Also the Elphel camera is much more flexible than what current HDSLR cameras offer: freely scale-able resolution and framerate as well as control over datarate and the ability to connect external devices like SSDs to record on to name just a few. There are also things were we are currently lacking behind, for example the audio recording capabilities are still experimental. The Elphel camera has no native audio recording support but features a USB port and you can connect any audio device that is supported under Linux (all that we tried so far have worked) and the software (still work in progress) can then record the synced multi channel audio streams in the same container with the video.

2.2 Can you use vintage c-mount cinema lens like bolex, wollensack etc? DSLR cameras has a problem of using c-mount lens (vignetting) and some PL-mount lens (have to eject the mirror)

The Elphel camera only has a c-mount so only c-mount lenses like the ones you mentioned work.

2.3 Aptina CMOS and 2x2 binning are tech. specifications of many cctv's cameras, how much does CCTV equipment affected Elphel?

Elphels main market are scientific and industrial applications. The camera is too expensive and too powerful in terms of resolution, etc for most surveillance applications but of course its possible to use it that way.

2.4. Is there a room for "pushing to the limits" in Apertus Project, for example, increasing mega pixels or coming up with new Elphel camera with high speed recording feature?

Apertus is the project to add everything around an Elphel camera needed for digital cinema work. We have no plans to modify the Elphel camera core hardware ourself.

2.5 One of the "grande" problems of Canon DSLR which I've experienced is trouble with rolling shutter — optical distortion of objects on high shutter's values. Does Elphel Camera have similar problems?

All cameras using CMOS sensors and no mechanical shutter are affected the same way. Global Shutter CMOS sensors are emerging now, lets see what the future will bring. The current sensor in the Elphel camera is also a CMOS.
For the next generation Elphel 373 camera there will be a wider range of possible sensor front ends. Kodak CCDs are currently being considered to be one of them. CCDs do not suffer from Rolling Shutter but have other effects like streaking, blooming, lower dynamic range. What is most interesting for us in the next generation Elphel 373 camera is that the sensor front end could be swapped easily. So you can connect the sensor that fits your needs and applications the most for your next shot - CCD or CMOS.

2.6 As I understand Apertus Project centered on camera and equipment but not focusing on Lenses?

Correct. We are interested in lenses of course and we are very willing to support efforts that for example center around hacking electronic control interfaces of lenses but we currently have no one doing that and do not plan to design and manufacture any custom lenses for Apertus like Red does for their cameras.

2.7 Recently the DSLR community started to play with anamorphic lenses and adapters. But professional pl-mount anamorphic lenses are very expensive and c-mount anamorphic lenses are even more rare and hard to find but less expensive and maybe an interesting solution for digital cinematography. Did you done any examples with these lenses?

So far we have not done any tests with anamorphic lenses. But it sounds like an interesting experiment.
We can select an anamorphic sensor region though and get real native anamorphic footage with a normal lens though.

2.8. Are 5 megapixels enough for fullHD video with decent quality?

Full HD is around 2 Megapixels so 5 Megapixels are more than enough resolution for a decent image.
If you want a 16:9 image you can record with a resolution 40% bigger than FullHD. See http://apertus.org/sites/default/files/AMAX.jpg

2.9 Due to status of "cinema camera" did anyone used footage from the camera to print it on film?

Not that we are aware of yet.

Aggressive question: What is Elphel — a revolutionary ready-to-use non-major-brand good video camera until you turn yourself to Arri Digital or — ordinary Chinese CCTV toy with custom housing and nothing-interesting picture quality?

The Elphel cameras openness offers incredible flexibility. There is no other manufacturer that offers free software and open hardware products like this and it's really incredible how Elphel Inc. managed to keep the prices this low, if you look at other scientific/industrial camera manufacturers (proprietary ones) you will notice their prices are multiples (sometimes tenfolds) of what the Elphel camera costs even for cameras that have much lower technical specs (resolution, framerates, connections, etc.).
Also you shouldn't forget that the Elphel camera already has a harddisk-recorder inside. Cameras like the SI-2K (just the camera part, SI-2K Mini) spill out the data over HDSDI and you need another external device to grab and store the signal.

III. Sales, prices and usability

3.1 Kit price of 880 dollars is 2 times cheaper than Canon 5d mark ii or 7d but very close to Canon 550d. What marketing goals are targets by these price? Is Elphel an alternative to Canon (in terms of shooting video)?

As I said Elphel Inc.'s main business is in different areas so the prices do not "target" any HDSLR or film camera product competition (like Canon or any other competitor) in particular. In addition Elphel produces "open hardware" and so the prices are not set primarily set by marketing decisions but rather by manufacturing costs.

3.2 What software should we use to operate camera? I've got confused with ElphelVision, Piwik etc. Is it possible to capture video stream direct to pc/mac?

Where did you read about Piwik?
You capture the video to a camera connected SSD/HDD and can use any computer (Windows, Mac, but prefered Linux) and ElphelVision connected to the cameras to control camera parameters.

3.3 Does the products comes with technical support?

Not commercial technical support like from a real company but the Apertus community is a rich resource of knowledge and will help each other with any trouble that might occur. In addition you get the technical support from Elphel Inc. when you buy the camera from them.

3.4 What can you tell about future developments? New products, new prices, new features?

Elphels next generation camera called Elphel 373 will be a very interesting new model for Apertus. It will feature Gigabit-Ethernet instead of 100Mbit Ethernet, USB 2.0 instead of 1.0 higher performance in both CPU and FPGA and the most important features for us filmmakers will be that it sports new and different kinds of sensor-front-ends.
Also the FPGA code will get an overhaul for example allowing multiple video pipelines. This will allow streaming a lower resolution preview to our controller tablet/netbook over ethernet while storing the full resolution, high datarate videostream to SSD.