Higher Volumes - Lower Prices

Good news everyone! As the crowd funding campaign reached significantly more supporters for the AXIOM Beta than originally anticipated we renegotiated the prices of key components in the Beta with our suppliers. (We are now in the final stages of component selection.) The result is that even though the complexity of the designs, the number of boards and general number of components increased (as we added more features and modularity to the Beta, based on supporter feedback) the new Beta hardware will likely be slightly cheaper. See this detailed cost estimate. But this also poses a new challenge: We need to guarantee these high volume orders - meaning that basically every voucher holder needs to participate here - even those who wanted to wait for the AXIOM Gamma.

3 Phase Payment System

Ordering 500 sensors will cost roughly twice as much as we received in the entire crowd funding campaign so we need everyone's help to get everyone's parts. We want to create a transparent payment plan that only involves money transfers when the funding is actually needed. Also it is quite a challenge to calculate costs 100% accurately without doing small refunds or asking for additional small payments after the camera shipped, so we came up with a 3 Phase Payment concept (that each voucher holder should “step” through) which should solve all these problems.

Remember it’s always possible to upgrade your hardware to the most recent version at-cost - any time and as often as you want to. Note that components like the Microzed, image sensor or lens bayonet rings (which basically comprise Phase 1) will not require any upgrades.

If this proposal is not well received in the voucher holder community we need to decide on a Plan B for which there are several options:

• accept higher per-unit prices for everyone
• open up the missing number of slots to reach the volume order deal

AXIOM Beta Development Roadmap

We recently received some emails asking when the “finished AXIOM Beta model” will be available so we wanted to clarify here that - don’t be shocked - there is no “finished” model. We will keep improving the hardware and software in all areas we and you deem necessary so the Beta will constantly evolve and improve. At some point the hardware revisions will get rather sparse though - maybe that would be a time when we say its “pretty much finished” but there is no black and white: unfinished/finished, rather it's a vivid gradient color range. The idea is that we explain in depth where we currently are and what the latest AXIOM Beta model does/does not do and then you voucher holders can decide if you want to get your unit (at cost at any stage) or wait. Please understand that it's very hard to predict exactly when each stage will be reached especially the further we predict the future. The only estimation we can provide is that we think the Full Enclosure (and so the end of the timeline listed below) should be reached by the end of the year.

AXIOM Beta Development Timeline

Sample Footage

Knowing that there is immediate interest from the people who have backed our campaign about the camera’s moving image capabilities, we will make our best efforts to show first footage of moving images as recorded by the AXIOM Beta as soon as the first Early Betas are assembled.

What else do I need to use an AXIOM Beta?

As we also received emails asking about what else is required in terms of accessories we wanted to give a proper overview. If you want to shoot moving images AXIOM Beta will essentially need an external HDMI recorder and a controller (this can be a PC or laptop or a smartphone & tablet - if you use a wireless router you can use WIFI for camera access). The dedicated AXIOM Remote will be developed once the essentials for the camera are completed. And there are the obvious things you will need like: a tripod, a lens and cables.

AXIOM Beta Development Status Update

There have been some minor issues with the boards we created for testing the actual AXIOM Beta hardware in an automated process and we want to make 100% sure that the Early Beta works as intended, so we are doing another round of PCBs which we just received and are now being assembled and tested.