Check out the first footage from the open-source, 4K shooting, Apertus Axiom Alpha (VIDEO)
posted Thursday, March 20, 2014 at 3:15 PM EDT
The Apertus Axiom is a very different take on the upcoming explosion in 4K video recording devices. Started in 2011, this labor of love has been largely funded by donations, and is entirely open source. And while it's been a long and difficult road for the group behind it, they've just hit an incredible milestone: the first footage from an alpha device.
As explained in a blogpost, there are some early stage caveats:
Please note that this footage contains the first basically unprocessed raw (not in original bayer pattern though) image samples ever recorded with the Axiom Alpha prototype. Whilst this is a major milestone, it represents only our first step through the door and into the beginning of the actual tweaking. Also keep in mind that this is TEST footage not captured with the intent to showcase the capabilities of the camera but rather to proof that it is working at all. While we think you can already see some potential in the image quality the video is simply NOT meant to be beautiful yet. As it stands, the video signal output from the Axiom Alpha still carries some flaws. Let's take a look at them in detail:
We have not yet:
calibrated the colours of the camera
calibrated the white/black point (offsets) and linearization, leading to some vertical streak/curtain effects
created a Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) profile (the Alpha prototype already supports this, however we have not yet found the time to actually conduct the required measurements)
There are some red lines at the bottom of the image, this is due to unresolved minor incompatibilities between the Axiom Alpha HDMI output and the utilized recorder
Even with those warnings, it's a remarkably competent piece of footage. While there's some jerkiness in the motion and other problems, for the most part it looks like footage you would expect from any competent imaging device. Obviously there's a very long way to go before this is ready to go on sale, but for this open source project, it's a very real validation of what they've spent years working on.
(via NoFilmSchool)