[maker] I'm building a case/housing for NEX, how you want it be?

[foggyflute]

Hi,
My English is far from good, so bear with me, sorry. Just call me "Foggy"

<edited.>

I'm a full time designer and hobbyist photographer from Vietnam. I'm not making any gears for camera before, but I'm experienced with modding, building parts for RC helicopters and boats: plastic, carbon, composite, alu, steel, etc... with my friend, who is an engineer.

Recently, I see a large demand of Nex housing and cage, especially when the new hack available.

What I trying to build here is an aloy housing for nex5n:[list]
[*]Full body housing.
[*]Aloy (aircraft grade, hardened, anodize black) - precision CNC from a block.
[*]I want it look like a RED camera body from outside.
[*]Silent cooling fans with fan speed control, maybe dust filter to block dust and noise too.
[*]All button accessible, some may under button extender build in the housing.
[*]Ports available and have lock to keep cord in place.
[*]Can mount on rail system or fluid head, and also can mount a lot of stuff on it.
[*]Quick release and lock the body in place.
[/list]
What I want to hear from you:[list]
[*]Which camera I should focus on first: Nex 5N, Nex 7, or waiting for 5F, 6 or anything else like GH2, GH3?
[*]Most of you prefer cage or housing?
[*]Include plate and mount for rail system or not? Modular or just screw hole so you can mount yours on?
[*]Battery for fans: Canon battery or Eneloop or anything else?
[*]You guys will put functional first, or the look (to please clients) first or balancing between them?
[*]What you dont like about current products available on market right now?
[/list]
Quality of finish product will be at level can hold up against ReWo products - at least with what I see via photo, I'm not seeing it in real life, but I can sure RC helicopters part quality is not far behind, maybe even better in models using gasoline.

Don't suggest me cloning ReWo's cage or Richard's housing, of course all previous products on market give me insipration and design clue, and I learning a lot from them. I can build one myself with feature you demands, but I'm not doing clone.

Price: I can not promise anything at this stage, but housing will be around 800-900 usd, cage will be around 400-500, I will try to keep cost down without cutting quality, but I will not run down to "mass produced in china" level.

I willing to work on mattbox, follow focus and many things, but let just start with this housing project first.
Thanks for reading.

[foggyflute]

Look like no one interested, so I will comeback after having at least a render one.

[foggyflute]

Here's one of proposal design, I'm not going for this look, but function will remain:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/74152067/DSC_0241B.jpg[/img]

[xenogears]

Hi foggyflute!

The biggest problem to solve is the heat, for what i know the previous case experience do not resolve this problem complety, the hack project has begun, will be nice to see what coming from this, i recommend you to wait for the new Nex cameras, i think this will happen in two weeks.

Thanks for share your work, i see the previous post from you on DVXUsers, and not is a lack of interest but more like a kind of caution approach because this kind of project as you express, are expensive, and personally i don't know if the Nex 5n deserve this kind of work because some of the improvements must be to the camera itself.

Keep the good work.

[foggyflute]

Well, I'm a former overclocker that hold a few world records before (we pushing computer processor clock like from 1.5GHz to 3.5GHz under LN2 or dry ice), so I even better at cooling solution than with CNC things
Here's my solution:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/74152067/DSC_0247.jpg[/img]

Normally, under these extreme narrow space like this, the most useful options is using heat pipes (you can see it under every laptop) , but unless I'm making thousands of this, no company gonna make custom heat pipes for me.

Using 3m thermal tape will make it easy, clean and clear, but pry the heat sink out is gonna be pain...

Using thermal cream will leave nasty and sticky devices after that, but it's easier if you need your normal camera quick. And I'm not think about making clamps before so I dont know if I can making clamp or not

I can even build watercool, but it's ridiculous for this thing.

Overall, there's no perfect solution, I only have a NEX5K next to me right now, so I dont know how bad the situation is.

[foggyflute]

that's all we can do without modding the main body of the camera.

[Caleb Genheimer]

I'd say wait a bit. New cameras are coming pretty soon.

[richg101]

[quote name='xenogears' timestamp='1344950841' post='15672']
for what i know the previous case experience do not resolve this problem complety
[/quote]


This is not true. During beta testing of a different cooling mod to suit a custom case for a guy wanting the metabones adaptor support the case did not perform as before. this issue has now been rectified with a modification. Why people cant read information properly is beyond me! I clearly stated my results were during 'torture testing' of a new system for a custom project worst case scenarios, with cheap card, low battery, warm environment, non optimised airflow.

Force cooling is a very effective method of removing overheat. But you must also make sure you use proper sony batteries and a HG-Duo / sandisk gold 95mb/s card alongside this. a lot of heat comes from the buffer memory and using lower charged batteries. Optimum is 70% or higher. you can get almost 1.5 hours of recording from a single fully charged battery before it reaches 70%. sensor is easy to keep cool with fan addition and a metal lens adaptor, you need to make sure the rest of the camera is running efficiently with proper cards for HD video. any old class 10 card wont manage it. keep that buffer clear! use the 8bit parallel of the pro hg-duo cards.

due to ignorance from forum members I decided to delete the results seeing as people were unable to read it properly and were selectively seeing all the negatives and not taking into account the facts!.

This said, foggy flute should go ahead with the project. if you can machine some alloy and do all electronics, covering paypal charges, shipping, etc they do it. but it will cost more than you think to create a working article ready for the merciless beasts of the online film making world. All I know is that myself and the good backers of my little project will be relishing the benefits of all the added features such as large foot print, lens clamp to take weight of heavy lenses, fan cooling, all in one setup with large screen etc. I wouldnt have done all this work for no profit (i have lost money) if the physical gains were not great! When/if the hack lives up to its potential, you will all be praying for more to be made, but you missed out by being too picky. Lets hope this Foggy flute can create what you will need because I cant afford to do another batch of my own housings! They were a special treat.

[richg101]

[quote name='foggyflute' timestamp='1344953139' post='15679']

I can even build watercool, but it's ridiculous for this thing.
[/quote]

I looked at creating a micro water cooling system in the early stages. it involved removal of the lcd screen and relocation. howver I decided on a system which didnt need any special modification of the nex5n from the end user.

I think you should continue to develop some ideas and hold on for the new era of cameras. then use any connections you have with manufacture in vietnam to create a cost effective housing as a direct development. Id be excited to work with you if you needed any asistance.

[xenogears]

[quote name='richg101' timestamp='1344965315' post='15716']
due to ignorance from forum members I decided to delete the results seeing as people were unable to read it properly and were selectively seeing all the negatives and not taking into account the facts!.
[/quote]

Maybe i didn't express my idea clearly, (english is not my native language) i don't mean to disturb you and i'm very sorry if you take it personally. Is true that my opinion was based on what i read about the Metabones adapter, and i don't know if you publish better results later on, and now has you erased the result test maybe i never know.

I been following you work since you first promoted on DVXUser too, and if you can check my comments i always been positive about your work, the only negative fact, with i give you all the rights on this, is the fact the cost of manufacture will be expensive. I even follow your Ebay sale with the hope to find the funds and buy the case to try for my self.

richg101, i never put your work or your name on doubt and i really hope in the future with foggyflute can make another great contribution to the independent filmmakers.

[richg101]

[quote name='xenogears' timestamp='1344972196' post='15729']
Maybe i didn't express my idea clearly, (english is not my native language) i don't mean to disturb you and i'm very sorry if you take it personally. Is true that my opinion was based on what i read about the Metabones adapter, and i don't know if you publish better results later on, and now has you erased the result test maybe i never know.

I been following you work since you first promoted on DVXUser too, and if you can check my comments i always been positive about your work, the only negative fact, with i give you all the rights on this, is the fact the cost of manufacture will be expensive. I even follow your Ebay sale with the hope to find the funds and buy the case to try for my self.

richg101, i never put your work or your name on doubt and i really hope in the future with foggyflute can make another great contribution to the independent filmmakers.
[/quote]

Sorry if i appeared annoyed. i am not:0), I just don't like trying to do these things online due to so many factors affecting how things are perceived. So many people took the product as a commercial venture. thanks for your enthusiasm - I too wish things were cheaper. I'd like to think the upcoming hack might mean the housing becomes more of a mass appeal and in this case I could look at a hard tooling option - lowering overall costs significantly. it will always be the case that people want more than can be done at reasonable costs. the metabones modification has near killed me - and then they decide to release one without that stupid permanent tripod mount!:) Indeed I should have considered before posting results of a beta test and should have known some people would take it as a serious test.

As said, I think it is worth another person attempting a project similar. it is certainly a challenge and is a lot of fun, if a bit tiring and worrying that all meets the demands of the guys backing it. The shipping of the units is going to be in the next few days and I am looking forward to the feedback. I think people will be very happy because I am making sure the end result is something I would buy myself.

[foggyflute]

Thanks for your input, Richard :) That's good information.
I will stick with this project to at least one fully working sample so we will wait and see.

[richg101]

id suggest making it for your own enjoyment and with intention of using it yourself. you will find many people will say they will want one when you are done, then complain that the price is too high - not understanding the basic fundamentals of how much highly specialist manufacturing techniques cost when put into a non mass produced context. Good luck with it.

[foggyflute]

Yes, I fully understand that matter, and I had been in your situation before, that's very sucks to be the maker for limited run products when people expect price for the mass. This is not my first time making something for the communit :)

So, everyone heard Richard, right? I will make the sample the way I post here, then mod it but ignore any feature that will rise price if everyone not agree to buy the pricier one.

:)

[XXX]

The only thing I want to add is: Wether you end up building a cage or a housing - design it in a way that users want to take it in their hands.
Make it FEEL good.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oA-35GJmRlo/T2M45Vf8YDI/AAAAAAAACnQ/6TrSZWzRX_E/s1600/sony-nex-7-rewo-wood-cage.jpg
I want to hold that, I want to use that.
All these options for cages, cases, rigs already out there are more or less perfectly engineered, all very functional, but at the same time cold and sterile.
That was the best thing of using a DSLR the first time for filmmaking: I knew that feeling in my hands. A 5D for example just feels good in my hands. IMHO all the smaller (DSLR or not) cameras lack that feel (although I might use them more often because they are better video cameras).
So, yes different mounting options and cooling are a must, but maybe also think of just making the bare camera, without lights, friction arms, rods, FF and so on, more likable to a shooter.
In short: Make it sexy.