Save Andromeda/Hydra!!!

I have signed the petition. I have not read through all of the posts, so I apologize if this is redundant:

Why not recreate the Hydra/Andromeda process? There are a lot of intelligent people out there who could mimic this system.

From digitalcontentproducer.com-

"The hardware connects internally to intercept raw CCD data, after digitization and before color-space reduction and compression. This means improved spatial resolution and an increase in color data, dynamic range, and latitude. Shooters also can record to tape normally as the Andromeda hardware intercepts data and records it via USB 2.0 to a hard drive, so that producers essentially have a proxy to edit."

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http://ogdenstudios.com
 
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281 and counting still!

Yes, I'm still at this... I've been out for a while because I've been busy shooting films with my Andromeda system. That says it all.
 
Even though i will probobly never get the andro mod done to my DVX, I would like to see it kept publicly avalible.
 
WOW! that is all I can say. I hadn't ever heard of Andromeda until a few days ago and that is all I can say is WOW! I was looking for info on the DVX because I am going to get one and I stumbled accros this. It is freaking amazing. You can get a DVX, Andromeda, and a 35mm adapter and get an image to rival the best 35mm film image. Now I just hope that the new company keeps it so I have a chance to get it so yeah I signed the petition. Keep it up!
 
I wonder if it's time we start our own Andromeda users/support group. I'm sure those that own it have questions, workflow related issues, solutions and advice. I don't have the bandwidth or storage to host something like that (assuming upload and storage of clips, etc.).
 
Thanks Chris. I've read about every post on there, and here and everywhere I can find any information on the Andromeda. The reel-stream forum hasn't allowed new members for quite some time, nor allowed posts from other than existing members. So, questions can't be asked nor is there any sense of a community of users. I believe there have been two-three new posts this year.

Your posts are exceptional (and not just at the reel-stream forum). The information you've freely provided, experiments and investigations you've performed and took the time to share, above all others drove me to acquire the modification. I'm getting better using it, and understanding / refining my work-flow each time I turn the system on. My hope is though, that a signing petition and interest could be amplified somewhat by a live community of users, where second and third-party owners can also contribute. Apologies if this is the wrong place or time to ask a question like this.
 
I certainly understand, the Reel Stream forum is a bit quite, but has a large membership. I wouldn't mind a small sub forum for it on this board either. There are some 400 Andromeda units out there.... I think. I don't know for sure, but 400 seemed about right judging from the Reel Stream board membership.

By the way, I've posted more stuff in my big thread about shooting noise free Andromeda... Interesting new stuff.
 
I would be very surprised there are that many out there. Besides yourself, I've only read posts in other forums by at most 5 or 6 owners (this one included, but excluding the reel-stream forum). I know there must be many, many more. Perhaps DVXUSER would consider opening a new top-level section for Andromeda. If that did happen, I do believe that Andromeda would be less of a curiosity and more of demand. Who or what this demand could apply to or translate into, I couldn't say. It's probably a bad guess on my part, but I do suspect this forum itself is responsible for selling a lot of DVX and HVX cameras and support accessories. This community support most definitely keeps the DVX alive, and keeps it's demand and value high by generating third-party accessories by users, eventually creating new companies based on those accessories and an economy from these very same users that sustain it.

My feeling is, that if the same were to happen with Andromeda, if not Juan, then some other electronics genius might get an idea or two and begin to generate an economy for Andromeda users - and eventually a Hydra-like system might be produced from elsewhere. That, I also believe, would give the petition sharper teeth.

Just thoughts - in no particular order...
 
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I agree, there should be a forum for it here. As for someone else picking up where Juan left off... not so sure, because there might be patent issues to deal with.
 
I can provide a start. Over the course of the last few months, I've had to solve various problems.

How do you combine a back-end system like a mac mini into a functioning camera?

Besides external storage, input and output devices must be considered. Some way to view what's going on with the SculpterHD application used to capture the Andromeda footage. My first solution was using a Dynamix 8" touch display as the keyboard/mouse/display solution which would connect to the mac mini. (I admit to stealing this idea from Chris). This however, provided more problems to solve. Among them, no easy way to type, and using a Treo pen as a mouse left a bit to be desired (difficult to mount on the camera and keep the monitor locked down, frustrating to use because adjusting it's sensitivity became a trade-off between accidently starting the wrong application and not being able to easily move application windows around the screen, viewing the Andromeda capture monitor didn't give a lot of help for focusing because it was too small).

I ended up purchasing a Varizoom LCD monitor to connect to the composite out from the camera. This allowed me to get a larger view for framing shots and provided a better focus-assist option than what I had, but didn't solve the mac mini display/input/output dilemma. I ended up purchasing a 22" Samsung 206BW monitor which boasted a composite input, from Frys Electronics.

Unfortunately, there were none on display and they wouldn't open the box to let me check that a composite input actually existed. It didn't, even though it was advertised. In my frustration, I dropped the monitor and scratched the side. But, I now had a large display for Andromeda to view the capture monitor application, choose and adjust the capture and monitor LUTs, and with a normal sized keyboard, actually type new filenames into the application's windows. I mounted the monitor on a studio rollaround, and connected the DVI output from the mac mini to the monitor.

I now have on order a mini-USB keyboard and Logitech Fish mouse. The mini keyboard is around 8" by 4", fitting nicely on top of the mac mini. Both fit on the back end of the camera, sitting on an extension rail section by RedRock Micro which has been repurposed for this. Right now, it's held on by gaffers tape, as there is no accessory available to allow someone to mount a mac mini on rails.

For storage, I use a LaCie 250GB non-buss-powered drive which sits snugly atop the mac mini. Assuming that would go bad at the worst possible time, I built two mini drive enclosures. They are each the size of a 2.5 inch laptop drive, and have 160GB in each one. You have to build it yourself, and they work well, but being about 1/2 inch in height, and a 1/4 inch larger then the laptop drive itself, they generate a lot of heat. This means they can't be considered reliable as storage during a shoot, and would need to be pocketed as emergency drives "just in case" the LaCie drive failed. Another drawback is the USB power they required consumed another USB port, however rigging a battery solution is easier with these drives versus the LaCie drive, and I'm currently working on that (as well as a way to keep the external drives cool).

This brings into focus another problem to solve. Cables. There are currently three power cables coming from the camera system. I used a cabling spiral wrap to contain them, and it looks and functions much better.

However, this caused another problem. Each power cable has a wall-wart type of device in the center of the cable length. Somewhat frustrating to move the camera with the wall-wart devices moving as well. I ended up taking an old microphone box that had a snap cover on it, cutting two holes (one on either short-side), placing the wall-wart devices inside and rigging it to the tripod legs. Now I could freely pan the camera 360 degrees and more without dragging power cables on the floor. The other end of the cables were again wrapped in spiral cable wrap, and connected to a hydra-end, connected to a very long power cable.

I then thought - well, I have this computer already as an accessory connected and mounted to the camera/tripod. How else can I get a better focus assist for the camera? DV Monitor came to the rescue. However, I can't connect the firewire from the camera to the computer at the same time as I'm doing an Andromeda capture (SculpterHD slows down to where it can no longer capture without dropping frames, and stops). Which defeats the use of DV Monitor Pro as a monitor application while using SculpterHD and Andromeda. I haven't solved that yet. However, it does give me another option I hadn't considered. Capturing DV straight to computer in near the same work-flow as capturing Andromeda - essentially doing double duty - just not able to do so at the same time.

I also have a Letus 35 Extreme, Swing-away matte-box and IndieStudio4 IndieFocusPro follow focus. They are heavy. Mounting the mac mini and external drive on the back in of the camera's rails actually balances the camera out, making pans and tilts smoother than they were. Another problem though - this is a lot of weight - don't know how much, but it has to be on the high end of what the 503HDV can safely handle. Another head is now a requirement.

There are quite a few other problems I've had to solve, but this is a good start. As accessories, the following is a short list that would be useful and I'm sure others might purchase;

- Rail support designed for and capable of mounting and locking down a mac mini
- Another support device capable of locking down the external drive
- Battery pack designed to provide power to the mac mini, and external drives
- Apple mac mini replacement cables of larger lengths, with the wall-wart device near the end of the cable rather than in the center.
- Same thing for the LaCie drive's power cable.
- A power distribution center, which can plug into a variety of vendors battery solutions to more easily distribute power to all of the various devices to make this a workable system, that can be used outside and away from an AC power source.
 
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