Messages

1

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Micro Four Thirds Mount for Chronos 1.4 and 2.1-HD cameras NOW AVAILABLE!

« on: December 09, 2021, 05:39:51 AM »

Finally... been waiting for a decent camera mount to surface by the Chronos creators since it came out

I read in the newsletter that speedboosters will work as well, which was obviously the main pupose for this, getting high end "big bore" lenses to collect even more light on a smaller sensor (for some settings, you can _never_ have enough light!), so my question would be:

Which speedboosters are you using with this MFT mount and how is image quality, sharpness etc impacted?
I'd prefer to use Nikon F-mount lenses, maybe Sony E-mount as well, which speedboosters would you recommend?
I've read Metabones even improve image quality slightly?

Thanks!

2

Chronos User Discussion / Re: External storage options

« on: November 17, 2020, 09:43:51 AM »

Are the speeds of: SD, USB, eSATA all different?
Currently, is there a solution for something near the size of nvme drive?

Depends. On my Chronos 1.4 eSata was fastest, when writing DNG files.
Because you'll likely have a few of those for each take, an SD-Card will quickly become sluggish when forced to random write all those images.
Oh.. isn't the USB port 2.0 still? Even on the 2.1? That would make eSata indeed a smidge faster

If you just export as x264 video, speeds are almost the same on each storage option and are mostly limited by the internal encoder.
Very old thread, so, could be quite different today:
https://forum.krontech.ca/index.php?topic=442.msg2307#msg2307

I only found one external 2.5" case with eSataP port, here in Germany, but that was quite a while ago. ESataP isn't the most popular IO connector, it seems. While I'm OK with the 2.5" casing, a more compact one for NVME certainly wouldn't hurt

3

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: October 16, 2020, 10:39:40 AM »

So, today I finally got confirmation by german customs, that the Chronos won't be classified as a "video camera", at least in my case, at least for the foreseeable future (maybe, no guarantees. But german customs declarations older than 3 years aren't re-opened/re-classified, due to a statute of limitation at that time).

When I recieved the Chronos 1.4 back in early September 2017, I had to fill out a customs form at the door with DHL and paid the german import tax right there. This made DHL my "legal agent" for german customs and they relayed my item declaration along with those taxes.

Right then and there, I classified the Chronos as "Digitalkamera", a term mostly understood as a digital photo camera, taking pictures, maybe capable of taking short videos, etc. (There is a reason, why most/all photo cameras aren't capable of continuous recording times of more than 30 minutes! This is one of the characteristics of a true video camera, to record audio and video beyond that mark).

For me, it was (and actually still is) not a true video camera because:

- no sound recording capability (yet). Honestly, at 10k+ fps, sound is irrelevant anyway.. all you'd get would be a very low hum, even on breaking glass
- no possibility to record more than 30 minutes of realtime footage (not sure if the first firmwares allowed less fps per resolution, then. I didn't know that this was even possible for a while), at least when used according to its proper purpose (say HD res at 1500 fps, or even 500 - 1000 fps)
- no actual video is stored internally, it's plain images, shot very rapidly, much like continuous drive mode on a good photo camera. You need to, in a second, manual step, either export those images or let the camera compress the image sequence into a video (accepting some quality loss), at that time.
After starting a new recording, or on power-off, the image sequence is permanently erased, a true video recorder works differently as well, here (you aren't forced to erase each recording before recording a new scene)

Long story short: The Chronos (1.4 at least) was successfully re-classified as "Digitalkamera", "Warentarifnummer/Taric-nr.": 8525 8030 000

All the best 
Martin

4

Chronos User Discussion / Re: One line of lighter pixels in saved video.

« on: September 28, 2020, 08:36:42 AM »

Black calibration is sooo much faster, now, than it was 3 years ago.
There's no reason to skip those to make sure the camera produces a proper image.

5

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 11:24:52 AM »

This is nuts 

I'll try to clear this with them.

Atm I see a clear breach of the 3 year limited timeframe, DHL is just relaying the invoice, I'm the official debtor and was informed two weeks past the allowed timeframe:
https://www.zoll.de/DE/Fachthemen/Zoelle/Abgabenerhebung/Erlass-Erstattung/Einzelne-Erstattungsfaelle/Art-116-119-UZK/Unzulaessige-Nacherhebung/unzulaessige-nacherhebung_node.html#doc298852bodyText2

Anyway, might be my only chance since they might not let themselves be fooled by my technical detailery 
I'll post the results later..

6

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 10:45:45 AM »

Hi Nikon,

yea, just ran a test, at HD and 30fps, I think it would go beyond 30 minutes..

Hm, ok, audio recording capability is still an issue though..

Also, custom tax invoices like this are void after 3 years.. not sure they see it that way as well.. 

The new classification lists this TARIC nr.: 85258091900. Searching the latest rulings, I can't find that nr., only one with a "0" less at the end, which is already the classification "other":

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/taric/measures.jsp?Lang=de&Taric=85258091&SimDate=20200927

And if you click on that nr., the custom tax amounts pop open, listing Canada with 0% customs tax..
I need to clear this with customs...
There went my sunday evening..

7

Chronos User Discussion / Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 10:20:51 AM »

Hi,

quick question:

I just received an invoice by our beloved customs agency informing me of a misdeclaration of taxable item (I declared the Chronos 1.4 as a "digital camera") and a new re-classification as video camera, which would result in an extra sum of 125 Euros.

Besides the fact my purchase and customs declaration happened over 3 years ago and a general tax free processing of video cameras which aren't able to record more than 30 minutes (of "real time". I bought the 16Gbyte version, so, I'm at 8 seconds "real time" recording):

The Chronos, by itself, can't record audio, I think? The inbuild microphone is just for acoustic trigger purposes? Can someone official please confirm this?
What are the plans for the line-in? Does it allow real audio/video recording, sometime in the future? Even at higher framerates or just at, say, 30fps?

Because: If the Chronos wouldn't be able to record audio by itself, it shouldn't be necessarily declared as a video camera. Instead, it'd be more like a digital (photo) camera (without sound recording capability) taking fullframe photos in high succession, much like "continuous drive" on photo cameras  .
I know, this is weird argumentation, but I think our customs made a mistake there, with the classification.

If I can prove, the Chronos can't "record reality continuously", for longer than 30 minutes (e.g. in HD) and isn't capable of audio recording by itself, it should be clear it's not your standard video camera.

I'm understandably slightly upset about this, I think other german Chronos buyers might get an invoice like that as well, so, it'd be nice to have certainty about this 

Thanks!
All the best
Martin

8

Chronos User Discussion / Re: One line of lighter pixels in saved video.

« on: September 27, 2020, 05:17:27 AM »

Sometimes it disappears completely.

It's still there though:


When in doubt: calibrate black once more

Regards
Martin

9

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Is Krontech still in business?

« on: September 11, 2020, 10:18:01 AM »

I would like to apologize on behalf of Kron Technologies for not interacting here earlier.

Very much appreciated, Thomas!!! Thanks for taking the time to respond 

I'm currently beta-testing a new smartphone, the devs are really struggeling to get the google certification done, and completely abandoned the beta tester forums for weeks now. It's not a good practice to leave customers or supporters hanging, much less on an official channel.

But yea, I'm well aware that "smaller" companies don't always have the man/girlpower to keep tabs on all social media channels and may not able to respond quickly, but I always thought at least one channel, best the official forum, should be at least monitored with half an eye, maybe once a week?

Since there's now complete radio silence from the smartphone devs in my case, I'm happy above average to see life signs from you, even though I'm not waiting on any orders 

Rumor mills shouldn't be left spinning for weeks, the details may be lost over time, but a bad feeling/misconception may linger quite a while 

All the best to the team!
Martin

10

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Post Chronos 2.1 clips here!

« on: August 02, 2020, 09:38:45 AM »

Nice one! 

11

Chronos User Discussion / Re: How to convert "Saved File Framerate" on an existing mp4 file?

« on: May 21, 2020, 07:58:15 AM »

Hi, without starting up my Chronos, I don't believe this is possible, you can't open a video file nor convert it with the camera itself, I think..?
(Just confirmed it, I see no tool to convert, much less even an option to open a file. The Chronos is a single purpose tool, never forget )

You'd need to edit the (playback) frame rate on the video file itself.

I did understand correctly, that you just want to change playback speed of a Chronos capture?
E.g. you saved the file in-camera with 120fps playback speed and now want it to playback with 30fps? Just by changing some detail in the video file structure (lossless) without the need to recode/recompress the file (lossy)?
And you are on Windows?

If all of this can be answered: yes > read on

If you are fine with remuxing into another container (mp4 > mkv), use MKVToolnix GUI https://mkvtoolnix.download/downloads.html#windows it's very easy:

Add the file (see 01_MKVToolNix GUI.png), then mark the video part, set the new playback fps, rename the output and then re-multiplex (see 02_MKVToolNix GUI.png)

If you absolutely need to stay with mp4-container, there are a few solutions, but as far as I know, you always need to extract the raw parts first and then remux into a new mp4!

I tested a few options already (avidemux, ffmpeg GUIs like: FFWin, Avanti, QWinFF, FFMpegYAG and finally Losslesscut and XMediaRecode RESULT: Won't work like intended) and besides using ffmpeg via CMD-line (with varying degrees of complexitiy), just try this:

Use MKVToolnix GUI again to change the playback fps and then convert to mp4 using AviDemux http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/download.html

Just open the mkv with changed fps and copy into mp4 container, see 03_Avidemux.png. That's the fastest way using windows video tools I know of, atm. And using still supported/maintained, free software. I also tested with mp4box/YAMB but the result needed a fix from avidemux, so, I skipped explaining that route.

Good luck!

All the best
Martin

PS: The Chronos itself does not allow for audio recording, the example file for MKVToolnix GUI is not a Chronos file.

12

Chronos User Discussion / Re: SD card vs SSD

« on: May 04, 2020, 05:28:50 PM »

Hi, I did some tests a while ago, but the results are confirmed (more or less) on a regular basis when this question is asked:

http://forum.krontech.ca/index.php?topic=442.msg2307#msg2307

Basically the "WOW"-factor sets in when saving RAW/CinemaDNG. When saving in x264, you are much more limited by the compressor (of course, you could sabotage this with ultra slow storage), but since it's one file being written, speed SD vs SSD won't be much different.

If you are going to save DNGs (e.g. for superior quality), you will see a significant drop in write speeds using an SD card. They weren't designed to write, say, 4000 frames (with small filesizes) as fast as possible.

All the best!
Martin

PS: I have an eSataP case and some fast SSDs lying around.. I might redo those tests on current hardware/firmware, maybe even tomorrow 

13

Chronos User Discussion / Re: SSD Cage for Chronos 1.4/2.1-HD - 3D-printable

« on: April 01, 2020, 11:16:33 AM »

Hi,

I did some tests a while ago:

http://forum.krontech.ca/index.php?topic=442.msg2307#msg2307

I guess SATA speeds with very fast random access SSD drives will be even better performing!

All the best
M.

14

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Chronos 2.1 FPS>5406???

« on: February 14, 2020, 11:38:24 AM »

Hello,

I'm not sure if the UI is the same, but on 1.4 it's possible to manually enter values in the x by y fields.
If the dropdown list of presets doesn't go lower than 640x480, you might give the manual edit a try.

Fingers crossed!

PS: I seem to remember something about 5k being the current limit, which will soon be lifted (software update), but I can't find the info right this moment..
I might as well have imagined it...

15

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Introducing Chronos 2.1 HD!

« on: April 07, 2019, 10:03:57 AM »

Also German here, and i did Absolutely forget, that there Will be also taxes added on that 5000 Pricetag für the 2.1.
Well that sucks.
Just an question, not for me, since i dont have a Chronos yet, but for any other owner in Germany:
If they send the 1.4 camera back to Canada and you do an "repair" or "upgrade" to an 2.1 Chronos and send that 2.1 then back to Germany, will there Still be the huge tax to pay or would that be a way around it?
Just wondering....

Well, shipping would need to be insured, of course, as with any warranty or repair exchange.
And iirc it's postage and insured value combined which triggers VAT here, at a certain amount (was it 150 Euros? In any case, you'd be well above that. I believe there wouldn't be additional customs taxes since it's a "digital camera", which is, as well as "camera equipment" like lenses etc, excluded from customs taxes, iirc). So, yes, it'd be expensive, that's why I liked the idea for an EU salespoint/office very much