Ikonoskop back in business?

News

by Tim FokOctober 18^th, 2013

Back in June we reported that camera manufacturer Ikonoskop were in financial trouble, which was shortly followed by the company filing for bankruptcy. They have now announced a trio of new investors that will in turn renew and improve Ikonoskop. One of the new investors, Joachim Vansteelant has been the spokesman for the announcement:

“In July, Ikonoskop filed for bankruptcy. Two A-Cam dII owners, Pete Teo and I, felt that it was important to find a way to continue supporting filmmakers with the only camera that facilitates creativity through simplicity and quality. So, along with an additional investor, we bought the Ikonoskop estate.

Currently, we are in the process of restarting the Ikonoskop ecosystem. Our focus during this time is on supporting you – our community of fellow A-Cam dII users……

…..While our name is still Ikonoskop, we are a new company…..It’s going to take us a little bit of time to get everything up and running, but as we progress we are going to keep you updated.”

Ikonoskop has been kept relatively in the dark when compared to the exposure received by leading camera companies. When taking a closer look at what they have to offer, it makes you wonder why.

At IBC 2011 we reported the A-Cam dII, Ikonoskop’s flagship camera. The specification was ground breaking at the time, and today remains highly impressive; 16mm sized single CCD sensor, capturing uncompressed RAW 12bit with up to 30fps. It records onto 80gb (15 minutes) or 160gb (30 minutes) flash drives. With an array of lens mounting options including Canon EF, FD, C-mount, PL mount, Leica, F-mount.

The images that we’ve seen come out of this little camera have been highly impressive, here are two films shot on the A-Cam dII:

Since 2011 we’ve seen the market change dramatically, particularly in the large sensor raw recording market. Blackmagic Design and Digital Bolex both turned this model on its head. Offering up to 4k 12-bit raw with a CCD sensor for less than $4000 (Blackmagic 4K Cinema Camera), and a variety of resolutions and prices south of this.

With the A-Cam dII originally coming in at around $10k, they’ve got re-structuring to think about. It will be incredibly difficult for a similarly spec’ed camera from a small developing company to compete with a price tag twice that of its competitors.

The future of Ikonoskop is yet to be determined, but the new investors sound positive. They are reported to initially be concentrating on existing customers; stating that any users who have cameras in need of maintenance to immediately get in touch.

via/nofilmschool