Production Progress and Delivery Delay
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 12:37:14 AM

Hello Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

Forgive us for the long silence, we worked hard all this time and now we will tell you about everything...

News:

Finally, after agreeing and clarifying the features of each stage of production, a complete verification kit of the parts for the development mechanism of Jollylook was made, but unfortunately with a delay of two weeks!

All the other parts where also manufactured or the suppliers have been selected. Each supplier and manufacturer demanded separate attention, clarifying the specifications of the technical details, changings of drawings, taking into account their specificity.

In the photo below, are all the elements of Jollylook except those that are made of cardboard.

We were also impressed, we thought they will be less )))

We joked that the unfolding of Jollylook takes a little less time than the assembly. Alas, the first assembly of the development mechanism took much more time, a full working day!

Some plastic parts had errors in their sizes, the power springs had small deviations of mechanical characteristics and one of the springs of the mechanism had the wrong length. In order to save time, it was decided not to contact the manufacturers of mock-ups for corrections, and Oleg, like a real CTO, armed with a small engraving machine, which was urgently bought for around 60 Yuans, fixed everything on his own)))

By the evening the development mechanism was assembled and tested, it worked perfectly and regularly.

During the tests it became clear that the rough surface of the development rollers is not sufficiently coarse, and the plastic protective cover of the Instax cartridge can sometimes be removed with slippage, of course we re-specified the surface requirements and we will order new samples of the rollers.

You can see in the photo and gif above that the body of the developing mechanism is made of transparent plastic, this makes it easier to control when checking, of course later all the parts will be black and not transparent.

Although we are satisfied with the results that we got, we will still have to double-check, correct the mistakes (ours or manufacturers), then order the models of plastic parts and parts that have had deviations repeatedly, repeat the assembly, make sure everything is OK, and only then we can order the molds that will take a month to be produced! That means that the estimated delivery time is now further than we expected, forgive us - we try to do everything perfectly. To be realistic, it now looks like the delivery of Jollylook will begin in September. We sincerely apologise for the huge delay, but we can't compromise on quality! We are working hard to deliver you a great camera, that we can be proud of.

More news:

1. The assmebly of the finalized developing mechanism made by the factory worker took only fifteen minutes, and was easy for the person who did it for the first time - the result is simply excellent!

2. The lens manufacturer sent us serial samples, we are impressed with the quality and accuracy in timing.

3. The manufacturer of the cardboard parts of Jollylook had a lot of questions. Unexpectedly, there were difficulties in the selection of materials (the first models we assembeled together were from the cardboard that we brought with us from Ukraine, the cardboard density for the shutter unit was different from the available here, the material texture for the bellows and the body was also different. Then with an impressive speed, new sets of cardboard parts were made and eventually the smiling girl built several shutter blocks and only the first one with Oleg's help! And yes they worked perfectly!

4. We worked together on folding the bellows and decided that to simplify its gluing to the body and the shutter block, we needed to change the design, and the next morning we received an updated drawing from our designer Yuri from Ukraine!

5.The body of Jollylook that Oleg was so proud of, because it was assembled from one piece of cardboard, turned to be not so good for mass production, and we discussed the best from the manufacturer's point of view, we now have a preliminary layout. In general, we are pleasantly impressed with the result of the cardboard work: diligent workers, technologists who quickly offered solutions, and the director of the factory who was always near and assembled the body together with us, all this makes us confident that we will do everything perfectly. 

We would like to thank you All once again for making Jollylook a reality!

We sincerely apologize, mass production is taking more time than expected, and it now looks like the delivery of Jollylook will begin in September, but in the end you will recieve a great camera!

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

Production Progress
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 01:17:30 AM

Hello Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

We hope all is well! Thank you again and again for backing Jollylook!

For tha past month, while the molds are still beeing produced, we worked on finalizing all the other parts of Jollylook to get the best quality possible. We want to share with you the results:

The Jollylook lens:

The first batch of Jollylook lenses where made on a trial mold to check the accuracy. The lenses showed great results during tests and got approved by our team. We are now waiting for the final lens mold to be ready. Here are the the first trial mold Jollylook lenses:

The Jollylook Pinhole:

After several attempts, we finally found a manufacturer who was able to make a proper pinhole hole of the right size (0.380mm) with laser cutting, we are already happy with the results, but we are still working together on making the edges even smoother:

 The Jollylook development rollers:

After so many prototypes and versions, we finaly got an excellent result, only the fourth factory that tried to make the rollers for us - produced the quality that finally suited us. We are proad to show you one of the Jollylook rollers that will guarantee the perfect development of each photo taken with Jollylook:

We would like to thank you All once again for making Jollylook a reality!

We will keep you updated on the progress and will post the next update as soon as all the molds are ready and we can start assembling the first batch of Jollylook cameras.

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

Production and Shipping!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, May 08, 2017 at 01:05:23 AM

Hello, to the Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

It has been more than a month since our last update! The past few weeks we dedicated to finding the best partners for manufacturing Jollylook in Shenzhen, China.

We can't wait to tell you all the news!

First of All, we want to thank the people who helped us with everything in Shenzhen, From translation to finding and visiting so many manufacturers and picking the best ones for Jollylook! Huang and Baiarma - Thank You!

The results:

1. We found a very professional lenses manufacturer and ordered the mold for the Jollylook lens, we should be receiving the first lenses in 3 weeks from now!

2. We found an experienced molds manufacturer and ordered the molds for the "Developing mechanism" of Jollylook. Those should be ready in 30-40 days.

3. We ordered the metal parts, the springs and the rollers for the "Developing mechanism" of Jollylook

4. We purchased the Fresnel lenses for the Jollylook viewfinder.

5. Cardboard - This was the hardest part! We visited two dozens of cardboard printing and packaging manufacturers, and finally, we found a very good manufacturer who loved the idea of Jollylook. We will not only be making the body of Jollylook with them, but also we will assemble Jollylook in this factory:

6. Shipment - we have great news, we partnered with Floship for fulfillment!

Floship is a leading provider of international crowdfunding fulfillment, recognized for fast and cost-effective worldwide shipping services. We visited their main office in Hong Kong to meet Stephanie, who we were in contact with via email before. Stephanie took us to Floship warehouses, and we were very impressed with their professionalism! Now we are working together on preparing for shipment.

7. Timing - We spent more time than expected to find the best manufacturers for Jollylook, but we found them and we began the manufacturing process. Taking that into consideration, we are sorry to say that we now understand that there will be a slight delay in manufacturing. Should everything works out well, the first Jollylooks will be ready in the beginning of July and we will be able to start shipping straight away.

We would like to thank you All once again for making Jollylook a reality!

For those who missed the campaign - our pre-order store is live on Backerkit (with delivery in August 2017): https://jollylook.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The pre-order store will be updated with more items and "add-ons" very soon.

We will keep you updated.

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

BackerKit survey and News!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 12:02:12 AM

Hello! To The Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

We hope all is well! Thank you for making Jollylook a reality! A few things need to happen before we can kick off production and fulfillment. It's been a while since our last update and we can't wait to tell you all the news:

1. Backerkit survey!

We are excited to announce that we have transferred all Backer pledges to our pledge management tool, BackerKit.

You should receive an email from BackerKit this week with a link to your account that includes all your Backer information in it. It will take a few days for all the emails to go out. Please be patient. (And don’t forget to check your spam folder.) It is important to respond to your survey since we need this information for fulfilling your rewards.

You do not need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey, just click on the survey link, fill it out, and you’re all good to go! You will be able to provide shipping information, and pledge for more “add-ons” if you'd like. You do not have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!

We will be adding more "add-ons” like film and filters, and we will post about them in updates so you don't miss them.

You can update or modify your survey answers anytime before we begin shipping. Simply click on the same personalized email link and it will take you to BackerKit where you can modify your responses. We will be sure to let you know when we will "lock down" the survey (estimated for May 25 2017). One thing to note is that you must fill out the entire survey before we can ship your reward.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you will be able to recover your survey here: jollylook.backerkit.com

If you use your Facebook login for your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey will be sent to the email you used for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you would prefer to use, please contact support at jollylook.backerkit.com/faq and we'll get you sorted out!

2. Pre-production:

We have partnered with an experienced manufacturing agency in Shenzhen, China. Together we will go from the production of several samples to series manufacturing. We've been working intensely together over the past month to get all of the parts and drawings finalized for production in China. Together we studied and selected several suppliers for each category, asked them for prices / print runs / production time for samples / batches / samples. Our next step will be visiting Shenzhen in two weeks from now, we will see the manufacturers production opportunities, and once the first samples are assembled we will negotiate and lock down the partners to start the production. We will keep you updated and share with you more info and pictures as soon we get to China.

3. Stretch goals prototypes:

We only showed drawings of the stretch goals earlier, and we are sure you are curious what the stretch goals will look like, here is how the first prototypes look like:

We are still working on Stretch Goal #3 - Jollylook Neck Strap, and we will show it to you in the next update. The good news is - once it is ready - it will be available as an add-on on Backerkit.

4. Instax mini monochrome film.

Many of you have asked for the choice of monochrome film. We are excited to say that you will be able to choose Instax mini monochrome film to come with your Jollylook (one cartridge per camera) with an extra fee of 3$ only in our Backerkit survey.

5. For those who missed the campaign:

We received so many messages and emails from people who missed the Jollylook campaign, but still wanted to support Jollylook. We have good news - we launched a pre-order store on Backerkit (with delivery in August 2017): https://jollylook.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The pre-order store will be updated with more items and "add-ons" as soon as they are ready for pre-order.

We will keep you updated.

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

THE LAST 100 MINUTES!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2017 at 09:40:00 PM

Hello Beautiful People! 

With only 100 minutes left of this campaign - Jollylook is over 2500% funded!

We would like to once again say THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for your support to Jollylook!

Also, we have had a chat with the amazing team over at ars-imago. We share a lot of passion for analog photography. They have an active LAB-BOX Kickstarter campaign - The first multi-format daylight-loading film tank. So please check them out and spread the love for film photography!

We will be back soon with updates on fulfillment and we will be sharing with you the process of manufacturing Jollylook.

Until next time,

The Jollylook Team.