Happy New Year!!!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 11:39:30 PM

Hello, Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

The News:

The short time that Oleg spent at home passed quickly, we worked a lot on packaging and the instructions manual, on one of the days off OIeg took Jollylook for a walk (it was one of the pre-manufacturing samples made at the factory), despite the cold weather and bad light the photo was a success.

Also at home, OIeg checked the Jollylook tripod mount: the magnetic mount is doing quite well:

After a short time at home Oleg went back to China, which is becoming more familiar with every visit.

All the plastic parts finally fully complied with the requirements and OIeg watched as an employee of the factory assembeled the development unit, he had to make sure that they cope, and they will cope: there were no remarks to the assembled development unit.

At the factory where we make Jollylook OIeg felt like home, the faces and atmosphere were familiar, it was necessary to check the preparation of the assembly line, the bellows where sticking to the tool for gluing (it was difficult to precisely place and press such a part) and we produced and tested a new tooling for pressing, according to the sketches OIeg made right there, everything turned out perfectly, although four days in a row our working day ended at ten in the evening. Also, we tested the rigging for gluing the shutter on the press, OIeg had to slightly change the design of the shutter, because, the manual application of the glue took alot of time, the new design allowed to apply glue in a special machine and now everything is ok.

OIeg tested the ready shutter: without visible changes the shutter withstood about a thousand descents (then OIeg was just tired of the monotonous actions )), while the elastic band of the shutter could withstand 300 to 400 descents.

 OIeg did not assemble anything himself and did not glue this visit, he only explained and observed, it is important for us that the whole process of production be mastered by the workers independently, and of course we very strictly evaluated the results. The fact is that no one before us did an instant cardboard camera with such a set of functions in mass production, and most of the design requirements for accuracy are much higher than just for cardboard boxes, now that the devices for exact assembly of the shutter block are made we are satisfied with the result . The manufacturing of the packing box did not cause any difficulties, we just brought samples made according to our design, which we arranged. 

And finally we see the set that our backers will receive, this is the final Jollylook production sample, all elements of which are made using mass production technologies.:

On Sunday we rested and of course took some pictures with the brand new Jollylook in the front garden of the hotel, this time we used macro photography, it's nice to note that the recommendations from our exposition table (it is in the instructions manual and for convenience on a separate card) allows you to get good photos.

We were pleasantly pleased with the pinhole: the selection of a particularly thin foil, accurate calculation of the diameter of the hole and many iterations of the laser cutting modes were not in vain and now allow us to enjoy the result!

For macro photos we added a striped cardboard tube, it was only needed a few minutes until the bellows were straightened out after compression. Out of the six photos, four were successful and two shots failed: on one of them we set a fast shutter speed and the photo turned out to be too dark, while shooting the second photo (this was through pinhole) the camera moved during the exposure and the frame turned out to be blurry.

 Then we adjusted the settings and got great results:

And finally the manufacturing of Jollylook began and here is the long-awaited assembly line:

Now we are leaving to spend the New Year with our families and on January 10th we'll be back again to make sure everything goes well and the required performance is achieved. Also we will do selective quality control of the cameras.

Here is the instructions manual:

Now that the project is nearing its completion, we Thank You All once again for your support and patience! If all goes well the shipping of Jollylook should start in the second half of January 2018. In the following Jollylook projects we will certainly be able to avoid many mistakes and we will have in our asset what we have now acquired: many of the components that are manufactured and which we can use in new developments, proven contractors who understand us and our requirements, and of course our beautiful community that is  providing us with invaluable support.

We will keep you updated.

THANK YOU!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

Production and Delivery!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 12:43:33 AM

Hello, Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

Straight to the news:

Two weeks ago we arrived to China, as planned, as soon as the molds of all the parts of the development unit were tested and after all the changes and improvements, a complete set of metal parts was made with the new stamps.

Oleg assembled and checked the development mechanism: minor modifications of the gearwheel axes were required, then he selected the springs from the options with different stiffness and the development mechanisms works really well!

To verify the quality of the distribution of the developer by the developing mechanism Oleg developed unexposed photos, the result is excellent blackness!

It is especially pleasant that the development mechanism works perfectly regardless of the speed of rotation of the crank: there are no traces of artifacts that sometimes appeared in the previous versions (with a quick rotation of the handle). 

The factory finished all the necessary adjustment work on the plastic parts molds, and we received a set of new parts for testing, after which we approved the production of the batch. 

All metal parts, after checking the final samples are ordered an in production.

The next day after testing the development mechanism, Oleg installed it in one of the cameras manufactured by the factory during our last visit and immediately proceeded to testing: we tested the pinhole indoors, it was nice that the image on the laptop's monitor was visible and even the text was readable! 

The dynamic range of Fuji's photographic material is wide and both expositions gave good results.

Then Oleg took a selfie near the window with a fully open diaphragm (8) took pictures of Evgeniy and our translator Sergei. It was cloudy outside, but the light from the window was almost enough even at the standard shutter speed of 1/200.

Then he took a photo of the desk in the room at an increased shutter speed of 1/100 (with a weight) light was barely enough, but the photo is still quite good.

Encouraged by the result, we went to the street in the area of ​​our hotel and took several photos 

 The waiters in the cafe where very excited about Jollylook and we photographed them, unfortunately they did not want to part with their photos and were ready to serve us for free to keep them. 

The grand total: with moderate clouds at a standard exposure of 1/200 and aperture of 32, nine out of ten photos were successful, one photo had a flare from the sun reflection, but we kept it for history.

 We had dinner on the street, and when it was dark soon, we took a couple of photos with manual exposure: they turned out as work of modern art! 

The next day at the factory where we manufacture the body and assemble Jollylook we checked the final samples of Jollylook and made all the corrections, clarified the requirements for the glue and its strength, checked the geometry. We agreed on solutions for the rigging for gluing the bellows, checked the quality of the embossing cliche.

The sample looks excellent and unfolds and folds very well, the result - we are satisfied. 

  But there turned to be an unexpected issue!

 It turned out that the factory where we ordered the Fresnel lenses, made the wrong lenses! (the whole batch of ten thousand lenses) Instead of reducing lenses, magnifying lenses were shipped! The control samples that were sent to us were correct, but the boxes that were shipped to the factory - no! When they arrived to the factory, unfortunately no one looked at them, assuming these are confirmed. But when we opened the box:

And this is the worst news: the delay caused by the need to manufacture a new batch of Fresnel lenses will be another 20 days, further we fall under the restrictions in the processing of shipping during holidays... and because of that we will not be able to ship the cameras this years... the shipment will only start in January 2018.

This is the situation. We are very sorry! Some of our backers mentioned that they can't wait anymore, and therefore: to all those who are disappointed, we are very sorry and very thankful for your support, we understand how frustrating it is to wait for so long, and we are ready to refund and thank you once again for your support, please send us a direct message if you would like a refund. 

Those backers who stay with us - we can't say thank you enough times! In the next update we will show the instruction manual and by this time we will finalize the table-guide for choosing the right exposures in different light conditions, (from the experience of the last tests we made small changes to the shutter to increase the standard shutter speed and the table needs to be adjusted.) 

Thank you all once again.

We will keep you updated.

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.

Production Progress and Last Call For Order Updates!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 09:37:46 PM

Hello, Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

We apologize for the late update, as you know, we've been working on finalizing all the parts of Jollylook and waiting for the molds, we now have good news - so let's get straight to them:

Production:

Finally, there was pleasant news - the molds are ready for testing, this is a picture of some trial castings of the parts that were made:

Other Parts:

These are some pictures of other parts of Jollylook that we already received:

Screws:

 Fresnel lenses for the viewfinder:

 Magnets for the tripod plate:

 Jollylook Neck Strap material:

 Perfect laser cut pinholes:

 Light stopping bars for the developing mechanism:

and many other...

Assembly:

Next week we are going to China where everything will be assembeled and checked, All the serial metal parts (not samples) are also ready, so after checking (hopefully everything will go smoothly), the production cycle will finally start.

Last call for order updates!

As you have already seen, we made it possible for all our backers to add extra Jollylook cameras to their pre-order on Backerkit at the same price as the pledge level that you had on Kickstarter.

The last day to make final updates to your order is 15.11.2017. On this date, we will lock your reward selections and charge cards for add-on item purchases, pledge upgrades, and pre-orders. You can update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping.

If you haven’t answered your survey yet, if you fill out your BackerKit survey or pay for extra shipping after the order due date, we’ll still receive your information but your shipment may be delayed.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://jollylook.backerkit.com/.

Add-ons:

Just wanted to give you a little heads up that we plan to charge cards for add-on items you purchased or any additional funds you may owe through BackerKit on the same day as we lock the survey - 15.11.2017. Make sure that you have the correct card information on file. If any issues arise with your payment you’ll receive an email letting your know to correct your payment information.

Shipping:

We have to apologize again, production is taking much more time than expected, but we are very thankful to your support of Jollylook and your kind patience, we are still doing our best to guarantee a great product!

There is a slight delay, but we expect Jollylook cameras to start shipping the first week of December.

We expect to show you a working Jollylook camera in our next update in 2 weeks from today!

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team

Status, Progress, Shipping Date.
over 6 years ago – Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 12:40:38 AM

Hello Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

Forgive us for delaying the update. We continue to work hard to produce a quality product for you.

Not everything turned out to be simple and fast as we expected. Every small thing, every little detail about which we cared less, considering it simple, actualy required a lot more attention. To supply all the elements: bolts, rubber bands, springs, Fresnel lenses, elastic cassette pressing elements, pre-sample, samples were re-ordered and everywhere were had delays. The material properties differed from the standards, the errors in the size of Fresnel lenses exceeded the permissible ones by as much as 0.2mm, one of the suppliers did not have bolts of the right size. Of course, we sorted it out, but it took time.

Then the manufacturer of the molds had difficulties and it was required to change the design of the Jollylook tripod plate, we also had to do minor changes associated with the specifications of the mold for the development mechanism. To our chagrin it suddenly turned out that there are as many as ten days of the national Chinese holidays in October, and no one will work and this will affect the terms!

Even choosing the type of glue for the cardboard part of the camera required our attention! Of course, we will cope with everything, but it is taking time! The development mechanism was made again:

and installed in the camera, which was assembled in the factory without our participation (we did intend not to participate in the assembly this time)

And finally the pictures were taken! Here they are, the very first pictures from the pre-series Jollylook camera! Photographs taken on the street in the afternoon from the factory window are made with a regular shutter speed, (at different diaphragms) pictures in a room under artificial lighting like Oleg's selfie where made in the mode of manual exposure, which he chose intuitively. Most of the pictures were successful:

We were puzzled that in the corners of some pictures artifacts sometimes appeared (as if air penetrated between the film and the paper before the development was complete). Already at home it became clear that it is desirable not to spin the crank too hastily and the probability of a defect is significantly reduced.

And yes - we tested the pinhole, we where pleased with the result, we had to change the pinhole manufacturing method six times, and make samples selecting the right modes of production, check out these photos takin in the room during the day when there was still sun and in the evening under artificial lighting:

Now, what is left for us to do to complete the manufacturing is a lot less than what we have already passed and here are our realistic expected dates:

- Final molds ready on October 15th.

- Batch of parts manufactered by November 1st.

- Batch of 10,000 Jollylook cameras assembled by November 15th.

- Jollylook cameras start shipping from Floship Hong Kong warehouse on November 23.

We sincerely apologize again, production is taking a lot more time than expected, but we have to make sure you all receive a great product!

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team

Production Progress and Surprize!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 12:13:31 AM

Hello Beautiful People of The Jollylook Community!

Thank you for backing Jollylook!

We apologize for the long silence, we where waiting for a few things to happen before we write an update, and here they are!

Finally we got the mockups of all the elements of the development mechanism made after the corrections, and yes! The development mechanism was assembled from the first attempt in a few minutes! Everything works clearly and correctly!

So today we placed the order of the molds, and their manufacturing strated! The countdown begins! It should take up to 30 days for the molds to be ready, and as soon as they are, we can start manufacturing the parts and assembling Jollylook cameras!

Also, we assembled the Stretch goals:

Jollylook clip-on polarized filter:

2. Jollylook plate for tripod:

and surprize! The Jollylook Neck strap:

As a thank you for your massive support and your patience - we decided that it would be fair to include one with every Jollylook that was pre-ordered on Kickstarter. So all our backers will now receive one Jollylook Neck strap with each camera.

Oleg is in China, working on debugging the production of the cardboard parts, our manufacturer made the pre-series samples and of course we still need to work, but everything is looking good already:

 Add-ons:

As for now, we added 2 Add-ons to our Backerkit survey:

1. Jollylook Color Polarized Filters

2. Jollylook Mini Magnet tape set

You can use it on the refrigerator or any metal surface, or combine two for any wall or furniture you want to have your favorite Jollylook photo on.

If you want these add-ons - you can add them to your order in the survey on Backerkit:

https://jollylook.backerkit.com/

We can't wait for the molds to be ready to start the manufacturing and shipping of Jollylook, that day is coming very soon! Thank you All once again for making Jollylook a reality!

THANK YOU!

Untill next time,

The Jollylook Team.