Stolen Camera - Canberra, Australia

[Rohan Dadswell]

This morning (Sunday 28 Nov) some low life emptied my car just before I headed off to a shoot.
Equipment Stolen includes:

SILICON IMAGING SI-2K CAMERA S/N 90-1007 body S/N 402-121
OPTAR ILLUMINA SET OF 6 LENES SUPER 16 PL Mount - 8mm, 9.5mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm, 50mm
KINOPTIK TECA 5.7MM WIDE ANGLE LENS PL Mount
NIKON AL-S LENSES - 35MM, 50MM, 85MM, 105MM, 135MM, 180MM, 300mm
MILLER ARROW HD TRIPOD S/N A61703
KINOFLO DIVALITE 400U LIGHT S/N 2353
KINOFLO DIVALITE 400U LIGHT S/N 3293
DEDO DLH 400D HMI LIGHT KIT
DEDO DLH4 DT24-1 5 X LIGHTS
DEDO DLH4 DIMTA3 2 X LIGHT
DEDO DLH1 X 150 DT24-1 2 X SOFT LIGHT
BARTECH BFD2 M-ONE WIRELESS FOLLOW FOCUS
CHROSZIEL MATTEBOX
TIFFIN 20 X FILTERS
COOL LIGHTS 600 LED LIGHTS X2
COOL LIGHTS 256 LED LIGHTS
MICRODOLLY
C-STANDS X 4
SONY BATTERY BP-GL95 X 8
ARRI 650+ LIGHT
SONY BATTERY CHARGER BC-L70 S/N 010159905X
ZOOM CONTROL FUJINON
EASY RIG 2.5 BACK BRACE
CineBags assistant pouch with Sekonic light meter, Minoltia Colour Meter & Canvision Directors viewfinder.

If you see or hear anything to do with this equipment please contact me or the Australian Federal Police.

[Damian Heffernan]

Man that sux. Pretty specialist gear though so hopefully you'll get some leads, ebay or something.

[Pedro Rey]

Sorry to read this Rohan.
Hope you guys can get your stuff back!

Pedro

[Bob Hart]

Rohan.


That comprehensively sucks and you have my sympathies in this. Steve Rice got a bulletin about an SI2K system being stolen. Given the relatively small population compared to the RED, it fails comprehension as to what somebody would think what they can do with it.

It might be worthwhile checking with customs to see if anything can be turned up on X'rays of departures and to give them a heads-up. If it was stolen-to-order, departures to India or S.E Asia might be the best bet as the SI2K system is apparently gaining some traction there. That might not be full factual. I am only passing on rumours.

As for the footage, the SI2K has a unique visual signature like the RED. You can generally tell which camera makes the footage. If your camera sends something to the next Tropfest, any player who is vague about whose camera it is and who shot the project will be the opposite of most of us who extoll its virtues and some times push the system to others. That camera would warrant investigation.

Good luck with your endeavour to recover your property.

Regards from the owner-operators here in the west, two at last count.


Owner-operator of SI2K 178.

[Rohan Dadswell]

Parts of the stolen kit are being found in nearby suburbs - although not the camera or lenses yet.
Some of the stuff is complete and undamaged, a couple of other bits are wrecked - the wireless follow focus was thrown at a parked car as the bastards drove by, breaking a window and destroying the FF unit.

Several other cars in my street were also broken into at the same time as mine.
Looks like they have absolutely no idea what they have, just grabbed the cases and drove off and are now dumping it.

I'm not too sure what is worse - being ripped off by someone who knows what the gear is and wants to use it or being ripped off by morons that just want to destroy stuff.

[Bob Hart]

I know that feeling but from a safer distance.

Years back, an anamorphic lens was stolen by a youth from the cinema I used to operate for in a small town. I had a reasonable suspicion as to who took it. It was expensive looking and pretty, with a gold anodised finish on the barrel but also of no practical use for looking through or starting grass fires.

I deduced it would have been soon dumped as it was heavy and awkward to carry by hand any distance and the suspected offender was known to be lazy. My concern was which way it would have been facing when he opened his hand and let it drop as he walked on and whether he had replaced the caps. Because they were intriguing I thought he might have.

However in casting about looking for it - no luck, just some crushed buffle grass and some bends in the corner wire fence where he went up and over. No sign of the lens on the ground where I thought it would be.

I worked out that a second party had been involved and rang our local ABC. The announcer gave me a short interview slot over the phone which caught me unawares and tail bookended the interview with "--- and if you have found the lens and picked it up, give it back you turkey".

Next day, an electrician who had been working on the overhead security lights at the cinema handed it in.


My guess is the offenders will be young, maybe with some alcohol in, may be schoolies even. If you have the luck, the heavy stuff may have ended up in somebody's place and that somebody may, in the sober light of the next day be wondering what in the hell to do with it without getting caught carting it off somewhere else.


Maybe next move :-


A general appeal to the community of an "if found, please let me know nature".

A non-threatening "no-questions-asked-if-items-recovered" message, propagated via the student or teenage Canberra populations and their twitter/facebook etc networks, might be worth trying. That will be a fairly narrow time window which has probably near expired.

The incentive might be as simple as a dead drop swap with a small carton of JD or Stoli. Communicating may be the headache. People watch too much TV these days and are paranoid about being traced.

If the gear has not been ditched, a second agent with more of a profit motive may have become involved. He may still be trying to find out what it is, where to sell it and may not yet know how unique it is.

I'm thinking he may try to hawk the lenses off first. The pawnshops and professional dealers in Sydney might be my first line of enquiry. He may likely be a bottom feeder.

If a smarter dealer has come into the mix, finding a buyer and getting it out of the country will be going on.

In addition to S.E Asia and India, the SI2K is apparently gaining some traction in the South American continent. If someone with the knowledge has become involved and the kit bcomes a "stolen (or sold) to "order" item, my suspicion is that the mini may he separated from the body to make up a 3D rig using a non-SI recording system. It is the most portable item of worth.

I hope you are able to recover your kit.

[Alex Raskin]

Rohan, sorry to hear, man!

Hopefully you'll recover most of it!

[John Wiley]

Sorry to hear about it. Was the gear insured?

Sounds like they don't really know what they've stumbled upon though, so they might be stupid enough to list it on ebay not realising how rare and easily identifiable it is.

[Bob Hart]

Rohan.

Have you contacted P+S or SI and had your camera and recorder unit serials entered on their black list of stolen items ?