Kickstarter

Hello Everyone,

As you all know, April came and went - and I apologize for being sparse on updates. Long story short, I'm hoping to ship kits in the 3rd week of May. The third and final set of laser cut parts are incoming, and about 95% of the hardware has been acquired. The biggest delay has been on my part - there are a number of finishing processes that must be done before the kits are complete. This includes several routing, sanding, and beveling processes that are each done by hand. And once I graduate (commencement this Sunday!), I'll be able to devote 100% of my time to the project, until graduate school that is. Until then, here are a few assorted photos of the progress so far!

Photos (top to bottom): 1) Pieces with 45 degree bevels - these are routed individually to fit flush with the mirror plane. 2) Side pieces with shallow channels to allow use of the late-type Polaroid back. 3) Various stages of the light seal routings for the Polaroid back adapters. The bare parts are given a rough routing, then sanded flush. 4) This are just two-thirds of the parts!

Hi Kickstarter Backers!

I'm very pleased to report that production of the kits is progressing smoothly. All of the custom-made parts are in production, and 95% of the hardware has been received or is in transit. It looks increasingly likely that we'll be able to ship the kits by the end of April - fingers crossed! I've also received some photos of the laser-cutting process from Rich Gunderson of Laser Edge Cutters, which you can see below.

Due to a number of requests, I've made a short write-up on Duo's flash capabilities. With a little bit of soldering (and zero new components), it is possible to retain the PC socket on the Mamiya 105mm lenses, to fire strobes, studio lights, or wireless triggers. More information is in the link below - enjoy!

http://duo-tlr.blogspot.com/2013/03/adding-flash-capability-to-duo.html

I just wanted to thank all of the backers and supporters who made Duo's Kickstarter campaign a success, with $19,711 in funding!

Now the real work begins - we are officially out of the prototyping stage, with the third and final prototype completed. The next big undertaking will be in acquiring all of the parts needed for the kits and preparing them for delivery. A lot of work will also be put into user documentation, so that building and using Duo will be a walk in the park.

I look forward to providing updates on the progress of the project, both here on Kickstarter and on the  Duo Companion Blog. Surveys for shipping information will be sent in the weeks prior to the shipping of each reward. 

Again, I would like to thank everyone who helped make this project possible. My deepest gratitude goes out to the following extraordinary persons:

Mom and Dad Kadooka - for their love and support; Kristina Nagai - for continually inspiring me to pursue this passion; Rich Gunderson and Steve Hopf - for their sharing their unparalleled expertise in their fields; and Satoru Murata - for his fantastic generosity in supporting this project.

Only eight days to go, and Duo is over 170% funded, with nearly one hundred backers! 

The third and final prototype is well on its way to completion, incorporating nearly all of the lessons learned up until this point. I've made it a point to document this process, so that backers can get an early taste of what it takes to build Duo (and that said, it's just a few hand tools and a bit of patience). You can take a look at the build process over at the Official Duo Companion Blog:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3-6

Thanks for your continued support!