AXIOM is an open hardware and free software digital cinema camera family of devices being developed by a DIY community around the apertus° project.

Sebastian Pichelhofer discovered this thread in 2008 and assisted with the project by developing an Elphel camera internal hard-disk recorder user interface.

By early 2009, and because over the course of three years upwards of 1000 posts had been submitted to this thread, the community realised that it was going to be difficult to maintain a full overview of the project in this way, and consequently a dedicated website was established.

After Pötzl helped to develop critical aspects of hardware and software the AXIOM Alpha prototype was showcased at the Vienna Hackerlab in March 2014 whilst rough planning for a more modular and powerful camera was well underway.

In recent times, and because existing manufacturers have proved reluctant to open their protocols up to the wider world, user groups have accepted responsibility and contributed to what became known as the ‘DSLR revolution’ first-hand e.g. the Magic Lantern (firmware) community.

Because the AXIOM Beta concept is essentially the hardware equivalent of the software they originally pioneered, Magic Lantern partnered with the apertus° Association in September 2014.

[34] Successor of the AXIOM Alpha[35] and the first 4K open hardware camera – the development of which was financed through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that exceeded its funding goal.

The AXIOM Beta DK provides easy access to the camera’s printed circuit boards and is aimed at those who want to work on software related development.

[39] The project was coordinated by the University of Applied Arts Vienna and involved a consortium of European partners including apertus°, af inventions, Antmicro and DENZ.