Image: Negative Supply

Film equipment maker Negative Supply has been in hot water with Kickstarter backers as its LM1 light meter project reaches its third year without units officially going into production. The company's CEO, AJ Holmes, has assured DPReview that the company is "almost there" and is trying to get a small batch of units out of the door sometime in September, but admits there are still a few concerns about the project.

When Negative Supply launched the Kickstarter for its new light meter in July 2021, it seemed like it would be a relatively straightforward campaign. In the risks section, the company said there were already functional prototypes, which were "close to a final shipping version apart from minor modifications." It predicted the LM1 would start shipping just a few months later. This wasn't Negative Supply's first Kickstarter project, and it raised over $222K from 452 backers – well over the $50K goal.

Now that it's been over three years without backers receiving their units, the comments section on the Kickstarter page is bleak. People accuse Negative Supply of ghosting them, and some have outright called the company a "scam," a "joke," and "crooks." There are threats of legal action and even allusions to showing up at the company's office.

"They were not vaporware. People had hands on with LM1 pre-production units."

The company's communication with backers likely hasn't helped the situation. In a May update seen by DPReview, the company predicted it would finally have units going out by "mid to late June." The next post, titled "nothing new to update," came in August and informed backers that "updates have been slow because progress has been slow." It made no mention of a new shipping date beyond the promise of more info "hopefully" being available "in the coming weeks."

"I'm not arguing that we've done everything right. We absolutely haven't. But I am saying that we're going to get the job done," said CEO AJ Holmes in an interview this week with DPReview. "We're going to get the backers what they've paid for. We're going to make good on our commitments to the industry."

According to Holmes, the company has more details on the way, and "looks forward to sharing that information as soon as possible and to getting that small batch of early shipping units out, ideally in September." He also said that "many backers have given us a tremendous amount of leeway, patience, and grace. We appreciate that. We are almost there, though."

His explanation of why it's taken this long will likely be familiar to anyone who's followed crowdsourced projects before. The stretch goals the company promised turned out to be harder than they'd initially thought, and there were concerns that some features may require not just software but additional hardware (which couldn't just be added via an over-the-air update after the project had shipped). Vendors over-promised and under-delivered, and supply lines the company thought it'd secured fell out of place. The company has had to bring new employees and contractors on to help finish the project and even changed CEOs between the time the campaign ended and now.

The LM1's Kickstarter page promises flash metering, a color temperature sensor, USB C charging, and "an all-metal body" made of aluminum or brass. Image: Negative Supply

"This has been a project that we weren't expecting this level of support, which was great, but we also weren't expecting this level of problems," said Holmes. "It was our first major electronics project at Negative Supply, besides our film scanning light sources, and our first project heavily involving software. We've learned a lot. We still have a little bit of learning to do."

He says that the goal is to make sure that, when the LM1 does ship, it'll be worth the wait, and will meet all the commitments the company made in the campaign. "At this point, I want to make sure that when these units do ship, we have put our best foot forward," he said. "I think it's absolutely critical that we safeguard as many things as possible with hardware before this product actually ships."

Holmes says there are two problems the company is still working through: the light meter's buttons, and its lumisphere, the dome that measures light. Negative Supply had previously machined "a bunch" of buttons and used them to build working prototypes, but the team thought they could be improved. Now, it has "a small batch" of them machined, anodized, and ready to go, and is busy making more. Those are the ones that are going to be on the first production units, which Holmes says the company is working to get out "as soon as possible."

The concerns with the lumisphere are less resolved. "It worked," said Holmes. "it was doing well, getting good readings, etc. But it wasn't as durable as we wanted it to be." He didn't specify what the plan for moving forward with it was, but said that the LM1 will be durable when backers get it.

Holmes says he understands why backers have been frustrated with the updates provided via Kickstarter. "There should have been more updates this spring and summer. I will be the first to admit that."

"We need to provide more details. We are working on that."

According to him, part of the problem is with how dispersed the work on the LM1 is. Brennan McKissick, the company's business development manager who's been writing updates and comments for Kickstarter, doesn't work in the company's production shop in California. Many of the engineering staff and managers are also remote and spread across time zones, making it hard to get the big picture to share with backers.

"It is very difficult sometimes to get detailed to-the-minute updates from all these disparate parts. Some of these are outside contractors," says Holmes. "They're not people that Brennan or I can just call at any hour and say, 'hey, we need an update.'"

Holmes says that Negative Supply plans to share more updates as soon as the team starts assembling that first batch of LM1s.

While some backers have asked for refunds, Holmes says that "the absurd levels that have been invested into hardware and software on this project" make fulfilling the LM1 the best option. "We've never even seriously discussed a refund strategy because we have been so focused on investing time, resources, other energy, money, etc., into developing and finishing this product." McKissick, replying to a backer on Kickstarter, wrote that "it has always been stated there are no refunds and that we would deliver this project."

The lumisphere has apparently caused some concerns. Image: Negative Supply

As for whether the LM1 will be available for retail purchase after it's been delivered to people who supported the Kickstarter, Holmes says Negative Supply has made "no advance plans to go beyond that yet because our absolute laser focus is fulfilling the commitments that we've already made to backers around the world. Beyond that, there's an open discussion that will happen at Negative Supply. That has not happened yet because it would be premature."

This isn't the first time we've heard that the project was moving forward. In July 2023, The Phoblographer covered the project's progress, and was told that things were "moving quicker over the last 3 months." Then, on August 13th of this year, the publication was told that "there will be an update later this week or early next that will address many complaints," but that seemingly hasn't materialized beyond what Holmes shared with us this week.