DV Info Net

DV Info Net (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/)
-   Alternative Imaging Methods (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/alternative-imaging-methods/)
-   -   New camera project! Need help with a few things... (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/alternative-imaging-methods/139079-new-camera-project-need-help-few-things.html)

Steven Mingam December 10th, 2008 04:28 AM

Well I was talking about the Elphel because with little work (way less than re-designing an entire camera) you could have it PC-less. It already record directly to disk, so with some empty pins on the extension boards, or a hacked usb-keyboard, you could easily control it without the ethernet hassle. Just a bit of software programming... which is less time consuming. If I had some money I would buy an elphel and start hacking it but I'm dead broke :P
At least it already deliver pictures as it is.

Sebastian Pichelhofer December 10th, 2008 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jose A. Garcia (Post 974956)
Hi steven,

Thanks for the maths and the answer for the A/D converter. Those numbers are for raw data but is it the same for DNG files?

I've already considered SSD disks. It's probably the best option.

No, I don't want an Elphel. I want to build a pc-less camera with its own lcd and controls.

You might not want the Elphel camera of the past, but you will want the future Elphel Vision camera that is currently being developed:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/975061-post1000.html

open source of course!

Jose A. Garcia December 10th, 2008 08:52 AM

Looks good, but it still has a 1/3" sensor and compressed RGB out. The Elphel is a great camera. It's like the only camera project here that's still alive and getting better every year. It gives a great image, full control over the sensor and it's quite close to become an independent camera, but still lacks a few features needed for cinema work.

By the way, it's now confirmed that the first version of the camera will have a Kodak 2/3" CCD with anti-blooming, low smear and 60fps.

Now we have to focus on the diagram I posted. Is that everything the camera needs? What's missing? What's wrong? What would be the perfect FPGA to use?

Sebastian Pichelhofer December 11th, 2008 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jose A. Garcia (Post 975720)
Looks good, but it still has a 1/3" sensor and compressed RGB out. The Elphel is a great camera. It's like the only camera project here that's still alive and getting better every year. It gives a great image, full control over the sensor and it's quite close to become an independent camera, but still lacks a few features needed for cinema work.

By the way, it's now confirmed that the first version of the camera will have a Kodak 2/3" CCD with anti-blooming, low smear and 60fps.

Now we have to focus on the diagram I posted. Is that everything the camera needs? What's missing? What's wrong? What would be the perfect FPGA to use?

If everything goes well the next Elphel camera will be the first video camera with an APS-C sized sensor.

I already demonstrated an "almost" uncompressed RAW video workflow here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/947828-post970.html
Not very production friendly but as a proof-of-concept it worked quite well.

But you are right, there are still many things to do. But we won't give up ;)

Jose A. Garcia December 11th, 2008 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian Pichelhofer (Post 976187)
If everything goes well the next Elphel camera will be the first video camera with an APS-C sized sensor.

Mmm... That sounds really good.

Jose A. Garcia December 17th, 2008 06:02 PM

Still working on the camera! Does anyone know of options to include high quality audio recording?

John Wyatt December 18th, 2008 05:33 AM

I got a reasonable price digital sound recorder earlier this year called the Zoom H2 which which can do 48 kHz at 16 or 24-bit (or even at 96 kHz if you need that). Records to SD or SDHC memory cards and just needs 2x AA batteries (alkaline or re-chargeables), or can take power from the mains. Has a USB connection for dumping files or connecting to a computer as an external mic (I haven't gone into that functionality). Has a standard tripod thread on the bottom so you can fix it to a camera tripod or mic stand. Very light unit, onboard mic is quite good but you could plug in another. Would need to adopt syncing method (like traditional clapperboard) if the unit is not locked in some way to the camera.

Samuel Hinterlang December 19th, 2008 10:46 PM

I'd agree with the basic theme John has. Just find a way to record the audio in a standard way and sync in post. I've had enough times I was doing that for mic'ing several people or got a mix from and audio engineer and never had an issue getting the audio to just plop down. If there is a time difference, it'll only go out of sync over really long runs.

John Wyatt January 23rd, 2009 03:21 PM

Jose -- anything new with the camera project?

Jose A. Garcia January 23rd, 2009 07:19 PM

Still working on it. These things take their time. I'll post news as soon as I can.

John Wyatt January 24th, 2009 07:24 AM

Thanks, look forward to hearing your progress.
John.

Jose A. Garcia February 28th, 2009 10:23 AM

Big update!! First images!!
 
Hi all,

I'm very proud to present the very first official images shot with our camera! Of course this is all work in progress and we don't even have white balance included yet, but it's a huge step for us since these images have been captured using our own hardware and software, so we're getting closer each day.

http://www.cus-cus.net/cameratests/screencap01.jpg
http://www.cus-cus.net/cameratests/screencap02.jpg

These images are directly from the sensor. No alteration has been done besides converting them to JPG. They were taken with my Computar 12-75mm megapixel zoom.

For now I can say we're very happy with the initial tests. The noise levels from the Kodak sensor are amazingly low even in very low light situations and we're getting new and better results everyday.

I'll post low light, DOF and detail tests as soon as I can.

John Wyatt March 1st, 2009 05:28 AM

Thanks for posting those frame grabs!

Are you shooting a DNG sequence as originally planned?

Jose A. Garcia March 1st, 2009 09:26 AM

As I said, these images were just extracted from the sensor using one of the first versions of the software and converted to JPG.

I can't answer to more questions for now because I'm only part of the project as a consultant, but I'll keep you updated on a regular basis.

Jose A. Garcia April 17th, 2009 04:49 AM

Lots of news!
 
Hi all,

I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to this thread lately. We've been going through a lot of stuff.

The camera we were developing now has a name and it's becoming something big. We already have a couple more threads started in other forums with good results.

Now let me introduce to you THE SPARTA (Cineraw - Sparta)

The Sparta is (as you may know from previous posts) a new cinema camera with a single 2/3" CCD giving beautiful DSLR like images at up to 60fps and recording them to selectable raw DNG 12bit or PNG 8bit format using solid state disks.

If you take a look at the page, you'll find all info available to the public in a PDF document. For anything else, just post here or mail me.

Thanks.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:37 PM.

DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2025 The Digital Video Information Network