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APS-C sensors are maybe only a few hundred bucks. I would love to have a nice APS-C or full frame board-level camera that can be easily integrated into somethi

APS-C sensors are maybe only a few hundred bucks. I would love to have a nice APS-C or full frame board-level camera that can be easily integrated into something like a Raspberry Pi. At present it is nearly impossible to get something like that --- dev kits for large sensors from Sony Semicon, Canon, and ams are profoundly expensive, only sold to companies, and go through a lengthy quoting process. > The sensor alone doesn't deliver 100% of the result of a modern SLR. The image processing code does a lot of heavy lifting that is mostly proprietary. This is HN, hackers like us love to be able to tinker with the heavy lifting. That's the whole point of the Raspberry Pi cameras. Even with the current HQ camera, a used point-and-shoot camera with a similarly-sized sensor (or even bigger sensor) would tend to produce better images and videos while being more compact, robust, convenient, and cheaper than the DIY camera.

dheera 6y ago
> At present it is nearly impossible to get something like that So in the astrophotography world they exist. This for example: https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi6200mc-pro-color https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi6200mc-pro-c... uses an IMX455 full frame sensor, gives you a reasonably hackable full frame camera (not that well supported, but there are grassroots libraries around) but it's $4000 because it's also a cooled camera. If they had a version of it that's not cooled and just for normal photography for $1000 that'd be awesome.
PragmaticPulp 6y ago
> APS-C sensors are maybe only a few hundred bucks. Where are you sourcing APS-C sized MIPI CSI sensors for a few hundred bucks in low quantities? Larger sensors tend to use SLVS-EC interfaces rather than MIPI CSI used in the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi doesn't even support full 4-lane MIPI-CSI (except on the CM4). It's limited to 2-lane MIPI-CSI.
shash 6y ago
APS-C might be a tough ask, but something like this[1] or this[2] might work - smaller sensor but at least you won’t get a ridiculous crop factor on APS-C lenses. The second one says it’s format is APS-like. But I’d say an RPi alone would be a bit tough to handle something like this. You’d need at least an FPGA to control the sensor and maybe something like RPi for UI and further processing. But it’ll be expensive. These components are anything between $500 and $3000, and that’s _without_ the FPGA and other things that would be required. An equivalent crop frame camera might be only $1000(?). If the aim is to have a DIY hackable camera, sure. If you want a cheap camera, no... [1] https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Canon%20USA%20PDFs/LI7010_ProductSheet_2020.pdf https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Canon%20USA%20PD... [2] https://ams.com/documents/20143/36005/CMV12000_DS000603_3-00.pdf https://ams.com/documents/20143/36005/CMV12000_DS000603_3-00...

dheera 6y ago

> At present it is nearly impossible to get something like that So in the astrophotography world they exist. This for example: https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi6200mc-pro-color https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi6200mc-pro-c... uses an IMX455 full frame sensor, gives you a reasonably hackable full frame camera (not that well supported, but there are grassroots libraries around) but it's $4000 because it's also a cooled camera. If they had a version of it that's not cooled and just for normal photography for $1000 that'd be awesome.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

> APS-C sensors are maybe only a few hundred bucks. Where are you sourcing APS-C sized MIPI CSI sensors for a few hundred bucks in low quantities? Larger sensors tend to use SLVS-EC interfaces rather than MIPI CSI used in the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi doesn't even support full 4-lane MIPI-CSI (except on the CM4). It's limited to 2-lane MIPI-CSI.

shash 6y ago

APS-C might be a tough ask, but something like this[1] or this[2] might work - smaller sensor but at least you won’t get a ridiculous crop factor on APS-C lenses. The second one says it’s format is APS-like. But I’d say an RPi alone would be a bit tough to handle something like this. You’d need at least an FPGA to control the sensor and maybe something like RPi for UI and further processing. But it’ll be expensive. These components are anything between $500 and $3000, and that’s _without_ the FPGA and other things that would be required. An equivalent crop frame camera might be only $1000(?). If the aim is to have a DIY hackable camera, sure. If you want a cheap camera, no... [1] https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Canon%20USA%20PDFs/LI7010_ProductSheet_2020.pdf https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Canon%20USA%20PD... [2] https://ams.com/documents/20143/36005/CMV12000_DS000603_3-00.pdf https://ams.com/documents/20143/36005/CMV12000_DS000603_3-00...