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Optocam Zero: a Pi Zero based digital camera made using off the shelf components
- Shalomboy 4mo agoI loved this project the first time it came around. As much as I wanted to build it out myself, I was shocked at how much the components actually cost to put together. It definitely seems like an improvement on the charmera though, so it all comes out in the wash.
- robot_jesus 4mo agoI was looking around but either I missed it or it’s not spelled out. Do you recall a ballpark cost for the components? I didn't feel like individually pricing out the many components.
- 1e1a 4mo agoThe electronics alone are at least €100
- robot_jesus 4mo agoThanks, yeah that's past my personal limit for a very niche project. I like the concept, though.
- Fwirt 4mo agoIt's a shame that, being based on a full-blown Linux SBPC, it has an absolutely unacceptable boot time for a camera. 22 seconds. I can have my iPhone camera out and ready to capture an ephemeral moment of child's play in under 3 seconds, most commercial cameras boot in seconds as well. A film camera can be ready to go the second the lens cap is off. 22 seconds is an eternity in the world of photography. It's a shame that the SoC the Raspberry Pi line is based on has no kernel support (or IIRC hardware support) for S3 or anything similar.
- fellowmartian 4mo agoIt’s possible to boot Linux in seconds, it’d just be a terrible developer experience.
- zokier 4mo agoThe problem is RPi though, and all the junk it runs before booting Linux.
- e12e 4mo agoNot from off state, though? Granted I still expect the iphone to boot quicker than 20 seconds.
- serf 4mo agoyeah it's pretty fair if you compare them apples to apples. an iphone boots in 15-20s depending on how stale things are, you'll presumably need to unlock it, and then navigate to the camera app however you do so. it's just presumed you wont have to boot your phone.
- ktpsns 4mo agoIt's unfair to compare an idling deep sleep device with a cold boot. However, there is a shortcut: Just don't boot a full OS (thinking of custom firmware which boots in fractions of seconds, standard in the Microcontroller world). Or boot an optimized Linux user space. I am confident with a bit fiddling one can bring down a standard SBC Linux to a few seconds from cold to ready.
- DrewADesign 4mo agoFunctional comparisons among devices within a category are always fair. Pointing out a device’s perceived shortcomings is not an attack on the people that made it. One crucial role designers play (ideally) in product development is seeking out honest feedback, filtering it, and figuring out if that feedback can help make the product better for end users. The FOSS landscape needs a lot more of that.
- poolnoodle 4mo agoThe photos aren't half bad. I was expecting something along the lines of the first cameras on mobile phones.
- RobotToaster 4mo agoIt's using a IMX708, which is used as a secondary sensor on some modern smartphones.
- MoonWalk 4mo agoNo disrespect to the project here, of course, but I'm wondering why there's no truly high-quality camera for Pis. I have the so-called "high-quality camera" and it still blows. I use it to monitor my 3-D printer with OctoPi, and that's about what it's good for.
- sottol 4mo agoThere's Will Whang's boards - IMX585 [1] (16:9 1"-ish) and even IMX283 [2] (1") and even IMX294 [3] (Micro 4/3). But just those camera boards run $199 to $399, and released in "artisanal quantities" (I think their hand-assembled!)... so you have to pounce when restocked. Soho Enterprise has some IMX585 boards as well and I've seen some IMX585 MIPI CSI boards on aliexpress afair but never tried them I'm experimenting with and have built a rangefinder-style camera [4], built around the IMX585 or IMX283 (the only boards I got my hands on) but using a CM5, this thing gets hot. It works though! Not too much bigger than my Leica Q. Haven't released anything yet but I tend to work on it and the model is in OnShape. Currently planning a complete screen-less redesign in FreeCAD... so that's _really_ different and slow, but I'm so over proprietary software :/ There's also the CinePi project using those sensors on a full-size Pi with a pretty active discord server. [1] https://github.com/will127534/StarlightEye https://github.com/will127534/StarlightEye [2] https://github.com/will127534/OneInchEye https://github.com/will127534/OneInchEye [3] https://github.com/will127534/FourThirdsEye https://github.com/will127534/FourThirdsEye [4] https://cad.onshape.com/documents/29c9488b2d4b80b73bcf3980/w/fd77ff1f6915dc985b1f8288/e/4cd6778c0a88589ff3e55b79 https://cad.onshape.com/documents/29c9488b2d4b80b73bcf3980/w...
- brcmthrowaway 4mo agoDoes iPhone use IMX?
- zipy124 4mo agoiPhone camera's do not currently use off the shelf sensors. Other brands do use IMX* sensors, but not the ones listed in this comment, they are larger than the ones typically found in phones such as the IMX712 IMX787 IMX890 etc... Note than a lot of the phone sensors aren't actually that impressive, but instead rely on an insane amount of computational photography algorithms to improve the image.
- rsamtravis 4mo agoHuh. 90 minutes of use isn't very much. Is the battery easy to swap out or do I have to unscrew the case to do it?
- kristianp 4mo agoI wonder why this doesn't use the 4608x2592 resolution the sensor is capable of. It produces cropped 2592x2592 images. Stylistic choice, hopefully not too hard to reconfigure? Edit s/camera/sensor/
- j4k0bfr 4mo agoCool project. Would be nice to have some unfiltered example photos to gauge the sensor quality w.o. more googling.
- VaporJournalAPP 4mo ago[flagged]
- crossbody 4mo agoSounds like a fun project. Honest question: why would one switch from a much more capable "carry everywhere" smartphone camera to this? Especially since phone is truly carry always & everywhere and that computational processing squeezes out insane amount of photo quality from already excellent phone cameras.
- rlt 4mo agoIt would be great for kids who you don’t want to give a phone to. I got something similar for my young kids and they love it. But also there doesn’t always need to be a “why” beyond it being fun for the creator to create.
- crossbody 4mo agoTrue, makes total sense for kids
- aviperl 4mo agoI have a box full of film gear and development equipment because, one day, I want to hang a picture of my kids on the wall that I _made_. My photo, on film I developed, printed manually by my hand, hung in a frame I built. I'll get to it some day! The idea of building a camera like this tickles me the same way. It's fun!
- utopiah 4mo agoI've done that and I recommend it. In fact I recommend doing that for EVERYTHING you can! You don't need to do it more than once in your life but it's worth going through the actual process to learn. That being said I also have a FujiFilm Insta to print polaroid size photos for the fridge or to give to guests. Those though are 2 different processes, one is about learning the other about convenient usage.
- ex-aws-dude 4mo agoOh my god if you’re asking that question you’re on the wrong site
- sciencesama 4mo agothere is one with esp 32 too !!
- GL26 4mo agoThis is very cool, it would be huge if this camera could go on fields "traditional cameras" didn't go in, and iphones cannot give. Like an inbetween both where you can add an objective, and send photos to your phone via BLE or something. This would allow for a "professional camera" where you can edit your photos you just took
- walrus01 4mo agoThe output reminds me a little bit in fuzziness of the earliest 640x480 digital cameras from the mid to late 90s that stored images on a 4MB compactflash card.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- ge96 4mo agoThe one I was impressed with that came out recently is this one https://github.com/Yutani140x/saturnix-camera https://github.com/Yutani140x/saturnix-camera this one (optocam) is cool it has heart/soul on an aesthetic perspective