Who needs full-frame when you can macguyver a large format camera? https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectese/albums/721576231876...
This is an absolutely unhinged level of a pet project, and I love it so much.
A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
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Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#22I wonder how difficult it would be to do this with something like an old A7RII - there seems to be a good amount of older Sony A-series cameras with some kind of display or motherboard issues on ebay, but otherwise perfectly functional sensors
I have been passively looking at doing something like you are suggesting, but then also turning it into more of a video camera. My main motivation is that it seems pretty much impossible to get a off the shelf sensor that has DPAF.
One big hurdle getting the datasheet for the sensors - they are usually quite quirky and even if you get the datasheet and all documentation you will still need support from the manufacturer to get everything working reliably.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#23Great project! Congratulations to this young, and talented builder!
Was also fun to watch his video, see the progress, his nice home lab, and all the cool retro stuff he has around.
Keep it up.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#24I wish there was a way to buy the hardware and get on with the project. Does it run Linux?
Someone linked the GitHub. That should have the PCB grbr files; maybe you can get them made yourself and just buy the discrete/processor components from DigiKey. Also, DigiKey red makes PCBs.
That's a high barrier to entry for someone coming from the software side. Just sourcing components can be a shitshow.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#25[deleted]
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#26I wish more cameras had no eyefinder. I never use it, it is a waste of resources and a needless weight and volume.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#27I wish more cameras had no eyefinder. I never use it, it is a waste of resources and a needless weight and volume.
On a full sized interchangeable lens camera, I’d give up having a screen completely before giving up the viewfinder. It depends on what and how you shoot, of course, but trying to shoot sports or live music without a viewfinder would be horrible.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#28His repository is https://gitlab.com/zephray/sitina1 . The hardware list seems somewhat incomplete, e.g., missing the metal ring and connector for the lens mount and pcbs.
Lens mount could be proprietary. ES belongs to Canon.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#29I wonder how difficult it would be to do this with something like an old A7RII - there seems to be a good amount of older Sony A-series cameras with some kind of display or motherboard issues on ebay, but otherwise perfectly functional sensors
I think the issue would be the missing datasheet. But I was thinking the same, old cameras seems to be the easiest source of a good sensor.
Re: A DIY photographer built his own full-frame camera and open-sourced the project
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
will* (Almost?) all mounts have their own focal distance from the backplane. I don't know of any two that share the same distance.
with the use of shims, BMD cameras can switch out their mount from EF, PL, or B4 options. so it could be designed with this style in mind, and even make a link to BMD's site to purchase their kit of shims
Aye, a universal mount is possible if you have a custom housing for each mount type to match the backplane. Using BMD equipment might run afoul of patents... I don't know enough about the legal end of equipment manufacturing to say.
But it would still require custom mounts for each lens type... which is 100% doable.