Very cool! Have you considered using old large format lenses instead of projector lenses? They can have massive image circles, and many can be got for a great price even cheaper than more modern medium format lenses, because they are simpler (they literally just mount on a lens board and are focused by moving the lens itself).
Agreed. They can be found not that expensive if you look for one without shutter. You would have to mess around though with fixed aperture holes since that is usually embedded in the shutter.
Thank you very much for the suggestion. I remember, having considered them, but after the first google search I originally discarded these lenses for being too expensive... However, there seem to be many used large format lenses for below €100 on eBay. I think this might be the next step towards legit 500mpx :)
@@yunuszenichowski Another suggestion: Have you thought about trying an old enlarging lens? An old 135mm Wollensak Rapter or a Schneider Kreuznach Componon 135mm (covering 4 x 5 inches) can be found online for about $35US, and a 210mm Componon (covering 5 x 7 inches) for about $70.
Great work! I've seen a lot of DIY scanner projects over the years but the results have usually been only "interesting", they actually appears to be usable and high quality with yours.
Yes, please do. And as soon as you feel like you have the design worked out please post the updated plans. I would love to try my hand with this project.
Extremely interesting... thanks for correcting the 48 bits per channel, I was having a heart attack when I heard that. And worst case, you proved once and for all that pixel count is not everything...
This has inspired me so much. How did you add ISO control? Is it with the clock setting? Tricking the white balance to control ISO maybe? I hope you do a follow up or even a quick build guide. Great work man.
It makes me happy to hear that it did inspire you :) The ISO is controlled by regulating the power the scanners LEDs get, which are used for calibration before (and after) each scan, using resistors (effectively regulating their brightness).
@@yunuszenichowski oh wow! That makes sense. If it calibrates the white balance that way then it would also change the sensitivity. So you could alter the ISO and white balance if you used LEDs that changed color and intensity. Did you make your own led board or cut down the stock one? I’m wondering if I could make a diffused light source with amber and white LEDs.
I just cut down the stock one, but I think it would be very easy to change the LEDs for different ones. It is just connected over 6 power lanes and 1 ground lane with a ribbon cable. However, you could also power your lamp with a different source, since the scanner does not care if the LED is disconnected, it only throws an error, when it is too dark for the calibration. Also, I diffused the light, like they did in the scanner, using a white piece of paper, which the LED points at rather than at the sensor directly.
@@yunuszenichowski this is very helpful. Thank you. I got the case printed last night I have a scanner on order need to print the gear and other internals on my resin printer next. Thank you for all your hard work. I think I will make a video on this project as well. Show what works and what doesn’t.
Let me warn you, this is not a finished project and I would assume replicating it would take quite some time and experience, mainly because the 3d model is unfinished! You will have to think about cable management, how to integrate the limit switch, etc.
I thought about modifying a flat xray sensor panel for visible light. It would allow non scanning snapshots. But i am not too sure about exposure time.
I don't know if you still read comments on this video, but you could drastically improve the contrast of the picture, if you would flock out the inside of your projector lense. They are very reflective but if you would use something like black 3.0 or other light absorber inside the lense, you would stop bouncing light in the lense and improve picture quality.
I saw the original video and was fascinated. Now thanks for giving us a more easy way and for the demonstration that the concept actually works. Im not an engineer but will try my own design now.
that is cool. for really cheap lenses that will increase your focal length options look at enlarger lenses. Several come in a ltm mount or m42 mount. really easy to adapt. I picked up a 135, 105 and 55mm last month for playing with 4x5 film. Didn't spend more than 65 bucks for all three.
Hey great project - could you share more detail on how you controlled the intensity of the light source as well as how you turned it off during the scan? Attempting a build myself and have useful images but want to push it to have adjustment in the light source intensity and to turn the light source off many thanks!
I had implemented a mechanism that controls the light using a diy limit switch and potentiometer (I believe 0-50k ohm). There should be some information about the details in the comments already.
is there a followup to this this project? i wanna know more about the build process, can you please make a video detailing the building and hardware + software optimisation of the camera?
Interesting project, indeed. I've made a photo of my daughter once - long before I got my first digital camera - by using a black-and-white handscanner on a glass plate. By moving it up or down, I could indeed get a picture, but just as with your system, the object should be stationary (which my daughter tried, but still she appeared a little wobbly 😉). The scanner was connected by a parallel interface and gave dithered results, just to get the idea of the image quality in those days (I think Windows 95)...
What if you spun the sensor like in a Virtoal Boy or like the lighthouses for VR? I suppose that would make it so you have to put the projector lens way forward and project the image onto something flat it could scan over... or do some serious correction in software?
Can the scanner be made to move faster? Or is it limited by the bandwidth of the machine itself? Ie could a motor be used to make it scan faster or is that pointless? Would be a cool design to have giant image areas for far cheaper than having a single solid image sensor
Nice build, but I would like to use the scanner system on a moving object (the sky with its stars) so I don't have to move the sensor relative to earth I just wait until the earth has captured a big enough portion of the sky. Should be possible in theory or did I miss something.
but noise will probably be a big problem, but if I'm honest the noise thing is a quite common problem for night sky and with tradtional cameras it is solved by taking many pictures. So maybe moving the sensor so that it scans the night slower than earths rotation would and so more time for the light to come to the sensor.
I believe linear sensors are also used to monitor conveyor belts, so it is definitely a thing. However, the maximum duration of a scan with my scanner is about 10 minutes, so you wouldn't be able to capture the whole night sky.
I suggest adding some stabilizer system because it is acting like really slow shutter speed ( not from the lens but from the natural movement of the device/wind/earth) or a super steady tripod
wow this is so amazing. i would love a follow up video with building instructions. i have access to PA 12 SLS printers if you need more precise parts and would love to support you.
Can you share a little bit more about sourcing scanner? What should i look for? Will this work only with standalone flatbed scanners? Does backlight type matter? Are You capturing picture with laptop or with android over otg cable? Are all scanners ccd or should I avoid some types?
wow ingenious design, maybe you can try to replace the projector lenses with maybe canon or nikon lenses for better image quality as those lenses aren't very expensive but can deliver superior photo quality, or maybe make it adapt into a microscope lenses for extreme macro photography, it should be easier to incorporate as it doesn't require any special mounts and is cheap as well. But idk i'm just spit balling on some ideas. But amazing design none the less! This would be amazing for astrophotography! might attempt to make one once the design is finished.
Thank you for the ideas. I am unsure if the camera would be able to capture the dim light of stars. You also can't make long exposure shots with this camera. But I will definitely test that at some point.
I'm also definily interested in the possibility of AP with this type of camera, will definitely be needing a star tracker since I'm not sure if this is fast enough to not have distortion from the slower exposure time. Image stacking might help with the low light and the high res images could be an upside if it doesn't take a ridiculous amount of time to take a bunch of pictures to stack😅
wait, 2:57 - are you saying this camera captures IR by default? I'm wondering if it would be easy to emulate aerochrome with this camera. Is there raw output? Some people remove the IR filter that came with their digital cameras in order to do this.
right, an 8x10" lens would make more sense. but either way to get reasonable images one would have to drop the DPI way down and even then it would only be useful for landscape photography.
Hi Yunus, amazing work. I do take pictures but I'm afraid I know little about the sensor tech or the physics involved that makes digital cameras work. Do you reckon that it is possible to instead substitute the scanner sensor for say, a more purpose built, Pi HQ Sensor and attach it to a motion system and stitch the images. I wonder if M43 cameras use that approach to make "Super resolution" pictures, since the sensor is attached to a IBIS system and physically moves. Do you think that moving a Pi Sensor could be done with a design similar to yours / or is that feasible at all? Or would it be too shaky and introduce lots of motion blur or what challenges do you think that design might face?
I can probably answer some of these things. I have a Pentax APS-C camera that makes use of the optical stabilization platform to take high-res images. I don't know how many other cameras do this. The mechanics are a little different though -- the sensor is shifted around by just half a pixel. Some fancy computation is needed to create the resulting image, as the pixels in the four source images overlap each other. Moving a cheap sensor in this way would be incredibly difficult, as you'd need to reliably be able to move it by only half a pixel. It would also mean that your resulting sensor area is still absolutely tiny, and the low amount of light captured would make it hard to take advantage of the increased resolution. Scanning the sensor across the image (as in this video) probably wouldn't work very well either. Because the sensor is square, you'd need to scan in two dimensions - adding mechanical complexity and making each shot take longer. You'd also be getting much more data than you actually need, unless you're only using one row of pixels.
The camera create one crazy vibe and artistic liberty for sure. The style it makes are unique but from the looks of it, quite hard to get a "Decent" imagine imo
Awesome project. Have you been standing on the Lange Brücke in Potsdam sometime in january? I think I may habe seen you there. I was wondering about that big camera. Funny how the UA-cam algorithm works!
I think you need a telecentric lens. Telecentric lenses maintain a constant magnification over a certain range of object depths, which means that objects at different distances from the lens appear to be the same size. This property makes them particularly useful in machine vision applications, where consistent measurements are necessary, regardless of the object's exact position within the field of view.
I was gonna say it's an awesome idea, why aren't there any consumer products like this. Then i remembered that my scanner took almost a minute to scan a picture (it did a double pass or maybe that was the software). And the result was "grainy" as if printed on woven fabric. But I guess for detailed pictures of art or any other still live, it's pretty cool.
Have you considered building a rotary camera that rotates both the sensor and lens? Some 35mm camera lenses will cover this sensor at the widest part of their image circle, and that would provide an extremely sharp panoramic lens.
Pardon me, but why on earth would one want that sort of convoluted setup? The moving sensor thing in this case works specifically because it is very light, and still it is causing issues. Your idea would require a geared down stepper motor for the rotation I gather, but you'd have an issue with the focus at the edges of the image circle VS the center I think, so the top and bottom of the image would likely be both much dimmer, and have different focus than the center, one or the other being in focus but not both. Also, I think I've seen long interval rotating mounts made for cameras pre-digital, I don't remember how they were set up but it would be easier not to have to fab the thing to test the idea.
Think more a simple linear camera that rotates about its' axis - the sensor is attached to the lens and the whole assembly rotates. Look up "slit camera" for the film version of this. It obviously provides perspective distortion, but the tradeoff is unmatched resolution. Alternately, if the camera were attached to a slider, the image could be captured without distortion as it sweeps from side to side. The lens is best at the center; why not move both? @@noth606
I got myself a Pentacon 420mm f3.6. Thought about buying a flatbed scanner to produce Gigapixel images. Would probably use once and then never again xD
Impressive, a scanner camera is something I've wanted to do for awhile now, I have been planning building it as a 4x5 back for a film camera. How much is directly pulled from the scanner, is it just the sensor or are the other electronics and movement system from the scanner retained? Looks to be mostly replaced, but it's hard to tell since I've never seen the guts of a v37 before. Standard scanning software or custom?
I essentially just removed the case of the scanner and reorganized all of the parts, required for the operation of the scanner, to fit in the camera form factor. You can look at it in detail in the 3d model. It uses the standard software. I wish you great success with your build!
How did you bypass the need for the lamp to initialize the scanner? I’m tearing apart an epson 1650 right now but can’t get the scanner to function unless the lamp is connected.
Hi @yunuszenichowski thank you for making this. I believe I am going to have few days of sleepless night about thinking what exactly CCD sensor you used to make 400+mp sensor. I love taking long exposure photographs on my 8mp wide angle camera and later manipulate those pictures. I see extremely amazing potential in such camera to create experimental long exposure photographs. Would you be up to help me with your build guid, sensors and software? If I have missed on your build blog on Hack-A-Day or something. Please do let me know. Love from India and Genuinely appreciate your other work as well. Have a great day ahead.
Thank you so much! The resolution is this high, because it is a linear sensor, moving along some axis. This effectively results in an image of size sensor-pixel-count^2 or more, depending on how far the sensor moves. I was using the hardware from an Epson v37 scanner. I would advise against building one, if you don't really want to. The information provided in the video and the 3d model, is absolutely not sufficient to quickly build one. You would have to figure out most things on your own. I sadly didn't really finish the project, which is why there is no tutorial or anything. With a tutorial, it would be very easy to build one :/
@@yunuszenichowski thank you for your reply! Now I understand the megapixel part. This camera genuinely have great potential to take great experimental pictures, if printed can be sold as artworks ha ha. I am kidding. But if you would like to take back and work on this project. I am up for helping you out with this project. Anyhow I can do it. But I would love to collaborate with you if you feel comfortable.
@@TheHitesh74 The reason I didn't continue to work on the scanner camera idea is that there is a huge bottleneck for how good and especially practical/usable the camera can be, due to the fact that it is basically an off the shelf scanner, packaged in a new enclosure with some hacks. For example, you have to keep a laptop attached, since it is still just a scanner. Originally, I was interested in building a scanner camera from scratch, even designing the circuit boards, but then I realized how unattainable that goal was with the time I was willing to spend on it. So I just skipped that idea. If you are by any chance a high speed circuit designer, then I would love to collaborate :) Designing just a slightly refined scanner camera that is again based on some consumer scanner does not really interest me.
Hi, thank you :) Sadly I have not made any resources to help someone build this camera. The main reason was that It's just not a finished model. If you have a good amount of time and expertise with 3d printing and basic electronics, you should be able to build a camera like this with some research of your own and from the information I have provided in other comments. The unfinished 3d model of my camera could also be helpful as a starting point.
May I ask you the width of the sensor pcb? I am designing a similar scanner back, but having difficulty in finding whether it is 12cm or 13cm. Thank you in advance.
I tried the same with epson junk scanner in over ten years ago. but i did not get good image. The image of your camera is very interesting still today. Thanks for your nice work.
You should try to project the results of a telescope onto this as high mp images are one of the most important things when it comes to astrophotography.
@@Ruikesan Na likely not. At worse you may form a minor distortion because while yeah the image takes a while to produce the actual sensor is only over that area for a fraction of the time. Me and my son regularly do basic astrophotography using our phones and the results are honestly amazing using stacking software. Had you told me when I was a kid I would be able to take an unmagnified image of Andromeda galaxy with any camera, let alone my phone, and see the arms of it clear as day I would have called you crazy. Hell... same goes for color on Orion nebula. The sensors in phones are ridiculously powerful and you couldn't reach these sensitivities without juicing your film with various special compounds first. We only run into start trails around 30 seconds exposure unmagnified and when binoculars or a telescope is used roughly 8 to 10 seconds so i doubt it would be any issue at all.
Thank you for the suggestion. The scanner is really bad in low light, because by exposing every line sequentially, the lines themselves only have a short exposure time. It takes ~8 minutes for one high resolution picture, so stacking images would be difficult.
@@yunuszenichowski Yeah if thats the case you're probably right. Given the nature of a scanner it might just have some sort of single pixel camera or possibly a single line which it just builds the image that way instead of the normal squared sensors phone cameras have. I just knew phone's these days have crazy light capturing abilities compared to analog film of old and I was amazed when I started taking pictures using only the most basic setup with a phone of all things.
The camera may be cheap but a lens that can resolve more than 8 megapixels is quite unusually expensive. When I graduated to 4K cameras I found very few lenses could even resolve the full resolution of 4K.
i literarily need a glitchy camera like this. i dont even want the finished one. i just would kill for such authentic glitches it would be amazing for my art
Haha, I actually made this camera mainly for art class. There are much crazier images than the ones I showed in the video. It's especially interesting when motion is involved.
Post it somewhere else. GrabCad invasively requires full details for download of the images. I think I'm going to build one of these, just bought an Epson V33 scanner for AU$45 shipped on Facebook marketplace. It seems the only difference is that it uses a plugpack, whereas the V37 has an internal power supply. The V370 could also be used but it's newer thus more expensive.
I could send the files to you, if you hit me up on my email. The v37 also uses an external power supply. I just cut the wire and connected it to a 2s lipo with dc voltage booster to keep the voltage at the required 13.5 volts (I think it was 13.5). Please be aware, that this is not an easy project. You should be willing to spend lots of time on this. The 3d model is absolutely not enough to replicate the camera. It is really just intended to help designing your own (better) camera.
@@yunuszenichowski I did eventually join the GrabCAD site, so I have the files. But I can't figure out how to separate the components in FreeCAD (3D printer files would probably have been more useful). Anyhow, as you say, it's a starting point. I'm not worried about the complexity or time necessary to make this, I'm a retired electronics engineer. :-) Edit: I managed to score an SMC Pentax-A 645 200mm F4 lens on ebay for AU$117.03 direct from Japan. Apart from this being half the normal price I feel it will do better than a projector lens. As a medium format lens this equates to a 124mm F2.5 on full frame. They're known to be a soft lens used mostly for portraits, should make some interesting images. There are quite a few for sale, in fact the seller I bought mine from has two more advertised at AU$108.90 including shipping. Local taxes may increase this a little, as it did when I bought mine yesterday.
Thanks for designing a cheaper and easy to fabricate version ^^ Are there more accessible scanners that would be easier to get? I was not able to find any listed for sale locally.
The only requirement for the scanner is to have a CCD sensor, but you would have to adapt the design, when using a very different model. However, I know that the v370 should definitely work. The v30 and v33 look like they have very similar designs as well. I feel like I should mention this again. The 3d model is not complete and should only be used as inspiration for your own design. The camera is in fact designed quite badly, because I was under pressure to finish the project (there is a lot of double-sided sticky tape involved).
I have printed and assembled your design. However I’m running into a bit of an issue with the gear you used to drive the scanner. It doesn’t grab onto the belt nor does it sit firmly in the mount you made. Did you encounter this issue and how did you resolve it?
I tried to express clearly that it's not a finished model. There need to be 2 small bearings in the slit, and the gear has to be printed with a 0.2 mm nozzle. It's also extremely important to reinforce the gear shaft with a m3 screw. There should already be space for a threaded insert. I never tried to print the gear with a normal-sized nozzle, so it's nice to know that the smaller nozzle was actually necessary. I am sorry for causing trouble like that. If you have more questions/problems, you can contact me via email, y.zenichowski@gmail.com
@@yunuszenichowski yeah I understood that the design wasn’t finished but I’ve managed to figure out of modify almost everything else. I appreciate the help. I will print the gear with a .2mm nozzle. Do happen to know the part code for the bearing you used? I will email you if I have any further questions thanks!!
@@will3346 I sadly can't give you any hint at the "right" bearings, because I would have to disassemble my camera to find out, just pick whatever fits. I used 2 to increase the vertical contact area with the shaft. There also is a major design flaw with the model that I only fixed after the video, the sensor has to be turned by 180º otherwise the image is mirrored and the color channels misaligned. Anyway, I am really happy that the video could inspire others to build one as well! That's awesome!
@@yunuszenichowski by pure coincidence I have already rotated the sensor by 180 degrees. However as I’m using a slightly different sensor from a V200 I’ll have to play around with it after assembly.
Thank you. I did not eliminate it, since it is necessary for the calibration of the sensor. I used ribbon cable breakout boards to get access to the ground wire, which was then connected to a diy limit switch I made using a spring steel piece from the scanner and two screws, so that the light could only turn on in the home position.
@@yunuszenichowski Thank you so much for elaborating on that. Really clever integration. I bought an Epson V39 and hopefully I can reproduce your results with this scanner. I was thinking about adding a Nikkor lens for the optics. Thank you again!
Why would it not be possible for someone to create a fast moving scanner sensor. One that swipes across within a second. Would require special software and maybe a modified scanner sensor that can capture thousands of lines in that second.
I have actually thought about something similar recently. There are sensors that can readout 7400 lines per second (and also very big ones with 17000). (maybe even low frame rate video recording could be enabled). The question is, how much light they would be able to capture... Controlling them also does not seem to be that complicated. The camera could additionally be much more compact, if you design it from scratch without using a scanners' hardware. On the other hand, it would absolutely be more expensive, since you cannot profit off the affordability of mass-produced scanners. The upper mentioned sensors are alone ~€100 and ~€250.
Very cool! Have you considered using old large format lenses instead of projector lenses? They can have massive image circles, and many can be got for a great price even cheaper than more modern medium format lenses, because they are simpler (they literally just mount on a lens board and are focused by moving the lens itself).
Agreed. They can be found not that expensive if you look for one without shutter. You would have to mess around though with fixed aperture holes since that is usually embedded in the shutter.
For example a rodenstock sironar 150mm is quite good in resolution, most of those have an image circle between 4x5" or 5x7"
Thank you very much for the suggestion. I remember, having considered them, but after the first google search I originally discarded these lenses for being too expensive...
However, there seem to be many used large format lenses for below €100 on eBay. I think this might be the next step towards legit 500mpx :)
IMHO this is the main reason I've considered building a scanner camera.
@@yunuszenichowski Another suggestion: Have you thought about trying an old enlarging lens? An old 135mm Wollensak Rapter or a Schneider Kreuznach Componon 135mm (covering 4 x 5 inches) can be found online for about $35US, and a 210mm Componon (covering 5 x 7 inches) for about $70.
I love seeing the ingenuity on builds like this. Even though it has some glitches, it still adds to the charm of the wonderful device you've created.
Great work! I've seen a lot of DIY scanner projects over the years but the results have usually been only "interesting", they actually appears to be usable and high quality with yours.
Thank you, I am happy to hear that. Might upload another video with more images, since I now have the required filter to shoot in natural light.
@@yunuszenichowski please, do so!
@@yunuszenichowski please do! I used to take pictures of artwork for a job and this would be a wonderful gift to certain institutions.
Yes, please do. And as soon as you feel like you have the design worked out please post the updated plans. I would love to try my hand with this project.
This sounds like it wold be perfect for taking pictures of negatives
True tbh, you could compact it down as well by removing the lens and just placing the negative directly against the scanner. Wait...
@CulturalCats lol
Congratulations on your engineering skills. Well done.
This reminds me of the scanbacks for large format cameras. Nice work!
Extremely interesting... thanks for correcting the 48 bits per channel, I was having a heart attack when I heard that. And worst case, you proved once and for all that pixel count is not everything...
10 months later, I watched the video again and i was about to get another heart attack at that "48 bits per channel" lol
Nice making Yunus! Thanks for sharing, and good fortune for all your projects.
This is a great project. I hope you can get it to a point where other people can build one for them self.
I'd love to see more about this project in the future
I'm a sucker for odd photo stuff and this is right up my alley
This has inspired me so much. How did you add ISO control? Is it with the clock setting? Tricking the white balance to control ISO maybe? I hope you do a follow up or even a quick build guide. Great work man.
It makes me happy to hear that it did inspire you :) The ISO is controlled by regulating the power the scanners LEDs get, which are used for calibration before (and after) each scan, using resistors (effectively regulating their brightness).
@@yunuszenichowski oh wow! That makes sense. If it calibrates the white balance that way then it would also change the sensitivity. So you could alter the ISO and white balance if you used LEDs that changed color and intensity.
Did you make your own led board or cut down the stock one? I’m wondering if I could make a diffused light source with amber and white LEDs.
I just cut down the stock one, but I think it would be very easy to change the LEDs for different ones. It is just connected over 6 power lanes and 1 ground lane with a ribbon cable. However, you could also power your lamp with a different source, since the scanner does not care if the LED is disconnected, it only throws an error, when it is too dark for the calibration.
Also, I diffused the light, like they did in the scanner, using a white piece of paper, which the LED points at rather than at the sensor directly.
@@yunuszenichowski this is very helpful. Thank you. I got the case printed last night I have a scanner on order need to print the gear and other internals on my resin printer next. Thank you for all your hard work. I think I will make a video on this project as well. Show what works and what doesn’t.
Let me warn you, this is not a finished project and I would assume replicating it would take quite some time and experience, mainly because the 3d model is unfinished! You will have to think about cable management, how to integrate the limit switch, etc.
this should be sold as the album cover camera
I thought about modifying a flat xray sensor panel for visible light. It would allow non scanning snapshots. But i am not too sure about exposure time.
Do you think you'd be able to keep the sensor still but make the scanner think it's moving? If you can, you could do fixed-slit photography.
I don't know if you still read comments on this video, but you could drastically improve the contrast of the picture, if you would flock out the inside of your projector lense. They are very reflective but if you would use something like black 3.0 or other light absorber inside the lense, you would stop bouncing light in the lense and improve picture quality.
I saw the original video and was fascinated. Now thanks for giving us a more easy way and for the demonstration that the concept actually works. Im not an engineer but will try my own design now.
that is cool. for really cheap lenses that will increase your focal length options look at enlarger lenses. Several come in a ltm mount or m42 mount. really easy to adapt.
I picked up a 135, 105 and 55mm last month for playing with 4x5 film. Didn't spend more than 65 bucks for all three.
Such a smart workaround, I will absolutely try that, thank you :)
Really good idea as those lenses are quite literally made for the purpose of projecting a huge picture! And they come with apertures
wow! very impressive. wonder if a set up like this could be used as a digital back for a film camera?
Avery whens the next video?
@@SenpaiSkyy soon!!! hopefully within the next few weeks :333
@@AveryDelMiller Can't wait!
I wonder if similar setup could be used for light-field camera.
Hey great project - could you share more detail on how you controlled the intensity of the light source as well as how you turned it off during the scan? Attempting a build myself and have useful images but want to push it to have adjustment in the light source intensity and to turn the light source off many thanks!
I had implemented a mechanism that controls the light using a diy limit switch and potentiometer (I believe 0-50k ohm). There should be some information about the details in the comments already.
Wow. Awesome idea. Now I want to build my own hasselblad xpan like scanner camera.
I am so building one with my friend, thanks for open-sourcing it.
Love the artifacts
Very cool idea! Great design
Very cool. I wonder if the movement of the mechanism during capture is shaking the camera and affecting the sharpness of your image.
Thank you! Yes, that is very much a problem. I designed it in a way that allows vibration to travel to the sensor, which I only realized later.
A line scanner camera would have been perfect for indoors design photography and archival photography of painting etc..
Yooo, can't wait to see the progression of this!!
is there a followup to this this project? i wanna know more about the build process, can you please make a video detailing the building and hardware + software optimisation of the camera?
This is amazing for art photography
Interesting project, indeed. I've made a photo of my daughter once - long before I got my first digital camera - by using a black-and-white handscanner on a glass plate. By moving it up or down, I could indeed get a picture, but just as with your system, the object should be stationary (which my daughter tried, but still she appeared a little wobbly 😉). The scanner was connected by a parallel interface and gave dithered results, just to get the idea of the image quality in those days (I think Windows 95)...
That's so interesting. Very good attempt
What if you spun the sensor like in a Virtoal Boy or like the lighthouses for VR?
I suppose that would make it so you have to put the projector lens way forward and project the image onto something flat it could scan over... or do some serious correction in software?
Can the scanner be made to move faster? Or is it limited by the bandwidth of the machine itself? Ie could a motor be used to make it scan faster or is that pointless? Would be a cool design to have giant image areas for far cheaper than having a single solid image sensor
Nice build, but I would like to use the scanner system on a moving object (the sky with its stars) so I don't have to move the sensor relative to earth I just wait until the earth has captured a big enough portion of the sky. Should be possible in theory or did I miss something.
but noise will probably be a big problem, but if I'm honest the noise thing is a quite common problem for night sky and with tradtional cameras it is solved by taking many pictures. So maybe moving the sensor so that it scans the night slower than earths rotation would and so more time for the light to come to the sensor.
I believe linear sensors are also used to monitor conveyor belts, so it is definitely a thing. However, the maximum duration of a scan with my scanner is about 10 minutes, so you wouldn't be able to capture the whole night sky.
I suggest adding some stabilizer system because it is acting like really slow shutter speed ( not from the lens but from the natural movement of the device/wind/earth) or a super steady tripod
wow this is so amazing. i would love a follow up video with building instructions. i have access to PA 12 SLS printers if you need more precise parts and would love to support you.
Some cameras have this, like the Lumix S1, the sensor is 24Mp but they shift it for a 96Mp end result.
Awesome concept!
Can you share a little bit more about sourcing scanner? What should i look for? Will this work only with standalone flatbed scanners? Does backlight type matter? Are You capturing picture with laptop or with android over otg cable? Are all scanners ccd or should I avoid some types?
Keep it going! Amazing work
Awesome project! You should be able to fix the bokeh to by using a fresnel lens as an collimator!
wow ingenious design, maybe you can try to replace the projector lenses with maybe canon or nikon lenses for better image quality as those lenses aren't very expensive but can deliver superior photo quality, or maybe make it adapt into a microscope lenses for extreme macro photography, it should be easier to incorporate as it doesn't require any special mounts and is cheap as well. But idk i'm just spit balling on some ideas. But amazing design none the less! This would be amazing for astrophotography! might attempt to make one once the design is finished.
Thank you for the ideas. I am unsure if the camera would be able to capture the dim light of stars. You also can't make long exposure shots with this camera. But I will definitely test that at some point.
@@yunuszenichowski Just need a lens that is large enough. Like a liquid lens.
I'm also definily interested in the possibility of AP with this type of camera, will definitely be needing a star tracker since I'm not sure if this is fast enough to not have distortion from the slower exposure time.
Image stacking might help with the low light and the high res images could be an upside if it doesn't take a ridiculous amount of time to take a bunch of pictures to stack😅
@@Joshplv At a certain focal length, you just need the sensor stick, without the motor. You just let earth rotation do the swipe.
😁
wait, 2:57 - are you saying this camera captures IR by default? I'm wondering if it would be easy to emulate aerochrome with this camera. Is there raw output? Some people remove the IR filter that came with their digital cameras in order to do this.
Yes, it does capture IR. The scanner software has an option for .bmp
What if you use magnet-based engines for faster sliding?
Does a medium format lens cover the scanner sensor? Wouldn´t that be on the same page as a large format camera?
right, an 8x10" lens would make more sense. but either way to get reasonable images one would have to drop the DPI way down and even then it would only be useful for landscape photography.
You might check to see of vibrations and resonances are limiting your resolution
Would it be possible to use it for astrophotography? Or attached to a telescope?
Nic to see this is still being attempted although it doesn't seem like the problems we had ten years ago have been solved.
Hi Yunus, amazing work. I do take pictures but I'm afraid I know little about the sensor tech or the physics involved that makes digital cameras work. Do you reckon that it is possible to instead substitute the scanner sensor for say, a more purpose built, Pi HQ Sensor and attach it to a motion system and stitch the images. I wonder if M43 cameras use that approach to make "Super resolution" pictures, since the sensor is attached to a IBIS system and physically moves. Do you think that moving a Pi Sensor could be done with a design similar to yours / or is that feasible at all? Or would it be too shaky and introduce lots of motion blur or what challenges do you think that design might face?
I can probably answer some of these things.
I have a Pentax APS-C camera that makes use of the optical stabilization platform to take high-res images. I don't know how many other cameras do this.
The mechanics are a little different though -- the sensor is shifted around by just half a pixel. Some fancy computation is needed to create the resulting image, as the pixels in the four source images overlap each other.
Moving a cheap sensor in this way would be incredibly difficult, as you'd need to reliably be able to move it by only half a pixel. It would also mean that your resulting sensor area is still absolutely tiny, and the low amount of light captured would make it hard to take advantage of the increased resolution.
Scanning the sensor across the image (as in this video) probably wouldn't work very well either. Because the sensor is square, you'd need to scan in two dimensions - adding mechanical complexity and making each shot take longer. You'd also be getting much more data than you actually need, unless you're only using one row of pixels.
please we want the details about the project on the realization
The camera create one crazy vibe and artistic liberty for sure. The style it makes are unique but from the looks of it, quite hard to get a "Decent" imagine imo
Mate I want do this as well! Could you share a bit more about how you redesign the mechanic of the scanner?
I seem to remember kipkay doing something similar using an old parallel flatbed scanner.
Who knows, maybe the video got token down.
Great work! I interested about if the linear long enough it possible capture photo like the Xpan take the amazing panorama!?
Awesome project. Have you been standing on the Lange Brücke in Potsdam sometime in january? I think I may habe seen you there. I was wondering about that big camera. Funny how the UA-cam algorithm works!
That must have been me, such a weird coincidence :D
I think you need a telecentric lens. Telecentric lenses maintain a constant magnification over a certain range of object depths, which means that objects at different distances from the lens appear to be the same size. This property makes them particularly useful in machine vision applications, where consistent measurements are necessary, regardless of the object's exact position within the field of view.
This is interesting xoncept. Smart engineering
in my opinion this just looks like a way to take high res 80s 90s style images. theyre very beautiful
i am a simple man. i see forsen, i like the video
fantastic work..
This is amazing
Thank you so much :)
You live in Germany... Berlin? This is the first video I watched of yours. Really Good!
I was gonna say it's an awesome idea, why aren't there any consumer products like this. Then i remembered that my scanner took almost a minute to scan a picture (it did a double pass or maybe that was the software). And the result was "grainy" as if printed on woven fabric.
But I guess for detailed pictures of art or any other still live, it's pretty cool.
Have you considered building a rotary camera that rotates both the sensor and lens? Some 35mm camera lenses will cover this sensor at the widest part of their image circle, and that would provide an extremely sharp panoramic lens.
Pardon me, but why on earth would one want that sort of convoluted setup? The moving sensor thing in this case works specifically because it is very light, and still it is causing issues. Your idea would require a geared down stepper motor for the rotation I gather, but you'd have an issue with the focus at the edges of the image circle VS the center I think, so the top and bottom of the image would likely be both much dimmer, and have different focus than the center, one or the other being in focus but not both.
Also, I think I've seen long interval rotating mounts made for cameras pre-digital, I don't remember how they were set up but it would be easier not to have to fab the thing to test the idea.
Think more a simple linear camera that rotates about its' axis - the sensor is attached to the lens and the whole assembly rotates. Look up "slit camera" for the film version of this.
It obviously provides perspective distortion, but the tradeoff is unmatched resolution.
Alternately, if the camera were attached to a slider, the image could be captured without distortion as it sweeps from side to side. The lens is best at the center; why not move both?
@@noth606
How did you step down the gear on the scanner?
I got myself a Pentacon 420mm f3.6. Thought about buying a flatbed scanner to produce Gigapixel images. Would probably use once and then never again xD
Impressive, a scanner camera is something I've wanted to do for awhile now, I have been planning building it as a 4x5 back for a film camera. How much is directly pulled from the scanner, is it just the sensor or are the other electronics and movement system from the scanner retained? Looks to be mostly replaced, but it's hard to tell since I've never seen the guts of a v37 before. Standard scanning software or custom?
I essentially just removed the case of the scanner and reorganized all of the parts, required for the operation of the scanner, to fit in the camera form factor. You can look at it in detail in the 3d model.
It uses the standard software.
I wish you great success with your build!
How did you bypass the need for the lamp to initialize the scanner? I’m tearing apart an epson 1650 right now but can’t get the scanner to function unless the lamp is connected.
Hi @yunuszenichowski thank you for making this. I believe I am going to have few days of sleepless night about thinking what exactly CCD sensor you used to make 400+mp sensor.
I love taking long exposure photographs on my 8mp wide angle camera and later manipulate those pictures.
I see extremely amazing potential in such camera to create experimental long exposure photographs.
Would you be up to help me with your build guid, sensors and software?
If I have missed on your build blog on Hack-A-Day or something. Please do let me know.
Love from India and Genuinely appreciate your other work as well. Have a great day ahead.
Thank you so much! The resolution is this high, because it is a linear sensor, moving along some axis. This effectively results in an image of size sensor-pixel-count^2 or more, depending on how far the sensor moves. I was using the hardware from an Epson v37 scanner.
I would advise against building one, if you don't really want to. The information provided in the video and the 3d model, is absolutely not sufficient to quickly build one. You would have to figure out most things on your own.
I sadly didn't really finish the project, which is why there is no tutorial or anything. With a tutorial, it would be very easy to build one :/
@@yunuszenichowski thank you for your reply! Now I understand the megapixel part. This camera genuinely have great potential to take great experimental pictures, if printed can be sold as artworks ha ha.
I am kidding. But if you would like to take back and work on this project. I am up for helping you out with this project. Anyhow I can do it. But I would love to collaborate with you if you feel comfortable.
@@TheHitesh74 The reason I didn't continue to work on the scanner camera idea is that there is a huge bottleneck for how good and especially practical/usable the camera can be, due to the fact that it is basically an off the shelf scanner, packaged in a new enclosure with some hacks. For example, you have to keep a laptop attached, since it is still just a scanner.
Originally, I was interested in building a scanner camera from scratch, even designing the circuit boards, but then I realized how unattainable that goal was with the time I was willing to spend on it. So I just skipped that idea.
If you are by any chance a high speed circuit designer, then I would love to collaborate :)
Designing just a slightly refined scanner camera that is again based on some consumer scanner does not really interest me.
Very cool. It looks like still life images work really well…..thanks. Laurie. NZ. 😊
Hi, beautiful video and idea, i would love do build one of these and try it, how do i know the components? do you have a list of them? thx in advance
Hi, thank you :) Sadly I have not made any resources to help someone build this camera. The main reason was that It's just not a finished model. If you have a good amount of time and expertise with 3d printing and basic electronics, you should be able to build a camera like this with some research of your own and from the information I have provided in other comments. The unfinished 3d model of my camera could also be helpful as a starting point.
Awesome project!
May I ask you the width of the sensor pcb? I am designing a similar scanner back, but having difficulty in finding whether it is 12cm or 13cm. Thank you in advance.
I am not sure, but you can measure it in the 3d model.
@@yunuszenichowski I will have a look.. thank you again
@@hoonsikkim1115 your welcome! Good luck with your build!
I tried the same with epson junk scanner in over ten years ago. but i did not get good image. The image of your camera is very interesting still today. Thanks for your nice work.
Amazing. Interesting image.
what sbc is controlling the scanner board? rpi? nice work and finally i see a compact and clean version of these kinds of cameras
baj builds camera?
I'm looking for something like this but shoots video It's close to looking like HDVS
You should try to project the results of a telescope onto this as high mp images are one of the most important things when it comes to astrophotography.
Your over exposure issues would be a benefit there as well.
I wonder if there'd be a lot of star trails if you didn't have a star follower mount as the images are so long to take. It would be very cool to see!
@@Ruikesan Na likely not. At worse you may form a minor distortion because while yeah the image takes a while to produce the actual sensor is only over that area for a fraction of the time.
Me and my son regularly do basic astrophotography using our phones and the results are honestly amazing using stacking software. Had you told me when I was a kid I would be able to take an unmagnified image of Andromeda galaxy with any camera, let alone my phone, and see the arms of it clear as day I would have called you crazy. Hell... same goes for color on Orion nebula. The sensors in phones are ridiculously powerful and you couldn't reach these sensitivities without juicing your film with various special compounds first.
We only run into start trails around 30 seconds exposure unmagnified and when binoculars or a telescope is used roughly 8 to 10 seconds so i doubt it would be any issue at all.
Thank you for the suggestion. The scanner is really bad in low light, because by exposing every line sequentially, the lines themselves only have a short exposure time. It takes ~8 minutes for one high resolution picture, so stacking images would be difficult.
@@yunuszenichowski Yeah if thats the case you're probably right. Given the nature of a scanner it might just have some sort of single pixel camera or possibly a single line which it just builds the image that way instead of the normal squared sensors phone cameras have. I just knew phone's these days have crazy light capturing abilities compared to analog film of old and I was amazed when I started taking pictures using only the most basic setup with a phone of all things.
The camera may be cheap but a lens that can resolve more than 8 megapixels is quite unusually expensive. When I graduated to 4K cameras I found very few lenses could even resolve the full resolution of 4K.
i literarily need a glitchy camera like this. i dont even want the finished one. i just would kill for such authentic glitches it would be amazing for my art
Haha, I actually made this camera mainly for art class. There are much crazier images than the ones I showed in the video. It's especially interesting when motion is involved.
@@yunuszenichowski I can imagine I'm honestly quite jealous. You have insane talent
Post it somewhere else. GrabCad invasively requires full details for download of the images. I think I'm going to build one of these, just bought an Epson V33 scanner for AU$45 shipped on Facebook marketplace. It seems the only difference is that it uses a plugpack, whereas the V37 has an internal power supply. The V370 could also be used but it's newer thus more expensive.
I could send the files to you, if you hit me up on my email.
The v37 also uses an external power supply. I just cut the wire and connected it to a 2s lipo with dc voltage booster to keep the voltage at the required 13.5 volts (I think it was 13.5).
Please be aware, that this is not an easy project. You should be willing to spend lots of time on this. The 3d model is absolutely not enough to replicate the camera. It is really just intended to help designing your own (better) camera.
@@yunuszenichowski I did eventually join the GrabCAD site, so I have the files. But I can't figure out how to separate the components in FreeCAD (3D printer files would probably have been more useful). Anyhow, as you say, it's a starting point. I'm not worried about the complexity or time necessary to make this, I'm a retired electronics engineer. :-)
Edit: I managed to score an SMC Pentax-A 645 200mm F4 lens on ebay for AU$117.03 direct from Japan. Apart from this being half the normal price I feel it will do better than a projector lens. As a medium format lens this equates to a 124mm F2.5 on full frame. They're known to be a soft lens used mostly for portraits, should make some interesting images. There are quite a few for sale, in fact the seller I bought mine from has two more advertised at AU$108.90 including shipping. Local taxes may increase this a little, as it did when I bought mine yesterday.
Did you publish any info on the electronics and software?
Thanks for designing a cheaper and easy to fabricate version ^^
Are there more accessible scanners that would be easier to get? I was not able to find any listed for sale locally.
The only requirement for the scanner is to have a CCD sensor, but you would have to adapt the design, when using a very different model. However, I know that the v370 should definitely work. The v30 and v33 look like they have very similar designs as well.
I feel like I should mention this again. The 3d model is not complete and should only be used as inspiration for your own design. The camera is in fact designed quite badly, because I was under pressure to finish the project (there is a lot of double-sided sticky tape involved).
I have printed and assembled your design. However I’m running into a bit of an issue with the gear you used to drive the scanner. It doesn’t grab onto the belt nor does it sit firmly in the mount you made. Did you encounter this issue and how did you resolve it?
I tried to express clearly that it's not a finished model. There need to be 2 small bearings in the slit, and the gear has to be printed with a 0.2 mm nozzle. It's also extremely important to reinforce the gear shaft with a m3 screw. There should already be space for a threaded insert. I never tried to print the gear with a normal-sized nozzle, so it's nice to know that the smaller nozzle was actually necessary. I am sorry for causing trouble like that. If you have more questions/problems, you can contact me via email, y.zenichowski@gmail.com
@@yunuszenichowski yeah I understood that the design wasn’t finished but I’ve managed to figure out of modify almost everything else. I appreciate the help. I will print the gear with a .2mm nozzle. Do happen to know the part code for the bearing you used?
I will email you if I have any further questions thanks!!
@@will3346 I sadly can't give you any hint at the "right" bearings, because I would have to disassemble my camera to find out, just pick whatever fits. I used 2 to increase the vertical contact area with the shaft. There also is a major design flaw with the model that I only fixed after the video, the sensor has to be turned by 180º otherwise the image is mirrored and the color channels misaligned. Anyway, I am really happy that the video could inspire others to build one as well! That's awesome!
@@yunuszenichowski by pure coincidence I have already rotated the sensor by 180 degrees. However as I’m using a slightly different sensor from a V200 I’ll have to play around with it after assembly.
Where can I find/download the images shown in the video?
Did you use a scanner meant for smaller format photos? I really want to do something similar now. :)
Incredible work! I am wondering, how did you manage to eliminate the white light that all these scanners normally have internally?
Thank you. I did not eliminate it, since it is necessary for the calibration of the sensor. I used ribbon cable breakout boards to get access to the ground wire, which was then connected to a diy limit switch I made using a spring steel piece from the scanner and two screws, so that the light could only turn on in the home position.
@@yunuszenichowski Thank you so much for elaborating on that. Really clever integration. I bought an Epson V39 and hopefully I can reproduce your results with this scanner. I was thinking about adding a Nikkor lens for the optics. Thank you again!
Could u put it in another camera body,take everything out and screw it in
Why would it not be possible for someone to create a fast moving scanner sensor. One that swipes across within a second. Would require special software and maybe a modified scanner sensor that can capture thousands of lines in that second.
I have actually thought about something similar recently. There are sensors that can readout 7400 lines per second (and also very big ones with 17000). (maybe even low frame rate video recording could be enabled). The question is, how much light they would be able to capture...
Controlling them also does not seem to be that complicated. The camera could additionally be much more compact, if you design it from scratch without using a scanners' hardware. On the other hand, it would absolutely be more expensive, since you cannot profit off the affordability of mass-produced scanners. The upper mentioned sensors are alone ~€100 and ~€250.
This could revolutionize the scanning of negatives.
Why scan negatives, if you can just scan the scene directly :D
Fascinating
I do wonder how difficult it would be to attatch it to, say, an RB67 🤔 kind of like how they have those custom Instax backs
A project idea for me!
Very cool project! Did you have to disable the light that is normally used for regular reflective scanning?
Which is why, in the far far future, I will get a massive office scanner on a dolly, with a massive lens, to take some insane megapixel photos.
This is amazing.
Be interesting to see astrophotography with it. Stacked 500mp images would be crazy
Du musst das teil unbedingt mit ner besseren linse upgraden, das könnte so heftig sein
awesome video mane
bro that's insane. Now i'm feeling bad for trashing my old scanner.