Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Re: [OM] OM to Digital

Subject: Re: Re: [OM] OM to Digital
From: Paul Wallich <pw@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 10:38:39 -0500
At 1:02 AM -0800 3/13/00, "Tom Scales" <tscales@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


All very good points.  I agree that a good 3 chip system would be preferred,
but I believe even the Nikon D1 is a single CCD. I know the new 3mp cameras
are larger, but still single, CCD.  I have to say, my Kodak DC265 takes
pictures of surprising quality, given its 'prosumer' bent and price (I paid
under $400 for it new).  My think was more experimentation.  Take something
like a Kodak DC215, 1200x800ish and see what we could do.  Maybe a 'working
model' would influence Olympus.  Probably not, but still an interesting
project.  Might just have to buy one on ebay and take it apart.

I think that ultimately the 3-chip systems will fall by the wayside because
of the obvious mechano-optical problems. Right now you only need to guarantee
registration within about 10 microns, and alignment over 1cm (for the video
versions) and the necessary piece of metal already costs $1000. You can do
some things with in-situ optical adjustments, but. I'm looking instead to
someone building a a single array with 3 sub-pixels for each point and an
etched dichro filter/microlens layer to direct the light properly onto each
sensor. (There is some very nice technology developed by the former Perkin
Elmer spy-satellite folks for etching arbitrary lenses and diffraction gratings
into an integrated-circuit layer, and I'm rather surprised it doesn't appear
to be in use.)

Of course this is all speculative, but that's a place where I could see
specially-designed lenses coming into play, because you would want the
light striking your array at a consistent pattern of angles (i.e. the
apparent aperture always at the same distance from the focal plane). I
have no idea what arrangement of elements would be needed to to that...


I know I'd need all the electronics, storage and power.  The power would be
the challenge, as it would need 4AA batteries.  A 'hollowed out' winder
seems like it work (just happen to have a broken Winder 1). I have several
CF cards, up to 64mb, which would hold almost 200 pics in the highest
resolution of the camera I'm thinking of 'sacrificing'.  The IBM Microdrive
would hold almost 1000 shots.  I don't know about you, but I'd be willing to
download to my laptop long before I reached 1000 shots.

Ok, this is all fantasy, given my lack of skills, but could be interesting.
One thing I need to do is measure the lens to CCD distance.  If the distance
is way off, it's never going to work.  That said, it seems like the
thickness of my 265 is about right.

I would suggest, for both cost and simplicity, that you see if you can find
a much simpler digicam to rip apart, preferably non-zoom and fixed focus. The OM, after all, is going to be doing all of the focus and exposure adjustment.
You might be able to get what you're looking for nearly free. Of course the
chip will cover maybe 1/10 the area of the film plane, but who knows, maybe
you could turn that into a shift lens.

paul

--
Paul Wallich                                            pw@xxxxxxxxx

< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz