Photographer Builds 3,200MP Camera Utilizing CCD Scanner Sensor

German pc engineer and builder Yannick Richter, who goes by Gigawipf on-line, constructed a brand new 3,200-megapixel 3D-printed medium-format digicam that depends on a linear CCD scanner. As Gigawipf describes it, the digicam, Project Gigapixel, is far more than only a scanner in a field, although.

This is just not the primary time a photographer has constructed a high-resolution digicam utilizing the CCD sensor from knowledgeable Epson flatbed scanner. Still, Richter argues that his mission is exclusive due to the reverse-engineering course of he used to make his DIY digicam extra sensible and higher-resolution than prior efforts.

Instead of merely placing authentic scanner {hardware} inside a digicam, Richter took the CCD from an Epson V-series 4800DPI scanner, reverse-engineered its timing protocol, wrote new software program, and changed a lot of the scanner’s elements with new ones purpose-built for photographic purposes. He additionally needed to make the CCD sensor work with a wholly new interface, which, as outlined within the video above, required important work.

At the center of the Project Gigapixel digicam is an enormous 12-line ILX561K CCD sensor, which captures high-resolution scans by constructing a picture one line at a time, bodily shifting the picture sensor alongside the scanning mattress because it goes. Granted, rolling shutter sensors, like those present in practically all mirrorless cameras, additionally construct photographs one line at a time, however a lot sooner than a scanner and never by bodily shifting the sensor itself.

Richter’s digicam naturally shrinks down the means by which the scanner’s CCD sensor strikes, but it surely nonetheless maintains excessive decision. The digicam can seize photographs as much as 80,000 x 40,000 pixels, or 3,200 megapixels (3.2 gigapixels), offered {that a} medium-format 6×7 lens is connected to cowl the massive picture circle. Richter says he makes use of Pentax Asahi 6×7 lenses as a result of they’ve totally handbook aperture management and are “comparably cheap for true medium format lenses.”

In pursuit of constructing this unimaginable scanner digicam extra like a conventional digicam, Richter gave his digicam a small CSI digicam mounted to the identical focal airplane because the CCD as a spotlight helper for stay view, added a touchscreen, constructed a consumer interface, put in an NVMe SSD, and wrote strong software program to offer management over scan decision, width, and settings.

In a post on Reddit, Richter, who goes by Ultrawipf as an alternative of Gigawipf on Reddit, commented that when capturing a full-resolution photograph utilizing his new digicam, it could actually take over half-hour for seize and encoding. However, it might turn into sooner if a Raspberry Pi limitation could be overcome. The full-size 3,200-megapixel photograph is about 19GB uncompressed. A preview scan, which is about 3,500 pixels tall, takes about 10 seconds.

As the feedback on Reddit’s Raspberry Pi neighborhood present, what Richter has completed right here is outstanding.

“This is insanely impressive. The level of engineering behind integrating a scanner CCD with a Pi 5 is wild,” says one Redditor. “Hats off to you for making it portable too.”

As anticipated, the sensible use instances for a digicam like this should not as diversified as a conventional digicam with a regular picture sensor. However, a large-format scanner digicam like this will seize exceptionally high-resolution photographs of stationary topics, like buildings, nonetheless life, and sure panorama scenes.

Richter says he needed to construct this digicam as a result of it’s a “unique and fun challenge,” and, so far as he is aware of, no different related mission has been completed from scratch.

“By interfacing the CCD controller directly, I get the raw data and can (have to) process it myself and can implement new modes like the linecam mode with the sensor standing still and control the movement directly for the preview cam,” the engineer explains.

In complete, his supplies prices got here to round €570, which, as Richter explains, is a far cry from what a contemporary 100-megapixel medium-format digicam prices. And 100 megapixels is method lower than 3,200.

The Project Gigapixel — Linear CCD Camera mission is detailed in full on Hackaday.

Image credit: Yannick Richter (Gigawipf). Richter additionally has a Patreon.