Hello everybody I just invented a film camera converter to digital

<p>Hello everybody, yesterday I completed my Wordpress website about the film camera conversion to digital.<br /><br />The project features a Raspberry Pi Zero connected to the new 8MP camera sensor, the camera board need the lenses to be removed and then you're set to go!...Plain and simple<br /><br />The sensor need to be placed exactly where the film should be and remember that all the pictures will be a bit blurry because of the small size of the sensor (mine are also worse because my sensor is pretty dirty).<br />At the moment is pretty hard for me to set the camera take picture and activate the sensor at the same time, this is also due to an hardware limitation (given by the rolling shutter which does not absorb all the light at the same time).<br>

Down here is the link to the website with some pictures taken. If you want some more info or if you think you can help me out in my step forward, which is connect a bigger sensor to the Pi, please don't esitate to contact me <img title="Wink" src="https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" /> <br /><br /><a href="https://flickfree.wordpress.com/">https://flickfree.wordpress.com/</a></p>

<p>This looks like an absolutely wonderful idea- just keep in mind that this has been done [twice!] before and neither attempt have made it into production.</p>

<p>have a looky here<br>

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/08/20/history-doomed-to-repeat-project-promises-digital-cartridge-for-film-slrs</p>

<p>I wish you the best, don't be discouraged as we have newer tech but keep in mind the limitations</p>

<p>Yeah I saw that and it is really sad, but I am pretty motivated in this.<br>

The old projects were amazingly expensive and they started from scratch, while my idea is based on a cheap, easy to use Raspberry Pi interface.<br>

The project that I made is very cheap (30-35 USD). I think that a good APS-C sensor can be found for 100-150 dollars if bought in bulk quantities. In this months I set an appointment with some electrical engineers in order to understand how to connect a bigger sensor to the Pi, I hope I will receive good news. I believe that this project needs to be done despite the price and the effort.<br>

I really believe in the camera conversion beside the commercial potential and I do not doubt that maybe I could also make it available as an open source project, all depends about the costs (which are really hard to calculate in this industry).<br>

Stay tuned for more news!</p>

<p>Cheers,<br>

Francesco</p>

<p>Best of luck Francesco!<br>

Personally I did bite the bullet on the used market, after & besides dabbling with Japanese digitals, but still there seems a lot of gear that might be nice to convert somehow.<br>

Spontanously I'm wondering what would be options to use the Raspberry stuff you mentioned with Super 8 / Single 8 leftovers. - Those old movie cameras seem no longer overly expensive and are the smallest format I am aware of in the film world, so maybe they'd fit that camera module somehow? - If you really go open source I'd say a 8mm conversion might be essential dabbling to gain confidence towards more expensive homebrew projects.<br>

Others aimed at Leica conversions before. - Huw Finney left traces here on photo.net 11 years ago. Konost.com are planning to build their DRF from scratch.<br>

The big issue will most likely not only be that a somewhat shooting film Leica is still at least 200 Euro, if not way more, these days and has to be destroyed for the conversion hack by for example removing the flap with the film pressure plate to attach something digital, maybe the same way as the original base plate or by utilizing the tripod mount.<br>

Once you get a sensor mounted behind the Leica wide, you'll notice that an average sensor is behind too thick filter stack to shine there. - Enough folks blogged about Leica lenses on original Sony Alpha and there is a US$ 500 thin filter conversion offered for these cameras too.<br>

Any DIY sensor placing will very likely include an allignmnet challenge. - How much precision is needed to place an APS C sensor within the focal distance of even a 50mm f3.5 to keep the RF aligned and usable? Now redo the math for an f1.4 lens and figure out how to get it done.<br>

Everything said so far boils down to: Wager camera between 200 and 1700Euro. Buy 300+x Euro of electronics add custom 3-D printed bit attempt to assemble and get kind of frustrated?<br>

BTW: how to get fitting framelines into your VF system?<br>

Right now a film body like M7 is more expensive than the digital M8. The latter has flaws but seems at least likely to work (for a while) and once it fell finally apart Leica will offer you a nicely priced refurb of something more modern.<br>

Anything that looks "Leica" shouts "expensive". So for garage hacks and dabbling I'd way more happily work on the other end of the camera rainbow. - I'd love to own a digital converted beat up FED 2 looking crummier than even my work pants and threadbare shirts.<br>

Or why not work on old film SLRs? Some had exchangeable backs so there will be no damaging needed and its appealing to own a converted one to get old manual lenses focused manually. If the focusing screen is removable one could even mask it for a small sensor.<br>

Another fun project even adding value to existing kits would be taking an APS C sensor accepting the challenge of aligning it and making it fully moveable to dive into something like view camera photography with given heriatge lenses and hopefully not too much technical effort.<br>

Upon camera module upgrading: keep in mind that every sensor is different and not very many photographers are good at profiling their color rendering entirely from scratch.</p>

<p>That is a really nice answer, full of suggestions and I love it!</p>

<p>Actually you are absolutely right about 8mm I was just looking about it the other day but I found only 8mm video cameras is that normal?<br>

About the Braun Paxina that I am using, that is just because it does not contain electronics at all and it is very large on the inside, the sensor that I am using contains a connector that is pretty bulky so it offered a good workplace for the first moments of the project. Sure that would not be possible to convert even with a 35mm sensor because it will have a massive crop in the original film size.<br>

About the Leica part you still right, however my idea is to offer every owner of an old film camera (especially 35mm) the possibility to convert their camera to digital not just Leica or rangefinders. The point of the project is not to make people sell their DSLR buy old SLR and convert it, but it is just like "Hey you! do you know that you can turn digital your old 35mm Canon for just 200USD ?".<br>

Talking about the APS-C, that is a big bet. APS-Cs are for sure great sensors they have big pixels and decent price. What I actually wanted to do was to place them where the film should be, this will lead to a crop in the final picture but I think it is worth the price. My project is not about a perfect conversion (for that people can buy digital backs) but is to make people able to turn all their old camera to something new which they can use and from which they can take beautiful picture. It is unlikely that it would be used in professional scenarios.<br>

For the placement of the sensor I wanted to use a mechanism that can 3D printed, and features something like a plastic screw which will keep in position the sensor without damaging the camera.</p>

<p>P.S. As I wrote on the website I don't own a Leica, but are you sure that the film pressure plate is not removable? because in the two cameras that I used they can be easily removed and placed back without any tool.</p>

<p>Again thanks for the answer I really appreciated it<br>

Francesco</p>

 

<p>I did a bit of reading up upon 8mm movie camera conversions. Placing the sensor properly is one problem. Stripping stuff from the original camera another. Its not just the shutter unit but also the in many times already automatic aperture. + <em>Lower end movie-zooms seem horrible for anything beyond youtube</em>. So you might be best of with a broken older camera (1950s?) with 3 primes in a revolver and manual aperture setting.<br>

Spotting movie cameras seemed easy on ebay.de & .com - I searched for super 8 kamera / camera. - No clue how the older split 16mm film based format was called in English. <br>

Anyhow: maybe the project (Super 8 conversion) isn't the brightest idea, considering how much lens making must have improved since those days.</p>

<p>Yeah I did a bit of research too, sems like there are some "spy cameras" that have a 8*11mm film. I think I am going to convert them so as I can actually gain more trust on the topic (as you said).</p>

 

<p>Yep- you can get some pretty cheap Minox cameras, they'll probably be higher quality and cheaper than many others you can find</p>

<p>I just checked my M3: the rear flap is obviously meant to be user removable (similar as SLR backs that could be exchanged against time & date stamping or Polaroid versions). I'm not confident about removing the pressure plate though. In LTM Leicas the pressure plate is part of the body, not removable for view through the lens. I have no clue how easily hackable a Minox would(n't?) be, since neither the film compartment cover nor the film cassette include a pressure plate there. And the brand retained value quite well (at least when I checked last time). - For a serious mod I'd try to get hold of either a Minox A or B, to get a faster lens than in the EC and no hassle with the automatic shutter of the C or LX. But still: some movie camera with primes might be way cheaper and due to it's size easier to work inside.</p>

<p>Thanks again for the answer!</p>

<p>About the plate is really sad, but it still work for all the other cameras so maybe I can try to build a CAD 3D printable back that would make the sensor fit inside the Leica. <br>

Thanks again for the help you are a great resource for me !</p>