Custom Camera Sensor question

[Zack Birlew]

Hey, everybody, I'm sure it would probably be overly expensive or impractical in some way but I was wondering if it might be possible to use spare sensors from current cameras to create a custom cluster-like camera solution for certain applications, like large format photography? I see "For Parts" sensors from Panasonic S1H, Nikon D800, etc. cameras and wondered if there might be a way to take those and hook them up to something like an array of Raspberry Pis or some other sort of DIY computer solution like that to make a custom one-click camera. I had thought about just using multiple stripped down cameras in such a scenario but there's so much stuff crammed inside cameras that I don't think the sensors could get close enough to each other to work for workable image crossover and overlap, however, if I could somehow extend the sensors out from the camera bodies or link several extracted sensors together by Raspberry Pi units or something, that, I would think could work.

I know it's probably just fun to think about as it would definitely require a lot of 3D printing design but if it could work that would be a neat DIY experiment! Really, from what I can see, the easiest thing would be if there were longer cables to connect the sensors to the camera body but I don't think those would be standard cables or long enough for this purpose. The reason I ask is because while the Fuji GFX100 series is nice, it's only slightly larger than Full Frame and Phase One is the only other company I know of making medium format sized sensors but those don't seem to be geared towards video (if video could work in this scenario) and I'm not sure anybody is working on a 6x7, 6x9, or larger format sensor. Thoughts?

 

[Phil Holland]

With enough time, funds, ingenuity, and resources anything is possible.

At the moment what has been done to go "large" is very large pixel sized cameras in the 8x10 and 9x11 format, there's also rather expensive large color sensors out there, but not what you'll be using. Tapping into a smaller format and macro lens or macro tilt/shift lens and filming the projected image, or going the ground glass method of yesteryear and also going that route.

If you are working with a bunch of these sensors in an array, you are into array filming and for stills essentially multi-camera panoramas, which is done today without ripping things apart. Stitching motion, high resolution motion, isn't for the feint of heart. I've been doing this for years and get called in rather regularly when things go haywire on productions that have big ambitions.

For stills it's a bit easier and parallax must still be tended to appropriately.

I am hoping we'll see proper 645 format within a body like the GFX or Hassy digital. Probably will see that in the next year or two. Right now those are only present in PhaseOne systems at this point. The GFX hasn't had the huge market success yet, but I did briefly investigate making a focal reducer for larger format optics. Unsure if the juice is worth the squeeze there.

Next 2-3 years will be pretty exciting on the still front IMO and these days those cameras will need to have some video features as well. By proxy, we'll have to see where this also takes us in cinema cameras as well. Still losing my mind over a VV sensor doing 8K 120 over here.