guferr

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Nov 15, 2009
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Hi everyone.

I've worked on IT and hardware for more than 8 years, and i'm a photographer for more than 2 years.

I work primarily with analog photography and its chemistry, but i also work with digital cameras as well.

As i love to mess with hardware, i was wondering if i could adapt a CMOS/CCD sensor in my film SLR, which is a Nikon f-601, a relatively new camera (1993).

I was thinking in using a sensor at the mirror to start/end the exposure electronically (and read the data from the sensor), once the mirror recoils just before starting the mechanical exposure, and goes back just after it ends.

The sensor controller would then write the data to a ram memory, and copy it to a memory card from there, but without using any file system, it would just use a word (two bytes) in the beginning of the card as a index of the amount of photo slots used on the card, as each slot would have a fixed and known size.

I would then read the card on my linux, through a script using dd, to put the raw data from the slots in raw image files (such as CR2). I would then process it with RAW image processors and edit it with Gimp, as i usually do.

I've seen this camera http://unaligned.org/bigcam/ , and i thought i could do something like that, but it don't need to be that compact, and i already have the SLR body, and it even have the exposure meter, so all i have to care about is controlling the sensor to capture and read the data from it to store in the memory card, in separate slots.

I can use a cable to comunicate the system with the sensor, so only the sensor itself would be on the camera, i could put the rest inside my backpack.

So, anyone around here know where can i find a good full-frame digital sensor and a controller for it?

The system to read the data from the ram memory and write it on the memory card is easier to be made, as there's plenty of controllers for manipulating data on memory cards, but the system to control the sensor and the sensor itself seem harder to find.

Anyone can help me on this?

A 10MP full-frame sensor and it's controller would do fine.

Thanks.
 

guferr

Distinguished
Nov 15, 2009
2
0
18,510


That's not even a full-frame camera. I'm not going to buy anything less than a Canon 6D, i already have continuous access to t3i, t5i and some other nikon DSLRs, i don't need to buy an D 3200 (or any digital camera actually).

The costs doesn't matter, my only goal is to do it, i'm not looking for good results only, but mainly for the experience. And, i would be able to switch between digital and analog with this adaptation.

Thanks anyway.