Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Camera For Computational Photography
David Orenstein writes "Stanford Computer Science researchers are developing Frankencamera, an open source, fully programmable and finely tunable camera that will allow computational photography researchers and enthusiasts to develop and test new ideas and applications — no longer limited by the features a camera manufacturer sees fit to supply. Disclosure: The submitter is a science writer for Stanford and wrote the linked article."
This looks promising. But optics being optics. a version with swings & tilts would be really exciting for landscape/architectural/product photographers.
And what exactly do you mean by *good* camera stuff? I mean, not everyone needs (or wants) 12 megapixel full-frame sensors. For the vast majority of (not-professional) shooting, the sensors in DSLRs these days are overkill.
Personally, I'd rather have a point and shoot in my pocket (meaning I can actually use it) versus a super-expensive DSLR that always gets left at home due to bulk or concerns about damage.
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
Well, it also might have a lens larger than a few square millimeters.
Because an open source phone would most likely have open source, easily upgradable circuits so you could add the devices yourself and KNOW they will work. You could even make your OWN devices and hook them up to it, then write your own driver and have them configurable just like everything else built into the camera.
People who have reason to believe that they will want to both take pictures AND be somewhere that cannot obtain GPS data at the same time. Like inside of a cave, or a large reinforced concrete building (such as those in which many photo studios are located).
I'm pretty sure that covers virtually everyone, and I'm also pretty sure that the timekeeping chip from a $10 digital wristwatch would pretty well do the trick.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Ermm, Just where, exactly, is the source? Links to CAD designs, specs, software, etc? As far as following the Stanford links is concerned, I can't see how this project can be labeled "Open Source" without this...
and then everyone views and prints photos using only 2mpx, so what's the point?
I once saw a picture which had been taken with a film camera which used 4'x4' film. It was a spectacular shot, looking at the result (which was the size of the wall it was on), I couldn't even tell that it was a photograph, because it looked just like a painting.
Of course, it's worth noting that paintings have horrible resolution.
The point is: resolution doesn't matter. You can go out of your way to produce something which is incredibly "sharp", but once it goes beyond a certain point, it doesn't matter anymore.
No problem, the newer cameras usually have much better optics now, and all you need to do is to set the resolution to a lower setting than the cameras maximum. Most cameras have at least 3 quality settings which only adjust the resolution but still gives you the use of the rest of the improvements over your (presumably) old one. Not saying you should rush out and buy a new camera, just that their is hope when you have to replace the one you now have for some reason. The new camera will also allow you to have the larger format when you need it for that one shot when you just want it to be perfect and to scale to the highest resolution your monitor will handle for a desktop background... etc.