[HN Gopher] Open source USB C camera with C mount lens, MIPI Sen...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Open source USB C camera with C mount lens, MIPI Sensor, Lattice
       FPGA, USB 3.0
        
       Author : picture
       Score  : 443 points
       Date   : 2022-12-17 00:44 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.circuitvalley.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.circuitvalley.com)
        
       | Existenceblinks wrote:
       | Hot. I hope the year of modular phone will come so I can pick up
       | a decent sensor for a budget phone for my mom instead of $1200+
       | with a less than an inch of sensor!
        
         | semi-extrinsic wrote:
         | Looks like you can get e.g. a Xiaomi 11T Pro for $425 on
         | Amazon. You can't do much better than that for a mobile camera
         | sensor (Isocell GN2), and I can't imagine any modular phone
         | that will be cheaper once you've upgraded the camera.
        
       | artificialLimbs wrote:
       | Fantasic work.
       | 
       | Thank you.
        
         | circuitvalley wrote:
         | I am the Developer behind this camera. Happy to answer any
         | questions you have regard this project.
        
           | jhallenworld wrote:
           | Nice project! I've used Crosslink-NX and Cypress FX-3 on
           | various MIPI camera projects as well. Did you notice that
           | Radiant does not control the timing of the data from the
           | mixel hardmacro to your FPGA logic? (click on one of the pins
           | in the physical viewer to see this). I ended up adding a ring
           | of flip-flops and physically locking them near the top edge
           | of chip to get consistent timing.
           | 
           | Looking at code: why are you not using the byte aligner built
           | into the hardmacro?
        
             | circuitvalley wrote:
             | FPGA ISP i am using with this project is improved version
             | of ISP that i made for lattice machxo3 FPGA , those FPGA
             | like most FPGAs do not have any MIPI hard PHY. If you want
             | to port this ISP to Xilinx you would not find hard PHY in
             | many FPGAs and you would need a byte aligner. That is why
             | Byte Aligner was implemented and left enabled in there for
             | the sake of portability to other FPGA it does not hurt
             | (except for may be very very small performance in very edge
             | case or some FPGA resource consumption).
             | 
             | I had many issues with Crosslink NX part. I never
             | specifically got/or noticed the issue you have mentioned.
        
           | icelancer wrote:
           | How can we get USB-C (or USB3) connectivity with 720p@240fps?
           | The IMX477 theoretically can do this but due to 2 lane
           | limitation on the Jetson and the RPi this is infeasible (plus
           | write speeds saturate bandwidth, but you can dump frames to
           | DDR RAM first).
           | 
           | Have had a ton of problems trying to figure this out.
        
             | circuitvalley wrote:
             | 720p@240FPS would be little hard because of limitations on
             | the USB controller side. because of 100Mhz and 32bit limit
             | you have possibility of only 400Mbytepersecnd and with few
             | % overhead you have may be get around 200 FPS of color UYV
             | image. if you are ok without colors then you can get to
             | 400FPS @ 720p
        
               | DoingIsLearning wrote:
               | > 720p@240FPS would be little hard because of limitations
               | on the USB controller side.
               | 
               | What would be the theoretical limit of the sensor itself?
               | 
               | Could you extend the project to work as a high speed
               | camera? Perhaps using a Firewire ip core implementation
               | instead of USB?
        
               | circuitvalley wrote:
               | There are only few options, 1. Use USB controller Chip
               | that support 10Gbit or more. 2. Use 10Bit or more
               | ethernet, Optical or copper. 3. Use PCIe 4. Use onboard
               | storage. 5. Use HDMI or something custom and have another
               | receiver (They are called frame grabber and everybody
               | hate them).
               | 
               | Right now there are not many controllers on market that
               | can do more than 5Gbit
               | 
               | Most useable solution is to use Ethernet , I would say
               | optical.
        
       | blagie wrote:
       | I was looking for a "Buy" button. I didn't care about the other
       | stuff. I wish there was one.
       | 
       | I have a bunch of industrial cams, which are pretty similar and
       | pretty good, but open design would be huge for what I do. What I
       | want:
       | 
       | - Quality 1080p capture at 30fps (25 is fine too)
       | 
       | - USB Webcam
       | 
       | - C-mount
       | 
       | - Compressed output, so I can connect a few without saturating
       | USB
       | 
       | ELP makes many modules like this, and they're <$100 and work
       | well. Other brands do too, which have been a mixed bag.
        
         | DoingIsLearning wrote:
         | > ELP makes many modules like this, and they're <$100 and work
         | well.
         | 
         | Slight off topic but do you have any recommendations on cameras
         | with motorized focus that can be controlled electronically? For
         | example with OpenCV's CV_CAP_PROP_FOCUS flag?
        
       | imiric wrote:
       | This looks wonderful!
       | 
       | I wish it could be mass produced, with some minor polish. I would
       | throw money at it instantly. If the author is reading this, have
       | you considered crowd sourcing it? It's great that everything is
       | open source, but putting one together is above my skill level.
       | 
       | I'm desperately looking for a hackable webcam that isn't a huge
       | privacy risk. Adding network connectivity to this project
       | probably wouldn't be a large endeavour.
        
         | Xeoncross wrote:
         | Actually, is there any open webcam for home use that doesn't
         | seen all the recordings to some 3rd party? I'm interested too.
        
           | teraflop wrote:
           | There are plenty of cheap-ish commodity cameras that use
           | ONVIF to stream video over a LAN. That by itself doesn't
           | _guarantee_ that they aren 't also exfiltrating the data
           | somewhere, but you can put them on a firewalled VLAN.
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | you can make a webcam from a raspberry pi (a case is harder)
           | 
           | or you can plug in one or more usb webcams, some of which
           | have good cases.
        
           | wiml wrote:
           | Some of the random-commercial-thing-from-China home security
           | cams have open-source replacement firmwares.
        
         | circuitvalley wrote:
         | I am the Developer behind this camera. Camera as is not very
         | productionable because of manufacturing related issues.
         | 
         | There will be Third revision of this camera coming in few
         | months. I am working on absolute new hardware with lots of
         | improvement in image quality.
        
         | AceJohnny2 wrote:
         | At a guess, this would likely cost in the high-hundreds to
         | thousands of dollars if "mass" produced.
         | 
         | "mass" production is _really_ expensive, as you have to add
         | design-for-manufacturability and design-for-testing, and
         | account for yield loss and customer support (how happy would
         | you be if your expensive camera appeared DOA?).
         | 
         | At that price-point, are there other devices on the market that
         | already fulfill the need?
         | 
         | > _Adding network connectivity to this project probably wouldn
         | 't be a large endeavour_
         | 
         | lol
        
           | circuitvalley wrote:
           | I am the Developer behind this camera. If you buy from mouser
           | and try to make just 1 then Only part would be around 200
           | USD. If you make hundred in bath of new improved hardware,
           | You can look at BOM cost under 100 USD. I am working on new
           | version of this camera with totally new enclosure and PCBs as
           | well. You will be able to buy this soon enough.
        
             | zachallaun wrote:
             | Where can we follow the development of this new project?
        
             | moffkalast wrote:
             | The real question is, how much better is the end result
             | compared to the Pi HQ camera that sells for half as much?
        
           | exar0815 wrote:
           | That depends how stretchable your price point is. I can
           | greatly recommend Basler cameras from my endeavours with
           | those at work, complete C/C++/Python SDK and extremely
           | thoroughly documented. USB and IP, HFR and High Resolution.
           | 
           | After working with cheapish cameras before, I won't ever look
           | back.
        
           | britneybitch wrote:
           | > At that price-point, are there other devices on the market
           | that already fulfill the need?
           | 
           | No there aren't. Webcams in 2022 all have miniscule
           | lenses/sensors paired with decade-old tech and none of the
           | big players seem interested in producing anything higher
           | quality.
           | 
           | https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/
           | 
           | If you want high-quality video capture, your options are
           | pretty much just (1) plug in a "real" $$$$ DSLR/mirrorless
           | camera which will be fiddly and prone to overheating, or (2)
           | use a cell phone as an IP camera, which will add noticeable
           | latency and is still a tiny sensor compensated for by AI.
           | 
           | If this was for sale fully assembled I'd easily spend a few
           | hundred on it. I don't care about networking, just give me
           | plain old USB.
        
             | Gordonjcp wrote:
             | You could probably pick up those big old Cisco video
             | conferencing cameras, which take 12V power, emit up to
             | 1080p video over HDMI (which goes into whatever generic
             | HDMI capture card you have) and are controlled over RS232
             | using Sony VISCA commands.
             | 
             | The cameras themselves aren't especially "hackable" but
             | then they don't need to be, because everything going in and
             | out is extremely well-documented.
        
             | mdorazio wrote:
             | Yeah, no, you don't need a DSLR. A point and shoot with a
             | good sensor is more than enough. My Sony RX100 runs all day
             | without issue and acts as a fantastic webcam via a cheap
             | HDMI to USB adapter. Total cost used < $500.
        
               | jjeaff wrote:
               | I use an entry level mirror less DSLR, the canon M50. And
               | I think it was about $350 and it can connect directly via
               | USB.
        
             | AceJohnny2 wrote:
             | Consumer webcams aren't the only class of device that you
             | can plug into computers to capture images/videos.
        
             | happyopossum wrote:
             | > or (2) use a cell phone as an IP camera which will add
             | noticeable latency
             | 
             | You can use them directly via USB using Camo or OBS - no IP
             | needed, and that changes the latency equation.
             | 
             | Also, the new iOS continuity webcam feature is essentially
             | zero latency - it's better than my good webcams.
        
             | bryanlarsen wrote:
             | >> At that price-point, are there other devices on the
             | market that already fulfill the need?
             | 
             | > No there aren't.
             | 
             | There are tons of cameras that meet this need. They're
             | "machine vision" or "scientific" cameras, google for those.
             | Edmund Scientific has a good selection. They're
             | ridiculously expensive for what you get if you're comparing
             | against a webcam or a surveillance camera since they're
             | very similar to those for >10x the price. That's the price
             | of low volume assembly, proper support, et cetera.
        
               | IshKebab wrote:
               | That's also the price of selling to a market that can
               | afford to spend gazillions on crap cameras.
        
               | mumumu wrote:
               | Astronomical cameras and microscope cameras are
               | affordable. Some of them mm support sensors that uses
               | them even supports Sony's proprietary protocol.
               | 
               | A lot of sbc boards support MIPI CSI (iirc even RPI).
               | Nvidia robotic modules has IO for Sony's LVDS (driver not
               | provided though).
        
             | maxgashkov wrote:
             | If your need is video conferencing, relatively recent
             | 'insta360 link' is _very_ good. I've ditched my
             | mirrorless+HDMI setup in favor of it and haven't seen any
             | drop in quality.
             | 
             | Companion app is pretty shit though, but they seem to be
             | working on it.
        
             | opencl wrote:
             | You can buy an IMX477 board with CSI output and a CSI->USB
             | board, ~$100 combined.
             | 
             | Not _quite_ a fully assembled solution but all you have to
             | do is screw the two boards together with a few standoffs.
        
               | icelancer wrote:
               | For example (I just emailed Arducam about this):
               | 
               | The IMX477/R sensor supports Full (16:9) Binning 1080P @
               | 2028(H) x 1128(V) with 240hz/fps availability in a drive
               | mode. However, no IMX477/R package I've ever found -
               | including those from Arducam - support a CSI->USB board
               | or similar that can drive this mode, only allowing 100
               | FPS maximum on most packages. (ex:
               | https://www.uctronics.com/arducam-high-quality-complete-
               | usb-...)
               | 
               | I am looking to buy a product involving the IMX477/R
               | sensor that can drive this mode or similar 240 FPS modes,
               | but cannot find it for the life of me despite the
               | datasheet openly supporting this drive mode.
        
               | fps-hero wrote:
               | Forget the USB boards, they all work to the best of the
               | USB / UVC limitations but they aren't great. You want to
               | hook your camera sensor up to a processor with a CSI
               | input.
               | 
               | Image sensors are really just high speed ADC clocking out
               | data, whether the data is useful or not is up to the
               | viewer. What I'm getting at is forget FPS and think data
               | rates.
               | 
               | So, you need a processor that is that can handle that
               | data rate. The napkin math says 2K@240FPS has the same
               | data rate as 4K@60FPS. All you need is a processor or
               | module that can handle it and you're golden. There are
               | demos of the RPI pushing 1000fps (at a significant lower
               | resolution) but you get the point.
               | 
               | Off the top of my head, NVIDIA jetson, imx8m mini plus,
               | the latest allwinner V series, and a whole host of
               | unobtainable in less than 10k qty parts all supported
               | this. The rest is up to you.
               | 
               | Also, RPi is out even with 4 lanes because the CSI input
               | doesn't support the speed required on each lane.
        
               | ipsum2 wrote:
               | You seem knowledgeable in this area. Do you know how
               | image sensor support works? Can you attach any camera
               | with CSI to the SBCs that you listed?
        
               | icelancer wrote:
               | I haven't had a lot of success in this regard. Do you
               | have any links I could review to do this?
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | 542458 wrote:
             | There is another option: You can buy relatively high
             | quality PTZ cameras designed for low-end broadcast (HoW and
             | legislative mostly). Some will output to USB, at the higher
             | end you'll need to capture SDI, NDI, or 2110.
             | 
             | I have a coworker with this setup and it's easily the best
             | video quality I've ever seen on a teams call even in his
             | fairly dark room.
        
               | tjoff wrote:
               | A much much more expensive option?
               | 
               | PTZ is really nice but for normal webcam use doesn't add
               | much.
        
               | coryrc wrote:
               | PTZ = pan tilt zoom
               | 
               | SDI is
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface
               | 
               | NDI and 2110 are video-over-IP standards.
               | https://renewedvision.com/blog/guide-to-video-standards-
               | sdi-...
               | 
               | HoW I can't figure out.
        
               | phinnaeus wrote:
               | House of Worship maybe
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | > low-end broadcast (HoW and legislative mostly)
               | 
               | I like how the original comment was kind of slagging HoW
               | and legislative to the lower realms of quality. For the
               | most part, that's going to be true, but there's
               | definitely edge cases. I run in weird circles having
               | grown up in HoW production and moving into cinematic
               | production. One of the megachurches in town is one of
               | Sony's flagship install locations. They always have the
               | top end equipment that even some production houses can't
               | get yet. The amount of money that flows through these
               | places is flabbergasting. Their control rooms are better
               | equipped than some of the live sports trucks I've been
               | in. The only thing they are missing is the crew of slo-mo
               | operators. They have a couple of seats for shaders, they
               | have chyron ops, they have technical director, director,
               | multiple sound boards (one for record, one for stage, one
               | for broadcast), and just an incredible amount of gear
               | overall. Yes, this is said from a state of jelly.
        
               | jtbayly wrote:
               | There are a number of churches like this in the USA, yes.
               | 
               | But before anybody freaks out too much, it's probably
               | worth pointing out that the median church size is 75
               | people.
        
               | biomcgary wrote:
               | I'm curious what the median church "experience" is of
               | those that attend. One could imagine a single 50 million
               | member church and two churches of 75, which would lead to
               | a median church size of 75 but a median experience of 50
               | million fellow congregants.
        
               | 542458 wrote:
               | Wasn't try to slag HoW at all[*]! Just a lot of cheap
               | broadcast PTZs are built with more price sensitive
               | customers in mind, who often come from legislative,
               | corporate or house of worship. You can absolutely find
               | high-end sophisticated productions in all those fields,
               | but the field also has much more of a low-end (both in
               | terms of cost and in terms of production complexity) than
               | you'll normally find in most more traditional broadcast
               | verticals.
               | 
               | * I actual have a love for HoW as a vertical because
               | they're much more willing to try wild or experimental
               | things with their production since they often have a
               | greater tolerance for things going wrong and often have
               | entire days of downtime between shows to tinker. This is
               | probably part of why they're a Sony flagship -
               | willingness to run beta software! I know of at least one
               | other vendor who has churches as beta testing sites...
        
               | zerocrates wrote:
               | I think in this context it's "house of worship."
        
               | joshspankit wrote:
               | I'd ask you to find and share the model number they used,
               | but I feel like it would be OOS by the time I remembered
               | to look, then come back at 3-6X the price.
        
               | demuxxed wrote:
               | https://www.photo4less.com/product/bzgear-ptz-full-
               | hd-1080p-...
               | 
               | The "professional video" category has quite a few
        
               | spockz wrote:
               | The insta360 sells at about EUR300-350 including VAT.
               | This is $1000 EX.
               | 
               | Is the video quality that much better? Or is there some
               | other feature that justifies the price?
        
               | jtbayly wrote:
               | > is there some other feature that justifies the price?
               | 
               | Physical lens zoom on most of those, with decent lens
               | sizes, but that's not that helpful for a Zoom call,
               | unless you've got a very weird setup.
        
               | 542458 wrote:
               | A lot of PTZ cameras have fairly large sensors compared
               | to webcams or phones, and unlike a phone or DSLR they're
               | designed to be operated continuously so they shouldn't
               | overheat.
        
           | wmf wrote:
           | If you just want a working camera, there are tons of
           | industrial USB cameras on the market but probably all of them
           | are proprietary.
           | 
           | If you want an open source and open hardware camera there's
           | nothing on the market AFAIK. Of course when people discover
           | that open source costs 10x more than proprietary they are
           | usually no longer interested.
        
             | formerly_proven wrote:
             | Industrial USB cameras use either USB3vision or proprietary
             | protocols and are deeply cursed either way. They're very
             | much on the other end of the spectrum from UVC plug and
             | play.
        
               | mikepurvis wrote:
               | Hasn't been my experience working with ximea, point grey,
               | and realsense-- all these cams are at least some degree
               | of plug and play on Linux. Obviously you end up with the
               | vendor SW if you want more control over the shutter or
               | something, but basic video stream capture is pretty
               | universal.
        
               | tinco wrote:
               | Same, it pretty much worked without a fuss, we did a cool
               | proof of concept demo where we used it to auto target a
               | gimbal on a drone using an nvidia jetson running ubuntu.
               | We got the entire software stack working together within
               | a day or so, linux just picked up the industrial camera
               | without a problem, but getting more control over its
               | output required some more work. There's a whole little
               | industry standard for high res video streams over gigabit
               | ethernet or usb 3 that the vendors have published
               | libraries for you can just link in your C++ project.
        
         | ChuckMcM wrote:
         | Consider the OpenMV[1] camera, I have several of these and find
         | them very useful for everything from simple vision control for
         | robots to automated face detection. I turned one into a license
         | plate reader and had it identify plates that drove down my
         | street. All very versatile.
         | 
         | [1] https://openmv.io/products/openmv-cam-h7-plus
        
           | wmf wrote:
           | OpenMV seems to be targeting completely different use cases
           | where the image never leaves the camera (because OpenMV
           | doesn't have any usable I/O to get video out of the board).
        
         | mhb wrote:
         | _I 'm desperately looking for a hackable webcam that isn't a
         | huge privacy risk_
         | 
         | RPi is no good for that? If they are available.
        
         | beambot wrote:
         | The OpenCV OAK series of cameras are fun to play with:
         | https://store.opencv.ai/
        
         | fellowmartian wrote:
         | There's no way stuff like this will ever be mass produced, but
         | it's actually not _that_ difficult to assemble this.
         | 
         | You'd need:
         | 
         | - Find components from Mouser/DigiKey/etc
         | 
         | - Order PCBs w/ a stencil from JLCPCB/PCBWay
         | 
         | - USB-C Mini Hot Plate
         | 
         | - Pinecil/TS100/TS101 soldering iron w/ a set of fine tips
         | 
         | - Soldering paste, regular solder, flux, IPA, old tooth brush,
         | magnifying glass w/ light
         | 
         | - Steady hands
         | 
         | Then you apply solder paste over the stencil to the top side
         | with all the chips, put components on, and reflow on the hot
         | plate. You solder the rest of the components on the back with
         | soldering iron and flux.
         | 
         | Overall the whole set is gonna cost you ~300 bucks (provided
         | the components are not crazy expensive). But you'll have a
         | pretty advanced electronics setup AND an open-source camera.
        
           | circuitvalley wrote:
           | I am the Developer behind this camera. I have assembled
           | cameras the exact way you have described. If you buy from
           | mouser and try to make just 1 then Only part would be around
           | 200 USD.
        
             | nimish wrote:
             | Would be great to see this n a crowdsupply campaign.
        
             | amelius wrote:
             | I was wondering about this comment on the article:
             | 
             | > IMX335 is also MIPI CSI sensor, So it can be added, I
             | just did a quick search and found sensor itself is not
             | available for purchase but you can buy IMX335 based cameras
             | pretty cheap and get camera sensor out of it.
             | 
             | Do you desolder the sensor (and how would you do that)? Or
             | does the sensor still needs to be on its original PCB?
        
           | TaylorAlexander wrote:
           | I have done lots of fine pitch SMT hand assembly at home with
           | stencils etc. But I do see this has lots of BGA chips and I'm
           | not sure how easy those are (I've never done them).
        
             | joshspankit wrote:
             | BGA seems scary, but it's not bad: with the proper amount
             | of solder it "self-aligns" just like any other SMD
             | component. Even a little _more_ precisely because of all
             | the contact points.
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | AFAIK, reflowing a BGA chip without fucking it up is
               | difficult without a temperature-controlled reflow
               | station.
        
               | circuitvalley wrote:
               | Soldering BGA is the easiest part, You just need good
               | hotair. While soldering connectors are hardest. They melt
               | , do not self alging and many other problems
        
         | joshspankit wrote:
         | I wonder if it could be adjusted so that it can be ordered
         | assembled through a place like JLCPCB. Then you could get the
         | PCBs, order your choice of 3D printed enclosure, add the lens,
         | assemble it and be done.
        
       | lnsru wrote:
       | Fantastic open source project. I was involved in similar
       | development a decade ago. The camera was in development hell will
       | 1.6 million EUR wasted. There were permanently changing product
       | managers, project managers and contractors. No end in sight. And
       | nowadays somebody publish their million euro development on
       | GitHub. Thank you!
        
         | ChuckNorris89 wrote:
         | In your opinion, what caused the development of that product to
         | be hell? Bad/clueless management? Poor engineering hires?
         | 
         | Was it a scrappy startup or a large established corporation?
         | 
         | Asking since I've also experienced this and seems to be
         | prevailing in this industry and yet I feel it's relatively
         | easily preventable.
        
           | lnsru wrote:
           | I had another case of the same development hell and I feel
           | one coming in my current job soon. It's easy for middle
           | management to draw yearly plans in the slides. However
           | reality can bite hard with silicon bugs, unusable libraries
           | or even bugs in development tools.
           | 
           | This camera disaster was in a big old company. They wanted to
           | get mpg pictures straight from the camera to show on other
           | device. Half million EUR was gone between planing and first
           | buggy prototype. A company was hired to design it externally.
           | This external company generated design with matlab rendering
           | it non-debuggable.
           | 
           | I think it's managerial thing. I was screaming many times as
           | simple developer not to hit own leg with an axe. But I felt
           | like I was barking. Manager has always last word and there is
           | a need for convincing to do technically sane thing. Now I
           | just do what I was told. Even when technically it makes no
           | sense. I don't need additional tensions with insulted manager
           | (anymore).
        
       | habi wrote:
       | Not too no diminish this in any way, but https://www3.elphel.com/
       | has been doing open source hard- and software since a while.
        
         | circuitvalley wrote:
         | Elphel Camera cost a insane amount of money and Reputation of
         | the company after google incidence, I would rather not talk
         | about.
        
           | habi wrote:
           | Honest question: what Google incidence?
           | 
           | (I know that Elphel cameras were used for iterations of
           | Google StreetView and Googles book scanning project.)
        
             | circuitvalley wrote:
             | They were initially used then for certain reason they were
             | dropped.
        
               | habi wrote:
               | Still interested; do you know more about the reason? Is
               | this the incidence you mention?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | shoobs wrote:
       | This is a pretty impressive project, though the results
       | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwXs9RB6uD0) are somewhat
       | disappointing. From what I see toward the end of the video, the
       | image is blurry with poor colour rendition, although it is
       | fantastically low latency.
       | 
       | I suspect you're currently limited by the optics you're using,
       | lack of white-balance and low CRI lighting. Looking forward to
       | seeing further tests!
        
       | dheera wrote:
       | Also related: Take a Raspberry Pi Mini, a Raspberry Pi HQ camera,
       | and install this firmware
       | 
       | https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam
       | 
       | and it turns your Pi into a UVC-compatible USB webcam with a C
       | mount lens. This firmware also boots instantly, and is also safe
       | to unplug and plug without logging in and issuing a shutdown
       | command. There are even some 3D print housings for this
       | combination on Thingiverse.
       | 
       | I really wish we had something similar with a larger e.g. APS-C
       | or 35mm full frame sensor though. The Pi "HQ" camera is more like
       | shit-Q compared to a modern consumer camera.
        
       | badrabbit wrote:
       | I am testing out arducam, my biggest problem is finding an
       | outdoor friendly enclosure or any enclosure that i can mount on a
       | window or wall. My options seem to be messing with non-conductive
       | resin or repurposing existing webcam enclosures. Also, the
       | quality and fps isn't impressive and I still have to figure out
       | how to disable the IR lights that are a deal breaker for window
       | mounting. Tips welcome.
       | 
       | I have no idea if this camera is any better but will try to
       | compare specs.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Great project. Speaking of which, did anyone have the opportunity
       | to get their hands on Samsung's ISOCELL sensor ICs, or any
       | camera-modules that contain them?
       | 
       | https://semiconductor.samsung.com/image-sensor/
       | 
       | E.g. the ISOCELL HP3 has 200 megapixels, 0.56mm pixelsize and 120
       | fps at 4K resolution.
        
       | gtsnexp wrote:
       | Sony produces new sensors at a relatively faster pace compared to
       | the camera development cycle. For years, I've been looking for
       | ways of testing these sensors before developments boards would
       | come to market. This project is super interesting and great
       | inspiration for testing new sensors.
        
       | wrycoder wrote:
       | This is really nice, and the documentation and testing results
       | are extensive.
       | 
       | https://github.com/circuitvalley/USB_C_Industrial_Camera_FPG...
        
         | Eduard wrote:
         | Um, but I could find only a single actual photo and zero videos
         | made with this camera. So in my definition, that's sparse
         | testing results.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | 8jy89hui wrote:
           | He includes ~5 minutes of the cameras working at various
           | resolutions and frame rates in the project video.
           | 
           | See: https://youtu.be/dwXs9RB6uD0?t=2621
        
           | wrycoder wrote:
           | I think it's early days yet. A work in process, and maybe not
           | the last iteration.
        
             | circuitvalley wrote:
             | I am developer behind this camera. Its a second revision of
             | hardware and also second revision or firmware. I have been
             | doing MIPI CSI FPGA stuff from quite sometime. Current
             | state of firmware is stable. Where work need to be done
             | isimage quality in terms of color correction ,
             | Whitebalance, noise reduction other similar things.
        
       | Roark66 wrote:
       | This is a very cool project especially that it seems to be the
       | only low latency "consumer grade" camera available. 4 lines of
       | latency are quoted, this is great considering other alternatives
       | (rpi cam, other sbcs + csi camera) have latencies from 50ms up to
       | 150ms which makes them borderline unusable for many uses such as
       | dynamic fpv, fast acting machine vision etc.
        
       | blandcoffee wrote:
       | This is great work. In the same light is anyone aware of ip67
       | cameras with integrated lens? I see someone posted the opencv
       | camera above, but I'd be interested in more options.
       | 
       | The openmv h7 and arducam boards have tempted me, but getting
       | housing made for them is difficult.
        
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