[HN Gopher] Sitina1 Open-Source Camera
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       Sitina1 Open-Source Camera
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 100 points
       Date   : 2024-09-29 15:27 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gitlab.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gitlab.com)
        
       | gaudat wrote:
       | The design is pretty modern. But what is with the choice of the
       | Kodak CCD sensor? CCD cameras got a resurgence in Chinese
       | communities with second-hand camera prices increased like
       | tenfold.
       | 
       | Also see Apertus Axiom where they also used the Zynq but used one
       | hell of a CMOS sensor that can do 4K 300FPS.
        
         | SushiHippie wrote:
         | He explained it in this Video at 13:02
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkfzjmY9cF8&t=13m02s
         | 
         | > Why use CCD instead of CMOS?
         | 
         | > Well let's say I started this project before the recent CCD
         | camera hype so that's not the reason. Part of me just wanted to
         | be special and fullframe CCD is kind of special.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Being a small manufacture means you go to the bottom of the
         | list for the vendors of the sensors. I'm sure the best sensors
         | are pretty much already spoken for, and the lower quality ones
         | are what's available to any one not the likes of Sony, Canon,
         | Nikon, etc. Any other reason is pretty much an excuse.
         | 
         | We could just go back to full sized cameras with 3 CCDs. j/k
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | Why is there so much vignetting?
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | It's artistic.
        
       | cyberax wrote:
       | Love it. I really wish classical mirrorless camera makers would
       | get their head out of their collective asses, and make a camera
       | that is not stuck in the 80-s mentality.
       | 
       | Give me a large sunlight-readable touchscreen, with multitouch.
       | Also GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and 5G/LTE for connectivity and
       | geotagging. Add automatic uploads to Google Photos, iPhoto,
       | WebDAV, etc. Put in a small editor for on-device photo touchups.
       | 
       | Also, ditch the old-timey film-camera look. I don't need 15
       | physical switches, most of which should be automatic anyway. A
       | physical button for the shutter and an analog knob for fine
       | tuning are fine, but I don't need a manual switch for AF/MF. Or a
       | "shutter delay" selector that is too easy to accidentally bump.
        
         | quuxly wrote:
         | This is called a smartphone.
        
           | cyberax wrote:
           | Yes, exactly. But with a better sensor and optics.
        
         | progbits wrote:
         | I'm not sure I want any of that in my camera. Maybe fast wifi
         | for photo sync at home but still faster to plug in the
         | cable/card.
         | 
         | You know what I want and have? A sub half second power on time.
         | Probably sub one second from turning on to first photo. I don't
         | want any "smart" crap slowing that down.
        
           | cyberax wrote:
           | > I'm not sure I want any of that in my camera. Maybe fast
           | wifi for photo sync at home but still faster to plug in the
           | cable/card.
           | 
           | Well, that's a reason why camera makers are struggling. You
           | don't want these features, but a lot of people do. So they
           | vote with their smartphones instead:
           | https://petapixel.com/2024/08/22/the-rise-and-crash-of-
           | the-c...
           | 
           | > You know what I want and have? A sub half second power on
           | time. Probably sub one second from turning on to first photo.
           | I don't want any "smart" crap slowing that down.
           | 
           | You can do that while still retaining smart features. For
           | example, use a small OS to control the camera while the full
           | OS boots up. Or use suspend-to-disk to speed up loading, with
           | suspend-to-RAM for instant startup.
           | 
           | This is a solvable problem.
        
         | dghlsakjg wrote:
         | There have been a few different attempts that look like this.
         | Samsung Nx, Samsung Galaxy Camera, Sony has tried phone add on
         | accessories. Basically they all sort of flop in the market.
         | 
         | People that don't want to think about their photos use a
         | smartphone. People that want to think about their photos still
         | want a camera that they can control. I use a mirrorless Nikon
         | camera and to take a single picture I normally want physical
         | controls that can handle exposure, focus, zoom level and
         | shutter release independently, but simultaneously without
         | having to remove my attention from the image. The ability to do
         | all that with physical, not menu controls, is a tremendous
         | asset for most people that want to spend the money on a camera.
         | If you slapped the latest technology inside a camera that
         | didn't have all the physical controls, photographers wouldn't
         | want anything to do with it.
         | 
         | I wouldn't say that camera design is stuck in the 80s, either.
         | The form factor is necessarily constrained by needing a tubular
         | lens projecting in front of a flat imaging plane. The
         | photographer is going to want to view the image from the
         | opposite side as the lens. There's only so much you can change
         | the form factor with those constraints. Camera companies do
         | have a few retro models, but even stodgy old Leica is making
         | modern designs these days.
         | 
         | If you take tens of thousands of photos per year, you sort of
         | realize that all cameras have more or less the same interface
         | and form factor as they have for a while because it is what
         | works best.
        
           | _0xdd wrote:
           | I would add that Zeiss (ZX1) and Leica (T typ 701, TL2) tried
           | this modern touch-first approach at a premium and both
           | products weren't exactly hits. The Zeiss was even running
           | Android with Lightroom preinstalled.
        
             | cyberax wrote:
             | I mean... It's a camera that was retailing for $6k without
             | lenses. It's already a niche market, and a pretty
             | conservative one.
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | I agree. Maybe the breakdown is between:
           | 
           | 1) taking a picture
           | 
           | 2) doing something with the picture
           | 
           | People coming to photography from smartphones want the
           | priorities reversed.
           | 
           | But the deeper you get into it, the more you want #1 and the
           | more control you want over #1. The worst is #2 getting in the
           | way of the shot.
           | 
           | And actually, lots of people into photography think it is
           | about the camera, but it is really about the lenses.
           | 
           | You buy lenses, then buy/upgrade bodies around them.
        
           | cyberax wrote:
           | > There have been a few different attempts that look like
           | this. Samsung Nx, Samsung Galaxy Camera, Sony has tried phone
           | add on accessories. Basically they all sort of flop in the
           | market.
           | 
           | There was exactly ONE attempt. One. And it was pretty
           | successful, at that: Samsung NX1. I had it, it was pretty
           | good, but with a first-gen teething issues.
           | 
           | Phone add-on accessories don't work because they're clumsy
           | and connectivity just sucks. And ultra-professional $6k
           | cameras from Zeiss miss the mark entirely, you need to target
           | a prosumer market (i.e. me).
           | 
           | > I wouldn't say that camera design is stuck in the 80s,
           | either. The form factor is necessarily constrained by needing
           | a tubular lens projecting in front of a flat imaging plane.
           | 
           | But why do you need a large protrusion on the right? You
           | don't have a film canister anymore. I already wrote about a
           | myriad of physical controls. Just make it large enough to
           | hold the camera.
        
         | orbital-decay wrote:
         | Half of the point of having a dedicated camera is better
         | ergonomics. I'm finding current smartphones good enough for
         | most uses, but they are simply awkward to use and very slow to
         | control without an external grip.
        
       | bbbrbb wrote:
       | Nice!
        
       | MaximilianEmel wrote:
       | Video showing the making of it: https://youtu.be/OkfzjmY9cF8
        
       | 3abiton wrote:
       | Great project, I get excited about tools that I didn't expect to
       | get the Open Source treatment pop up on the list.
        
       | 999900000999 wrote:
       | I have interest in assembling this, but I'd love to buy it.
       | 
       | I wasted about 1k on trying to design a small backup phone before
       | realizing I couldn't get it down to the dimensions I wanted. I'd
       | need like half a million to actually build this thing.
       | 
       | However, I really want to see more hardware with open software.
       | On the other hand you have open firmware for some cannon cameras
       | if you want to do that route.
        
       | xena wrote:
       | Where do I get the parts to make one?
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-29 23:00 UTC)