Basic DIY camera for educational use

Hello

I'm a physics teacher and I wander if it is possible to build a simple digital camera for teaching. I'm looking for something with a single lens, a sensor (possibly on a pcb) and a cardboard body. Of course the camera would take terrible pictures, but that's not the point. The pictures could be barely recognizable. I just want something low level that illustrates how a camera work with optics, sensors, etc. All I have been able to find are projects with complete camera modules or projects were you just put the camera together like furniture from Ikea.

Does anyone know of such a low level diy camera project?

Thanks

bgstcola wrote:

Hello

I'm a physics teacher and I wander if it is possible to build a simple digital camera for teaching. I'm looking for something with a single lens, a sensor (possibly on a pcb) and a cardboard body. Of course the camera would take terrible pictures, but that's not the point. The pictures could be barely recognizable. I just want something low level that illustrates how a camera work with optics, sensors, etc. All I have been able to find are projects with complete camera modules or projects were you just put the camera together like furniture from Ikea.

Does anyone know of such a low level diy camera project?

Thanks

There are several projects that use the sensor from an optical computer mouse as a crude digital camera. In some of these the mouse sensor only has 18x18 pixels but there is a later version of this type of sensor that has 30x30 pixels which would be more useful: The original John Logie Baird mechanically scanned TV system. used in the UK in the early 1930s, had 30 lines and was (just about) good enough to recognise a human face.

https://www.bidouille.org/hack/mousecam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television

Similar projects can be found on YouTube and elsewhere, with a bit of Googling.

And the higher resolution optical mouse sensor (30x30 pixels). This sensor seems to be also used as a motion-flow optical sensor on some DIY drones and is available on a small PCB with lens assembly but you may want to experiment with different focal lengths.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20150222023845&SearchText=ADNS3080+Optical+Flow+Sensor

http://www.dexsilicium.com/Agilent_188515_ADNB-3081.pdf

These mouse sensor based camera projects are monochrome and yield a low resolution 6 bit image, require electronic and programming skills but may serve in an educational context to illustrate the principles of the digital camera. The sensor spectral response peaks in the red to near infra-red region, so may be interesting if you use the appropriate filters to get the typical black skies and white foliage effect. However, given the very low resolution this may not be that impressive and it might be worth sticking to images of letters of the alphabet and perhaps peoples faces?

If you want much higher resolution colour images then maybe a Raspberry Pi camera linked to a Raspberry Pi Zero computer would be the easiest and inexpensive solution? It will capture still or video images and has a HDMI interface for connecting to standard monitors for displaying photos.

Good luck. I haven't built a 'mouse cam' or played with a Raspberry Pi camera system but hope this is useful anyway.

Thanks, looks cool, but it seems like this is more about hacking a mouse (programming, electronics, etc.) that it is about cameras.

The Raspberry Pi is cool as well, but again I feel like it is more about electronics and programming than it is about cameras (the camera is a complete module if i understand correctly) .

I'm looking for a project where the students should spend their time making the optics work so that they can focus the light on the sensor and so on. Maybe that is not even possible to do in a simple way? So it should be mostly a camera project and not too much about electronics.

Thanks I've already looked at that one. But it seems like you just put the parts together following instructions so you dont really learn anything.

That seems like an exciting project. I will look into that. But maybe it will be a bit too difficult or time consuming.

Thanks

bgstcola wrote:

Thanks, looks cool, but it seems like this is more about hacking a mouse (programming, electronics, etc.) that it is about cameras.

The Raspberry Pi is cool as well, but again I feel like it is more about electronics and programming than it is about cameras (the camera is a complete module if i understand correctly) .

I'm looking for a project where the students should spend their time making the optics work so that they can focus the light on the sensor and so on. Maybe that is not even possible to do in a simple way? So it should be mostly a camera project and not too much about electronics.

I did wonder about the intent of the educational project. The trouble with demonstrating the optics of the DIY camera, independently of the sensor, with the projects mentioned is that the image projected onto a ground glass/sheet of paper, or whatever, will be very small and you would need a good magnifying glass in order to make out any details!

The Raspberry Pi camera sensor is a 1/4.0 Sony IMX219PQ and the image-circle is 4.6mm in diameter or 2.6 mm High and 3.68 mm Wide. The sensor used on the iPhone XS (larger than that on the X ) is a not so huge 5.6 mm x 4.2 mm, on a 1/2.5 size sensor.

It sounds like it may be more useful to have a lens that projects a decent size image circle, so that this, when projected, can be seen easily with the naked eye. Medium format lenses from a 6x6 camera will produce an image of 56 x 56 mm which may be about as small as you want to go? There are some inexpensive second hand cameras that might be suitable: Lubitel 166 TLR , the Holga 120N or anything similar as a donor.

Overhead projectors and epidiascopes have useful lenses that will have at least a 200mm image-circle so are capable of use in large-format photography with 4x5 inch images or greater.

This project listed below is rather similar to the system proposed by ProfHankD, except that it uses more expensive photodiodes, rather than LEDs and the self-powered element , of the design is not strictly necessary. They are using a fresnel lens to produce these low resolution 30x40 pixel images.

https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-20/issue-7/departments/technology-trends/camera-design-prototype-self-powered-camera-uses-off-the-shelf-components.html

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/publications/pdfs/Nayar_ICCP15.pdf

Finally, a different approach, used by some, is the use of a DIY large-format digital scanning back using a hacked flatbed scanner to produce the images:

https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-4X5-Camera-Scan-Back/

https://makezine.com/projects/deluxe-scanner-camera/

https://petapixel.com/2014/12/29/medium-format-camera-made-using-parts-epson-scanner/

http://www.stockholmviews.com/diyphotogear/scannercamera.html

Over to you. 

Thank you so much.

I think the scanner camera would fit the purpose. I will look into that.

Thanks again, I don't think I would have found it without your help!

Thanks but I think I will go for a scanner camera. I don't mind the sensor (scanner) being a blackbox, since the projekt is more about light and optics.

Thank you! Looks great!