$15 HDR camera

posted Jul 16th 2009 10:00am by
filed under: digital cameras hacks

rewire1 (Custom)

[Steve] was planning a 15 mile hiking trip when he came up with this idea. He wanted to get some good HDR photography, but didnt’ want to lug around his 5D MKII. He managed to pick up a couple of cheap Polaroid X530s. These have decent optics and record in RAW format, which is pretty impressive for something he got for 99cents plus shipping. He had all of the buttons wired for external control via a Viliv umpc. As you can see on his site, his results are quite nice. Of course, you don’t actually have to hack your camera to make HDR images.

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28 Responses to $15 HDR camera

  • cryptochronolite says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:12 am

    what the deuce? where’s the story?

    Reply Report comment
  • jay says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:23 am

    Where is the link then !!

    Reply Report comment
  • nemo says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:33 am

    i like the sound of plush shipping.

    Reply Report comment
  • mess_maker says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:35 am

    “i like the sound of plush shipping.”

    Haha, that made my day :)

    Reply Report comment
  • Will says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:37 am

    http://www.dpreview.com/news/0402/04020909polaroidx530.asp
    A 3X zoom $400 MSRP camera for under a dollar?
    Screw the Link, where can I buy this camera?!

    Reply Report comment
  • hex4def6 says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:39 am

    “i like the sound of plush shipping.”

    haha, that made my day :)

    ——

    Of coarse you would :)

    Reply Report comment
  • Mike says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:39 am

    I see no link to his images or his site. Halp!

    Reply Report comment
  • Caleb Kraft says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:47 am

    fixed the link. sorry about that guys.

    Reply Report comment
  • bbot says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:48 am

    Presumably he got really, really lucky when ebaying, since the x530 is not a one dollar camera.

    Of course, I wouldn’t have to presume if there was a read link.

    Come on, hackaday. First you start selling stuff, now you’re leaving out read links? You might as well merge with makezine now and get it over with.

    Reply Report comment
  • bbot says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:49 am

    oh god his site is dark gray text on a black background.

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  • bbot says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:55 am

    apparently he is just using the umpc as a fancy cable release, and doing the stacking in software.

    he also calls the hdr images “technographs”, just like hitler.

    also: hyperbole is literally the best thing ever

    also also: to disable his ugly ass page style in firefox, go to view -> page style, then select no style.

    Reply Report comment
  • Hitek146 says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:56 am

    are we all supposed to already know what “hdr” means?

    Reply Report comment
  • brakk says:
    July 16, 2009 at 11:11 am

    “also also: to disable his ugly ass page style in firefox, go to view -> page style, then select no style.”

    I thought his page was already set to “no style”
    :P

    “are we all supposed to already know what “hdr” means?”

    Yes, you obviously don’t cruze teh internets enough

    Reply Report comment
  • Rick says:
    July 16, 2009 at 11:49 am

    So he just replaced the buttons with wires going to an external control…wouldn’t it be easier just to use a chdk script in a cheap Canon point-and-shoot?

    Reply Report comment
  • kyndal says:
    July 16, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    seems like a whole lot of trouble for HDR

    i think that if he has two of these cams
    it would be much cooler, to make a permanent
    stereo rig insted..

    HDR can be done without soldering, and
    some over the top computer setup
    waste of time.

    /Kyndal

    Reply Report comment
  • jakdedert says:
    July 16, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    I thought it was just my cheap monitor. I couldn’t even read the text unless I highlighted it.

    Why do people do that? Do they even look at their own web pages?

    Reply Report comment
  • BIOzZ says:
    July 16, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    i use a nikon D90 witch has exposure bracketing but this is still interesting

    djbozz@gmail.com

    Reply Report comment
  • slowbro says:
    July 16, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    “of coarse”

    hahahaha

    Reply Report comment
  • dudebro says:
    July 16, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    yeah typos are hilarious

    Reply Report comment
  • Grommit says:
    July 16, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    Just like Hitler? What have you been… ah, never mind.

    Reply Report comment
  • static says:
    July 16, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Relax bbot; the word “technograph” was coin due to a silly complaining comment, similar to it’s not a hack comments that are becoming a regular feature on hackaday :). People not paying attention to everything that was being said is one of the reasons Hitler was able to get by with his crap, that you brought hilter up. Anyway I thought technograph was a good simple, back at ya comment.

    Though this is one of those, I’ll never duplicate hacks, it is why I visit hackaday. To see what the rest of the world is interested in, keep them coming.

    Reply Report comment
  • sean says:
    July 16, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    It’s not “RAW” format, it’s just “raw” format. “Raw” is not an acronym, it is the literal meaning of the word “raw”. Every ICD has its own raw format because… every ICD has its own means of recording, interpreting, and transmitting data. It’s raw in the sense that it’s straight off the ICD without being transformed by the image processor in the camera.

    Reply Report comment
  • sean says:
    July 16, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    my previous post would make more sense if the first “raw” were in the original all-caps in which I wrote it.

    Reply Report comment
  • grommit says:
    July 16, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    Sean, what’s an icd? Google says it’s an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

    Reply Report comment
  • Alchemyguy says:
    July 17, 2009 at 8:22 am

    @grommit: That’s what he was talking about.

    Think about it…

    Reply Report comment
  • Jim K. says:
    July 17, 2009 at 10:21 am

    When all else fails and you want to get attention, compare something/one to Hitler.

    Reply Report comment
  • noonevac says:
    July 17, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    everyone missed the weirdest part of the post
    “[Steve] was planning a 15 mile hiking trip”
    …Whats Hiking?

    Reply Report comment
  • Raymond says:
    July 21, 2009 at 2:37 am

    One revolution of the earth
    around its axis made my day.

    Reply Report comment

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