Leica’s film cameras were hugely popular in the 20th century, and remain so with collectors to this day. [Michael Suguitan] has previously had great success converting his classic Leica into a digital one, and now he’s taken the project even further.
[Michael’s] previous work saw him create a so-called “digital back” for the Leica M2. He fitted the classic camera with a Raspberry Pi Zero and a small imaging sensor to effectively turn it into a digital camera, creating what he called the LeicaMPi. Since then, [Michael] has made a range of upgrades to create what he calls the LeicaM2Pi.
The upgrades start with the image sensor. This time around, instead of using a generic Raspberry Pi camera, he’s gone with the fancier ArduCam OwlSight sensor. Boasting a mighty 64 megapixels, it’s still largely compatible with all the same software tools as the first-party cameras, making it both capable and easy to use. With a crop factor of 3.7x, the camera’s Voigtlander 12mm lens has a much more useful field of view.
Unlike [Michael’s] previous setup, there was also no need to remove the camera’s IR filter to clear the shutter mechanism. This means the new camera is capable of taking natural color photos during the day. [Michael] also added a flash this time around, controlled by the GPIOs of the Raspberry Pi Zero. The camera also features a much tidier onboard battery via the PiSugar module, which can be easily recharged with a USB-C cable.
If you’ve ever thought about converting an old-school film camera into a digital shooter, [Michael’s] work might serve as a great jumping off point. We’ve seen it done with DSLRs, before, too! Video after the break.
[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!]
12 mm strikes me as short. Is that a factor in or caused by/relevant/necessary to the build?
because the sensor is so much smaller than 35 mm film, the images will look like they were taken with a ~45 mm lens
The Leica M2 is still a pretty expensive piece of kit, regardless of condition, to be doing this to.
the hack, at least in the first version, is non-destructive.
from the first post about his mod: “Perhaps the best thing about this conversion, and something which should propagate forward into other builds, is the way it does not hack or modify the original camera beyond the replacement of the already-removable back.”
Sorry, but that’s a wasted effort. Sensor ridiculously too small. So many other cameras less desired or iconic to be sacrificed in this way. And not even as useful as Leica’s own digital cameras.
I was going to say something similar.
A good sensor has to be big, to catch most light and the fewest noise.
The megapixels are secondary. The more, perhaps the worse, even.
That’s why in amateur astronomy, in early 2000s, low-res CCD sensors from webcams had been used.
They were low-res (ca. 320×240 pix range), but the sensors were light sensitive.
Peeling off the UV filter was another modification at the time (because the photo taking was happening at night).
The primary advantages of a film rangefinder Leica were superior lenses, the brightest viewfinder, and accurate linking of the rangefinder image to the lens focusing. He’s thrown it all away.