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 pictures will have a similar field of view as those taken with a ~45mm lens on a full-frame body, but they will not look the same.
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.”
Might be fun to convert my Argus C3. Last I checked they weren’t much more expensive than the brick they resemble.
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).
Pardon my lack of knowledge, but why would the sensor size matter when you can use a lens to reduce the image size “at will”?
I mean, I do understand that film can benefit from being bigger, as that would allow light sensitive particule to, proportionally, better represent the picture.
And I also do understand that, in long exposure, very low light condition (like astrophotography), you need the lowest noise level possible (thus spreading the light and try to prevent heating of the sensor too).
But here?
Why would it matter to have a bigger sensor?
I couldn’t watch the video, but I would assume that, by putting the sensor closer to the optics, you just refocus the image “as if” you used a bigger, farther sensor, no?
It’s mostly because of the lack of depth of field. The smaller the sensor, the larger the depth of field, bringing essentially everything in focus – much like a cellphone camera vs DSLR.
Oh I got it.
So, seeing the size of this sensor, it will be way better than a cell phone, but also way worse than the original.
Thanks for the explanation = )
I’d not call it a wasted effort, yes a bigger sensor has many advantages but there are optical limitations to the lenses that means a sensor only in the centre of the ‘film’ is not really a terrible choice at least for some uses – though obviously you could crop a larger sensors output there but if you are going to do that all the time…
Plus you get the advantages of having real lens family to choose from and a digital camera that means infinite shots for basically no cost and rapidly available results.
Is it a modern Mirrorless, DSLR or otherwise high end speciality camera replacement obviously not, but that doesn’t mean its actually useless or a waste of effort. It is fun and functional, which is good enough in its own right, while also being the ideal camera to take to re-enactment type events set in its period for instance – being a good enough modern digital camera with all those benefits in a period body.
I love your positive thinking here! 😃
The journey is the reward, so to say! That’s the spirit!
On other hand, this mod basically turns an SLR camera in a disposable camera from Fisher-Price. Quality wise, I mean.🥲
And that’s okay. It’s surely a nice gag for the party, but simultanously makes lovers of film photography faint.
Oh it should be way way over disposable camera, I’d not be shocked if its better than my old cannon DSLR by a big margin as smaller sensor or not the quality of the sensors has skyrocketed in the last few years and my old DSLR is an early 2000’s or maybe late 90’s model IIRC and this still has real lens to get the shot you want! Which is usually the more important part of getting the image you want anyway, potato or god tier sensor doesn’t do you any good if you can’t capture and focus the light ‘properly’…
He explains this was the largest sensor compatible with a Raspberry Pi he could find. It’s also just ~60 USD.
Cheap full-frame sensors for hobbyists are very hard to come by.
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.
He still has all that, assuming the sensor is accurately mounted.
The Voigtlander 12mm lens is pretty nice, I had one for my film Leica iiic , especially in the center which is the only part you are going to be using.
Same marketing bullshit as smartphones. After debayering resolution is only 16MP.
Debayering alone does not reduce resolution.
I’ve long waited for an affordable sensor that would be somewhat the size of the 35mm film and sit nicely in place of the film. Insofar haven’t found one that I’d like, size, price, etc.
The point of late DSLRs was large lenses combined with the large aperture … which lets more light through, etc. I know that the higher end smartphones’/tablets’ fisheye lenses combined with the advanced post-processing somewhat made those obsolete, but not without some drawbacks, like limiting the lens size (that’s why expensive smartphones have more than one sensor – to compensate for the smaller lens – and not only).
What I am driving at is the optics where the most expensive part of the DSLRs, and they have gotten quite good and somewhat affordable (by the average Sam) some time mid-1980s, and there was a reason the most sold lens size back then was 50mm – it was the one that could get enough light to do surprisingly good photography, even with the cheapest film and the cheapest cameras. (again, average Sam snapping photos whilst, say, walking, not taking photos with tripod using higher-grade film).
Having said that, advancements with the post-processing are actually quite spectacular, gone are some of the issues of the past; say, most of chromatic aberration (the edges of the lens being slightly out of focus and bleeding in more blue light than the rest of the lens) now can be just re-calculated and largely compensated for. That alone allowed making cheaper lenses with more defects that can be later compensated for; however, the old school analog DSLRs still had other tricks up their sleeves – the lens size being one of many (larger lens size … better zoom … etc).
I’ve nearly finished replacing my old Nikon F mount lenses with new Z mount gear and I wouldn’t trade back a single one. The optics are way superior and correcting for inflation they’re not more expensive.
The difference is so noticeable, even an otherwise “infamous” travel zoom like the 28-400/4-8 now takes sharper pictures than some of the more expensive older lenses. Some very strong advancements have been made over the last couple of years.