[Adam] sent in this cool project. He has modified a Polaroid J66 camera to use modern film. Most of the initial modifications look fairly simple, but things get a little more complicated when they also convert it to a fully manual camera. There is a section that explains a neat little trick of using a cheap solar panel attached to your computer sound card to figure out what ISO the camera is shooting at.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk7_XRgxCas]
Packshotnik is a circuit designed to help with creating 360 degree images. It consists of a main board and motorized rotating platform. The board can send IR signals to a camera to snap pictures at intervals in the rotation. The source code, schematic, and pcb files are all available from the project page. While he is using this primarily for rotating 360 degree images, you could also just plop your camera onto the platform and end up with panoramic sets.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyL9R4-h5cQ&w=470]
When doing those cool liquid droplet splash pictures, you need to time not only the camera, but the droplets themselves. This project takes you through how to build the system to time the droplets and work with camera axe to get the right pictures. PCB files and schematics are available. As you can see, the results are quite nice.
When the Department of Natural Resources of Australia decided that they needed to capture data about the natural flooding of a cave, they turned to a hacker to get results. The goal was to photograph the area during these floods with an automated system. In the end, they used a gutted Lumix digital camera mounted in a trash can, covered in aluminium foil. Though it sounds a bit silly, the final product turned out quite nice. You can see the build log, schematics, and results on the project page.
[via hackedgadgets]
The impossible has happened. While that may sound a bit over dramatic, the project itself was titled “the impossible project”. What is it that is so impossible? The revival of Polaroid instant film. This is not a newer, digital alternative, this is film you can actually buy and plop into your old Polaroid camera. What’s the big deal? All they had to do was start producing it again right? Not really. They’ve completely re-engineered it from scratch. That’s pretty impressive. We had heard, early last year, that they were going to attempt it, and we’re pleased to see that they’ve succeeded.
That being said, a handheld, home hacked digital instant picture device sounds kind of cool. It would probably be an easy one to build too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTyCymEM9g]
Researchers at the University of Liege have developed an algorithm to separate movement from background. They call it ViBe and this patented piece of code comes in at under 100 lines of C. Above you can see the proof of concept shown by hacking the code into CHDK, a Canon PowerShot alternative firmware. The package is available for non-commercial use and might be just the thing you need to get your project to recognize where it needs to serve the beer.
[Thanks Juan via Slashdot]
All of the juicy details needed to control a camera from your Nintendo DS are now available at the Open Camera Control project. This is the descendant of [Steve Chapman’s] setup from a few years ago. The system has been polished up and has seen many feature additions. It’s been used in movie production and works with a wide range of cameras.
Start by building your own interface cable using an AVR microcontroller running the Arduino bootloader. Finish up by loading some open source software onto the DS to add a cornucopia of shot options.
[Thanks Pops Macgruder]
