I was just wondering if anyone else has had the idea of using the raspberry pi to drive a modified scanner mounted to the back of a Large Format camera to take photo's.
I know this has been done before, but if it's possible to use the pi to interface with the scanner (which would probably just use usb connection) It would be very handy to have something lightweight to preview images and store them as opposed to carrying a laptop.
this is where i initially got the idea http://hackaday.com/2009/06/09/130-mega ... er-camera/
Re: Scanning Camera Back
You may be able to use SANE (scanner access now easy) to control a scanner. The example on hack-a-day was using a windows driver for the scanner. The sane libraries are part of the Debian repository (apt-cache search sane). I am guessing the hacking of the scanner is going to be the hard part of the project. It is a cool idea and I have wondered about creating a scanning back using a scanner on and off for a while.
Re: Scanning Camera Back
The main problem will be changing the scanner to detect an image on a ground glass screen, all the scanners I've come across use bright illumination to either scan film or reflectively.
Re: Scanning Camera Back
Agreed @markb,
The way I had thought of approaching this is work out which wire is powering the scanner leds and cutting it.
The way I had thought of approaching this is work out which wire is powering the scanner leds and cutting it.
Re: Scanning Camera Back
On most scanners you cannot simply cut the lead to the LEDs as this results in the scanner failing self calibration. Another method that can lead to the same failure, but works more othen is to paint the light source with black paint.
There are two modes you will experience in a failed calibration, 1) the scanner will refuse to scan as it thinks something is seriously wrong -or- 2) the scanner operates, but ends up maxing out all of it's amplifiers and thus produces a poor image with banding, noise and other undesirable artefacts.
The other thing to keep in mind is most flatbed scanners do not actually contain sensing elements that are the size of the scanner, instead they use small sensors and lens systems. These scanners cannot be adapted to be used with a large format camera, unless you are planning to scan the ground glass. To directly capture the light from the lens, you need a scanner with a sensor as wide as the scanner itself. The Canon LiDE scanners are of this type, and if you google "scanner camera" you may find examples using these scanners with large format cameras.
There is still a lot that will/can go wrong with this, but it can be fun to play with. Even with the LiDE scanner you still run into issues with the physical construction of the scanning head results is high drop-off as you move off axis from the centre of the lens.
I played around with some of this a couple of years ago, and someday would like to take another swing at it. I regretfully never got my design to work very well.
There are two modes you will experience in a failed calibration, 1) the scanner will refuse to scan as it thinks something is seriously wrong -or- 2) the scanner operates, but ends up maxing out all of it's amplifiers and thus produces a poor image with banding, noise and other undesirable artefacts.
The other thing to keep in mind is most flatbed scanners do not actually contain sensing elements that are the size of the scanner, instead they use small sensors and lens systems. These scanners cannot be adapted to be used with a large format camera, unless you are planning to scan the ground glass. To directly capture the light from the lens, you need a scanner with a sensor as wide as the scanner itself. The Canon LiDE scanners are of this type, and if you google "scanner camera" you may find examples using these scanners with large format cameras.
There is still a lot that will/can go wrong with this, but it can be fun to play with. Even with the LiDE scanner you still run into issues with the physical construction of the scanning head results is high drop-off as you move off axis from the centre of the lens.
I played around with some of this a couple of years ago, and someday would like to take another swing at it. I regretfully never got my design to work very well.
Re: Scanning Camera Back
Hello this is my first post say hello all, i have no programming knowledge, but it does interest me.
I just joined here thinking about the idea of using the pi as a simple computer to run a lide scanner, more as a mobile scanner rather than as a scanner back, so a battery pack the pi and a few buttons to tell it to run, at a predefined scan, no monitor even, as i find it an interesting way to capture textures and is a nice contrast to my more traditional analogue photography.
i did play around with using laptops with a LiDE modified with a simple camera construction, the way it works can only give you a black and white image, as you have to somehow stop the LEDS working, in my case i covered them. I had to use a different program to get the scanner to bypass the start up, as normally when using the program given it begins to load and stops when it realises the leds are not turned on, but even then it was very annoying to get it to run correctly each time.
To further improve the image you have to remove the lens asembly this was rather annoying
and even with that done there image leaves a lot to be desired, although i only wanted to show it was possible as part of a larger project, to fruther improve i would have to paint the inside of the scanner, i geuss remove the glass, and file down the area around the exposed sense to stop the drop off either side
The best examples i have seen are from a time when digital cameras cost £1000s and necessity drove people
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/scanner.html
this was from 2000 i believe, and i think is very similar to the example you linked
but also the LiDE scanner camera, this is very similar to what i think you are looking at, the main advantage for me with the LiDE is the fact it is powered via usb rather than most scanners which use an external power source
http://golembewski.awardspace.com/photo ... index.html
this is where i got a lot of information from with my quick scanner hack
sorry for any horrible grammer or spelling
I just joined here thinking about the idea of using the pi as a simple computer to run a lide scanner, more as a mobile scanner rather than as a scanner back, so a battery pack the pi and a few buttons to tell it to run, at a predefined scan, no monitor even, as i find it an interesting way to capture textures and is a nice contrast to my more traditional analogue photography.
i did play around with using laptops with a LiDE modified with a simple camera construction, the way it works can only give you a black and white image, as you have to somehow stop the LEDS working, in my case i covered them. I had to use a different program to get the scanner to bypass the start up, as normally when using the program given it begins to load and stops when it realises the leds are not turned on, but even then it was very annoying to get it to run correctly each time.
To further improve the image you have to remove the lens asembly this was rather annoying
and even with that done there image leaves a lot to be desired, although i only wanted to show it was possible as part of a larger project, to fruther improve i would have to paint the inside of the scanner, i geuss remove the glass, and file down the area around the exposed sense to stop the drop off either side
The best examples i have seen are from a time when digital cameras cost £1000s and necessity drove people
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/scanner.html
this was from 2000 i believe, and i think is very similar to the example you linked
but also the LiDE scanner camera, this is very similar to what i think you are looking at, the main advantage for me with the LiDE is the fact it is powered via usb rather than most scanners which use an external power source
http://golembewski.awardspace.com/photo ... index.html
this is where i got a lot of information from with my quick scanner hack
sorry for any horrible grammer or spelling