I Fixed My Most Challenging Project! (Camera Lens from Scratch)
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
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I revisit what was likely my most challenging project from a few years ago, and see if I can get a better result, while also setting it up as an interactive device for fans to experience.
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Thinking quickly, Andy crafted a camera using some glass, duct tape, and a camera.
That's the exact meme that went through my head when I decided to just use a camera instead of a scanner.
Reminds me of when Homer carved a chili spoon out of a better spoon
Tbf, using film, then processing it, would then still require a digital scanner to get it on Instagram or whatever. The point is he made, by himself with no modern equipment, functioning lenses. The complete camera will come later.
@@ThaEurasiani did a thing did that
@@user-et2dx5du7eI did a thing did indeed do that thing
Very cool project! As a photographer who has never built his own camera (but who loves playing with antique lenses), I have a couple of suggestions for your consideration:
1. Just as how with a pinhole camera, a smaller pinhole will result in a sharper, but dimmer image- you may consider adding an aperture or a mask to act like an aperture immediately behind the lens to force the light through a more narrow opening. This could result in a sharper focus. It should also make the edges of the image more in focus relative to the center. This increase in sharpness is more than what's offered by the expanded depth of field. It's an increase in maximum sharpness, and I believe it's due to a reduced angle of incidence. Which leads me to the next item...
2. If you ever go to remake your lenses, you might try to reduce your angle of incidence by reducing your curvature, and instead rely on the distance between the focal elements to get the light to where you want it to go rather than extreme curvature. The greater the angle of incidence between the lens' surfaces, the more critical a perfect polish and flawless glass becomes. And, in general, the more difficulty you will have in getting a sharp focus- particularly around the edges. One of the reason that modern lenses have so many elements is because it's an attempt to minimize the angle that the light is bending with each surface plane it intersects while still having a compact lens. Instead of a few planes with sharp bends, you get more planes with slight bends.
Anyways, awesome video!! I look forward to seeing more!
I second this. I know nothing about the magnifying properties of glass except how it pertains to eyeglasses. What I do know is that cameras are a lot like eyes and pretty much everything you stated is what I was going to say.
Get a copy of Rudolf Kingslake’s History of the Photographic Lens for a primer on the principles of historical lenses. Alignment and tolerances are super critical in optics. Also, you should look into Calotype (aka salted paper) as it’s one of the earliest and easiest processes.
Old cameras used very bright light sources. In the 1960s, a hand held motion picture camera came with an array of very hot light bulbs.
Yes, because usable film stocks were far less sensitive than current digital sensors. The images we see now (especially at night) were impossible to create without arrays of high lumen incandescent bulbs, using far more energy and putting out far more heat than the LED-based lights available today. The most sensitive film available was 3 or 4 stops above 100 ISO and produced large grain, ugly images mostly suitable for science experiments. While there is a limit to how much light a lens can transmit, the digital revolution made up for that with sensors that make it possible to see nearly as well as a nocturnal animal.
@@mightisrightit’s been a real wild ride living through digital sensors having way worse sensitivity than film, to far surpassing film and even our own eyes
Right! I was wondering if stronger lighting would improve the quality of the shot or not.
Making a glas window would be a nice step in the reset series to unlock glas sheets.
float glass
Are you German?
@@hypocriticalgrammarnazi yes
ye, Windows would be quite interesing and can dispell the myth that "glas floats and therefore is thicker at the bottom" when it's more that it wasn't flat to begin with aaand the the really ancient glas ware from Romans or pharaos hasn't really deformed
Oh man, I'd vove to see any making coloured glass tiles and putting them together with some metal into a coloured class mosaic picture.
I'm glad y'all are still able to keep on going.
Beautiful premise for a booth! great job!
It was the best kind of booth, interactive with a lasting impression!
Super awesome project. The images look surprisingly good!
But I have to get some critique out of my system:
1. No backup, no mercy.
2. Don't fumble around with ribbon cables, they're delicate
Regarding the SD card corruption: next time make the SD card read-only once you have everything set up. A lot of people who run Pis for servers and things will keep the SD cards as read-only with just the OS and then use a USB drive (or other external harddrive) so the SD card can never get corrupted.
Source control would also help. It sounded like you lost all of your code; I've struggled with that enough times that at this point I don't start a single project without setting up a GitHub repository.
I think what might help your channel is making stuff both for fun in the modern day but as a separate series doing your from scratch work. I don't mind the from scratch stuff but do miss you just learning stuff without the small handycaps. Keep up the good work
Agreed, A while back after the recent fire he did a survey asking us what we would want etc. I remember commenting something very much like your comment, I think I said something about that with the reset because he's trying to do it linearly and "unlock" stuff , if he fails then it kinda haults video releases too.
I also really liked the early days where he would remake stuff from scratch today, and show how much work goes into a normal sandwich (like $500).
The 'show' is asking a question about can you rebuild society from scratch by one man, but often times they would prove no you can't. As Andy would get help from people who knew what they were doing. I remember a woman who used to help him with weaving/looming etc
Which is great, it was like making a poignant statement that human civilisation was built by multiple people WORKING together. And Andy was more of a host talking to experts and educational.
I understand the reason why he did the restart , but we lost a of potential/momentum. Becuase at the end of the day Andy is a regular dude and doesn't have the right skills for everything he's trying to do. Because of the reset he didn't even have an anvil, which made his other projects much more difficult.
I've often compared this show to something like Mythbusters, and I think if Andy and the team did what they used to do where if the myth failed they would find out what it would take to make it work.
So if we had andy try to make something and then fail, he then could bring in an 'expert' and find out how to make it. Which would show the value of the skills/knowledge that person and trade has.
----
TLDR: Agreed.
I think your main remaining issue might be axial alignment. Basically curve and and centering of the lenses to each other.
Really cool! Been here since the original lenses series and im not planning on leaving any time soon!
Important advice for anyone doing highly configured/customized Rasbian set ups, get it configured how you want and create an image file you can flash a new SD card with in the future so you can possibly save hours of time if the card corrupts in the future. If you are doing something tomorrow, image it the night before, maybe make a spare SD card so downtime is just how long it takes to reboot after a crash.
This was my most favorite project you did before the reset, and I was sad I'd never get a follow up. AMAZING work on this.
You know, having wood veneer would have come in really handy, for making the telescopic part for the lenses. So I think that one of the projects after calculating what electric motor you can use to equal the water rotating the waterwheel, and after testing multiple methods of power transmission and power conversion between torque and speed, should be making a machine for making veneer from a log (rotating it) or from a plank (shaving it like with a wood plane), and then using the veneer to make a book using charcoal for painting and a mixture of oil and wax for waterproofing the written paper and sealing the ink in place.
Great episode, maybe bring in another expert on old cameras etc? It would be great to see some more colabs :)
the reason the pictures could be so blurry is the fact that maybe the camera itself is out of focus. one of the major things that photographers had to deal with regarding mechanical cameras was having to get the lenses in focus for the sensor to pick up.
I used a camera to build a camera. I love this channel 😂
I always enjoy your videos and I get excited when a new one is released
some more great work! i'd recomned trying an actual ground glass plane instead of the plastic one and also seeing if it produces better images if you use a DSLR instead of you (very clever) raspberry pi scanner. the glass might be performing a lot better than you think!
Absolutely love this channel!
ive been waiting for this for sooo long! this is so awesome
It would be interesting to buy manufactured equivalents of all the components, assemble them into an identical camera and take a picture with that to see what the theoretical maximum achievable quality is. That way you have a target to know how much better is possible and you're not striving for something that may not actually be feasible with your current configuration.
you achieved an excellent result in making your workshop look rustic, imo.
It would be cool to see you implement the daguerreotype later on. The film process doesn’t seem to hard, and I’m sure theirs people who are experts on the topic.
I think he may want to avoid using mercury vapor...
@@benjamincassell3338 Theirs alternative methods, Mercury isn’t always needed.
Yay finally continuing on with the camera
I suggested this idea back when you did the survey a few years ago! Not sure if thats where you got the idea but its so cool that you did it!
If you're looking for a cheap and relatively available ground glass analog, try cinematic/theatrical diffusion gel. Comes in lots of different gradients
I just found your videos and love them. Of course everything you make is a pain in the butt and frustrating, otherwise we would have had them for thousands of years. Most things are incrementally improved, and that can’t even happen until someone else makes a new tool that applies. I can’t wait to see you try to make your first microchip. Seriously though, it would be nice to see you make different kinds of anesthetics from scratch.
5:06 it's a camera inside of a camera. Top tier photography.
Did you try to validate the RPi system with an actual camera lens to see if that wasn't introducing the blur? Also using a scanner to scan an image was a really an interesting idea!
People have actually made really excellent pictures using scanners as ad-hoc pushbroom imagers. The resulting images generally have essentially flawless quality and a very specific aesthetic to them. A lot of work is involved in modifying the scanner to do that though, and obviously they were using good quality modern optics...
I LOVE that you’re going to try to make your own film. I went through the process of making my own photographic paper and developer from scratch and that was quite a challenge. I did eventually get a usable image from it. It’s not the most difficult thing I’ve done but it’s up there on the list. Idk if I can be of any assistance but if you ever need help I’d be happy to help however I can.
Awesome. That work is definitely filling just by watching you do all that. Also, I wonder, is there wet silver plate photography? I'm sure there might be some part of the filming that started photography that should be possible to reproduce before getting into current modern films. either way awesome work again HTME.
outstanding channel as always
Love the channel! Wish I could have been at open sauce
This was one of my favorite projects and I always felt mad about the broken lens. It is indeed a cool idea for this event for sure. I think the blurryness comes from the cristal structure of the glass lens itself. The light is bowed at some point through the lens and the image which actually can be captured by the sensor has gone through these crystal structures. BUT When you have binoculars and a blury image, you have the oportunity to move the lenses carefully by moving the diopter wheel until it is sharp. Maybe you have just to adjust the distance between lenses.
That crack on the lens gives the camera character! Such a wonderful project! Thank you for the great content!
Thank you for attempting this project again!!! It’s tough man!! You did a bad ass job!!!! Thank you again for doing it again, and better! Keep your head in the game and continue to do the content you are great at!!!
The problem with light around the edges of the lens is famous. Galileo talks about it in sidereus nuncius I think.
People didn't use film at the start of photography. I believe the first was a polished copper plate. Then it went to glass. Then film. Some even took the photo directly on sensitized paper. You have plenty of options. Film would be the most difficult. But hey. If you think you could do it, I'd love to see it. Sounds like fun! Love your videos by the way!
I love this project! Everyone knows how a camera works, but how they get made on a technical level is a science only known to so few!
Awesome video, can’t wait to see what you did this time.
Looking forward to watching it
i am also trying to make a lens for my final 8×10 cam from past 4 months. my 1st prototype 5×5 cam which made last year with some black card board, magnifying glass , some sheet from lcd display was good. though i am checking out everyday, what i can do next improvment. i also had taken first 2 photos from it. it feels creazy when you will see the ground glass. also i have no fresnel lens in it. lot more obstructions to do. but also you did a great job. appreciate you.
I think that the image quality issue is more from the separate camera shooting the diffusion and fresnel rather than the lens itself. If you made a lens that was designed to project directly onto a 35mm sensor made the same way it would look completely different and far better.
Great video Andy, looking forward to the next one! If ya ever find yourself out in Waconia let me know and ill gladly buy ya a beer!
Camera for a camera.
I thought this was a reset episode.😂
I continue to be impressed by you, not only because of the great achievements you make, but also the fact that you are making them in spite of your undeniable clumsiness.
Excellent work despite the struggle
First off, great job. You've done what I have dreamt of doing for over a decade (making glass, and making a lens with it). I have also had plans to make a large format scanner back camera. I think a couple of your biggest issues is getting your image and/or sensor in the focal plane. When focusing on your ground glass, did you factor in the glass thickness? Also, you may have been able to bypass your "focusing screen" altogether by simply having the scanner's optics in your lens's focal plane. It should then be capturing the image coming straight out of the lens.
Everytime I work up a head of steam to try out making my own lens, I watch Hyugens Optics. That usually puts me back in my place lol. Lens making is a craft featuring equal parts art and science.
From what I remember, is the graininess is caused by not enough light getting into the lenses, that's why old cameras had such large flash boxes
This is cool as heck!
It was so great to meet you at the creator talk! Thanks for doing what you're doing and answering our increasingly bizarre questions! I was that fella with the jean vest and oval glasses lol.
Considering how large the front element is and how short the focal length is, that's going to one hecking fast lens! That likely is your issue with the resulting softness. Creating fast aperture, wide angle lenses is really really tricky. Narrowing the aperture down synthetically with an aperture mask or blades would help a lot, as it does in the real photography world. Look at how crappy some of the early fast lenses were and how big of a difference stopping down from F1.4 to F4 would be. Finally, your actual back focus might be off. Even if your lens is perfectly in focus with pristine optics, if the sensor is too close or too far away it won't reach critical focus and that'll be exacerbated by a fast aperture lens.
Still so hard for me to see you making glass without thinking of that time you were cutting it with a circular bit in your sink, haha!
Keep being awesome man,
I love how Andy keeps trying, practicing, and improving. Just like in real life!
Seriously impressive
11:40 aahhhh, the importance of solid backups... Nobody ever things they're needed until they're REALLY needed.
The process is why I’ve watched all your videos over the past 4 years
Entirely Ditching the ground glass and only using a fresnel lens would probably help a lot as both acomplish the same job of projecting onto a 'clear' plane. Only the fresnes is less grainy and a lot brighter.
such an awesome channel
Need an Iris to increase f stop to widen the feild of focus... Need alot of light but I think that would make a big difference.. Just a peice of wood with different holes to try it out maybe??
The photos generated are quite cool!
i mean this endearingly but this is the most absolute professionally jank maker channel on yt
Another idea is a scanner for a cellphone. They do make them. Unsure if it would work, but it is an idea.
could you use lenses for refining materials or creating electricity?
did you try with Raspberry camera HD sensor module? also for the analog side, did you consider doing a daguerreotype camera? Like from Spain!
different color focuses at different points through a refracting lens, and can't reach good focus with broadband light. Does a single color using something like a gel filter reach good focus?
i got to use that it was realy cool
Could the cyanotype process work for making your own film? I'd think it might be easier to acquire the materials than with silver or other precious metal processes.
I've used cyanotype in-camera with decent results. It does require quite a bit of light, though. What's the f/? Of the lens you've made? I've used f/1 in winter and f/3.5 in summer.
Nice!!!
The cameraman has been born! While the camera may have only just been created the camera transcends time itself as it has always spiritually been reborn into a new being to document the world and now we are watching it’s form be finally created. Such an amazing event to watch!
I would look into telescope making literature for fixing the sharpness on your lenses. There are ways to test the accuracy of the curvature of your lense surfaces to ensure a crisp sharp focus.
Luckily for the editor the whole “blurring strangers faces” thing is pretty much done on site lol
you add something like the explosive flash those old cameras had and it would be perfect
Maybe make back ups of any programming you do etc on your computer so if the SD card gets corrupted you can just reload it. Oh try a strong spot light or better 2 with the camera it'll really help the image. Also are your lenses aligned right?
I was gonna make a joke about how you're the guy that makes the crappy security cameras, but I think it looks better
I swear like twice a week I learn about someone else that went to open sauce.
Man I wish I could've went. I hope they do it again next year. I'm definitely going if they do.
Well.. i haven't watched the video/s where you make the lens and glass, and i might be completely wrong here as well, but here's some thoughts as to why the images aren't as sharp as you might have hoped.
1: This one is certainly the thing i have the least amount of knowledge of. Maybe your glass isn't as smooth as it should? I mean you can polish it til you go through it and all, but is there's "large grains" in the glass itself then no amount of polishing will help as you only make those grain larger by magnifying them.. right?
2: Many have said this, but light is important. I would also suggest testing where your lens works at its best. While you can buy a lens that says 60mm-100mm its best performance might be at 80mm.
3: Maybe try moving the magnifying element further or closer to the outer glass if possible?
You have probably thought of/tried these things already, but they are my surface thoughts nonetheless.
Something that just hit me. The scanner part you use, isn't that supposed to magnify things that are really close to it? I know the glass helps the zoom part of the thing, but could that be the problem?
Nice job. Ps try to use ssd with pi4 when its important.
I think I can help you there, as a photographer who works with old cameras, i know that a image that is projected onto a surface like the ground glass will never be really sharp, which is why it was removed from old cameras before the negative was inserted.
It is best if the sensor is placed exactly where the glass was.
He has a large-format lens and a tiny sensor, so he follows the "digital obscura" approach. He can't do what you suggest, even though you'd otherwise be right.
more light for the iso and shutter you are at would improve clarity i think. Longer expsure might also help, at lower iso. That would ironically mean blurry photos if people didnt stand still..
Is that Destin ( Smarter Every Day) I spot in the bottom right @ 13:16?
You should try making a telescope as the step just before a camera, and also because of the historical significance of the telescope and astronomy in developing the scientific method.
A task of Herculean proportions. Just amazing
I think it's very considerate of you to blur the faces of all the people who tried it out! 😁
The photo at 0:09 where is William in that photo? Did he miss going to Crunch Labs because the event? That photo is so cool though.
Best channel
IIRC the distance between the lenses can help with crispness in the image. Which has to do with the angles in the different lenses. Not sure if that is what's going on here though.
Always be sure to back up work on an external drive. Then corruption doesn't take more time, just reinstall the data from the external drive.
Lessons learned the hard way provide solutions to make future lessons easier to learn and recover from.
Did you polish both side? Also you may have not gone to a fine enough grit size as well.
Need a better sensor. And fine focusing. Maybe repurpose a micrometre for dialling in the focus.
It will look better on film as it is now.
I sort of wonder if the problem is internal to one or more of the lenses, rather than on the surface of any of them. Also, before doing film, have you considered doing Daguerreotypes?
Yeah, I'm looking into possibly attempting Daguerreotypes first. Most forms of film appear to have the same roadblock of needing to make pure nitric acid to produce the reactants, but Daguerreotypes sound like they might offer an option I can do sooner.
i remember when i first saw that camera, i was really surprised
The diffuse layer
Youd probably want to make brass sheeting and use that
the blur noise on your pics seem to be consistent (=same on all pics), you could record some grey light and take the furier transform from it to remove it from all pics. this would fix them quite quickly
If you get enough knowledge you could do a cameo with a chemistry RUclipsr to make aluminium like it was in the 1850/60s using that periods electronics