Month: August 2016

Digital Super 8 outdoors test

Posted on by digitalsuper8

We took the wearable control unit and the Digital Super 8 cartridge outside for some portable testing.

At dusk we shot the grapes growing in the garden. First part is dark at 200 ASA but we also tested the autogain function that increases the CMOS sensor gain as necessary, leading to better brightness. At the cost of noise in the images of course.

We decided to not color correct the images, just take the 12 bit RAW images (as always) and do the gamma correction. But leaving brightness, saturation, contrast, red, blue and green in their default state. Pretty pleasing results, filmed with the Nizo 481 macro lense at dusk.

 

Code update – 2

Posted on by digitalsuper8

During our last coding session we developed the ‘ConnectCam’ button. This button allows users to functionally re-connect the digital super 8 cartridge to the raspberry pi control unit.

This comes in handy in case the USB cable between control unit and cartridge gets accidentally disconnected or wasn’t connected before the control application was started. This will help users solve small issues that may lead to a ‘DS8 Cartridge not connected’ error messages in the application.

Black Edition Nizo 801 Macro

Posted on by digitalsuper8

Last week we picked up a mint condition black edition Nizo 801 Macro super 8 camera. And it came packaged in an original Braun Nizo ‘Trickbox’, including working charger and power supply.

We’ll check the camera and service it. Also apply the mod where we build in a voltage regulator circuit so the camera will not need 1.35V button batteries that are hard to come by.

Code development update

Posted on by digitalsuper8

The code we develop for the Digital Super 8 cartridge has 2 major functions. One is to start up and control the cartridge and start and stop image capturing mode. In capture mode the cartridge will record RAW images as the user shoots with the Super 8 camera.

The other function is to post-process the captured images (color grading, brightness and contract corrections and gamma correction) and to ‘develop’ the captured digital super 8 images into a video file (either uncompressed or MPEG compressed).

One key change currently being worked on is to split the application into 2 separate ones. One for controlling the cartridge, tweak settings and start/stop image capture mode. The other for post-processing, so after filming is done this application is a small but fully standalone image processor and video rendering app.

Another major step is to develop a ‘re-connect’ function to give the application better performance for cases where due to whatever reason the usb cable (between cartridge and external module) is disconnected.