Author Topic: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?  (Read 117443 times)

Erik Lund

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #195 on: March 08, 2017, 22:40:28 »
There is a reason I use D200 for [IR] and a Leica M9,,, CCD,,,
Erik Lund

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #196 on: March 08, 2017, 22:59:40 »
I have the Monochrom for the very same reason as well. I love the files from that camera :)

null

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #197 on: March 09, 2017, 01:11:48 »
This is the first Infrared DCS series camera sold by Kodak, the DCS200ir.

kodak_front by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Bought ~1993, a long time ago! It still works, stored 50 images to an internal 80MByte SCSI drive. This is a rare camera, quickly replaced by the DCS420ir.

Not cameras- but Infrared Scopes.

c1_1 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

The one on the left is a RCA Type C-1- a prototype, circa 1940. The one next to it was put into production and used in WW-II, a Type C-3.

Both still work, have the original electron tubes.

null

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #198 on: March 09, 2017, 01:23:39 »
Leica M8, Orange filter to block Blue Light, custom Raw Processor written in Fortran.

I1015897 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I1015954 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I1016007 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

m8_nikkor5cmF14 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I have adapters to use S-Mount and Contax mount lenses with my Leicas.

The Leica M8 has a 5% IR leakage. Using "M8RAW2DNG" gives enough range to use the Blue channel as IR only using an Orange filter.

CCD's have much higher response in the IR compared with CMOS.

One of my custom Raw processors running...

Toughbooks by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

converting M Monochrom 14-bit DNG to 16-bit DNG using a Gamma curve. The IR processor is like this as well, equalized Blue with green and red, then does a swap between red and blue channels. The Panasonic CF-52 has Native USB support under DOS, software uses PharLap extended DOS to use all of memory. This was fun. I'm a computer geek. Most of the code was written 30 years ago.

Bern

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #199 on: March 09, 2017, 03:31:21 »
i have been interested with IR for quite some time already. At around October last year I found a good deal for a D200 for coversion to IR. It was like giving a new lease in life to a old but still excellent body. The articles here about which camera would be a good IR candidate helped a whole lot. Here is the first few ones taken with D200IR combined with a 20mm G lens.

Keep shooting,
Bern

Erik Lund

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #200 on: March 09, 2017, 08:53:16 »
The M8RAW2DNG conversion program you posted on the Leica Camera Forum, was what made me upgrade from the Leica M8.2 to Leica M9, when I saw the excellent uncompressed RAW files I knew the M9 full frame would be able to deliver CCD images of good enough quality for my use. Thank You!
Erik Lund

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #201 on: March 09, 2017, 11:31:41 »
Erik- Thankyou.

I bought the M9 a year after the M8, one of the main reasons was to get uncompressed DNG images. Hard to believe that Leica destroyed the output of the Kodak CCD with such an awful compression scheme.

BW

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #202 on: March 09, 2017, 15:42:29 »
I'm sorry, but is there a program to "un"-compress (not sure if that even is a word?) the CCD-files from the M Monochrom? And if there is where do I download it and is it compatible with OSX?

Arninetyes

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #203 on: March 09, 2017, 17:29:13 »
This lens is fairly easy to modify for even more close focusing, down to 19 cm,,,

19cm? Is this by addition of the K1 ring, or are you talking about something else? Because I'd love to be able to focus a bit closer. 

null

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #204 on: March 09, 2017, 17:46:49 »
I'm sorry, but is there a program to "un"-compress (not sure if that even is a word?) the CCD-files from the M Monochrom? And if there is where do I download it and is it compatible with OSX?

The M Monochrom DNG files store 14-bit (no compression used) pixels, the output from the A/D process. The A/D process is "linear". I wanted to add a Gamma Curve to the image, which meant stretching the 14-bit values to 16-bits as not to lose resolution.

https://www.leicaplace.com/threads/adding-a-gamma-curve-to-a-digital-image-thinking-out-loud-and-experiments.1188/

It was an outlet for a decade (1980s) worth of image processing code to be used on my favorite camera.

I do not know of another program that does this- but would be glad to share the lessons learned for parsing the M Monochrom files. This would require someone writing some code for OSX.

BW

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #205 on: March 09, 2017, 18:14:19 »
I have no idea how this works or what you are doing, but I can clearly see that you are able to get some extra contrast/density in the blacks using your program to apply curves or gamma correction to the files :) What I dont understand is how this could add those extra bits to the excisting linear light respons..? Or explained differently, how this differs from adding an s-curve to the image? But I would love to play with a program that could do it :)

David H. Hartman

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #206 on: March 09, 2017, 19:24:08 »
Using curves in Photoshop which may need Linear Blending to avoid excessive color saturation, or LCH Master Brightness (Lightness, Chroma, Hue) in CaptureNX2 or CaptureNX-D does not change the end points of black and white so in that sense is not lousy but it does increase the mid tone contrast at the expense of shadow and highlight contrast. I bought Gray FX and Aldus Photostyler to gain the curves feature.

Compression of shadows and highlights has been a part of photography for more than a century. With B&W negatives the toe of the film compresses the shadows and the toe of the printing paper compresses the highlights to render mid tone contrast that looks natural to eye and mind.

In Nikon software the use of the Neutral and Flat Picture Controls along with Exposure Compensation and Active D-Lighting allows recovering considerable highlights. Other RAW conversion software has similar features and many camera makers offer their versions of Active D-Lighting by other names. Ansel Adams spoke of these days in an interview I read back in perhaps 1982. I thought of the stories of Moses looking from the mountain top in to the promised land.

Today's software allows extreme control of whatever the camera offers one in a RAW image file.

Dave Hartman
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Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #207 on: March 09, 2017, 19:28:44 »
19cm? Is this by addition of the K1 ring, or are you talking about something else? Because I'd love to be able to focus a bit closer.

Erik does this by magic inside the lens itself. I have one of these 'enhanced' 20/3.5 units myself.

null

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #208 on: March 09, 2017, 21:24:56 »
GAMMA by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

My rationale for mapping the 14 bits to 16 bits was to apply a curve without causing intensity values to get lumped together in the same bin. By scaling the 14-bit values to 16-bits, more intensity bins to apply the curve. I need to port some of this code to a modern compiler.

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Re: Do you still use an "obsolete" camera?
« Reply #209 on: March 09, 2017, 21:51:40 »
Ok, I think I understand. You are "stretching" the curve to avoid that two values appear as the same value and thus not end up with the same intensity after applying the sigmoid curve? I have a pretty steep learning curve as you might have noticed ;D I am more interested in the outcome between the four lines, than the "magic" behind it ;)