Apertus – Open-Source Camera | Hacker News Reader

Apertus – Open-Source Camera

apertus.org

184 pointskaladin-jasnah34 comments

Back in 2019, I submitted a GSOC proposal for Apertus. They wanted to add frame serving capability [1] to their RAW image processing software OpenCine [2]. Even though my proposal was rejected, I ended up learning a lot from their coding challenge [3] which was mandatory for submitting a proposal.

Reading research papers to understand Demosaicing [4], learning C++ coding guidelines, RAW file format, code reviews and feedback from Andrej and others at Apertus was really fun. At the time I was still a sophomore at college so I asked and made a ton of mistakes. Thanks Andrej [5] and team for being patient with so many of us! :)

[1] https://lab.apertus.org/T763

[2] https://www.apertus.org/en/opencine

[3] https://lab.apertus.org/T872

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosaicing

[5] https://github.com/BAndiT1983

Problem with any non-mass-produced camera seems currently the availability of image sensors. It seems that the only small-batch available sensors are for machine-vision and accordingly priced :/ The CMV12000 used here costs $2000-$2200 per sensor - more than many full-frame mirrorless cameras.

Another problem is that there are no development boards as far as I'm aware. That's why this imo could be huge for anyone else interested in making an open camera, the apertus project seems to have a modular architecture and breakout board for components!

That said, the sensor does have a globoal shutter which would be huge for cinema but not sure at what tradeoffs in dynamic range or color-depth eg.

Are broken full-frame cameras becoming available? Where large sensors might be sourced from? I see quite a few sensors available on ebay. Problem then might be getting specs.

For a global shutter sensor that big that seems kind of reasonable.

Been buying smaller sensors, building multi camera machines, for researching projects and I like that thing.

Open hardware, i wish I was doing cinema to buy that thing, gorgeous!

Do you write your software to use the small sensor from scratch or do you build on top of existing libraries?

i used MIPI sensors on jetson, and while the drivers were provided by the manufacturer we wrote a a python/c++ library based on V4L2 to acquire images

You're correct, but if a company invest money in this project, just like all big open-source projects, it can work.

Here’s another project using a more affordable full frame kodak ccd with global shutter

https://www.diyphotography.net/the-sitina-1-is-a-full-frame-...

https://gitlab.com/zephray/sitina1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Ma9FrN5COIo

Some people like ccd better than cmos for the color range.

Global shutter is pretty desirable for machine vision applications like robotics, especially if that shutter is also externally triggerable on a gpio pin so that you can perfectly sync up all your cams.

Site has been HNed.

Github: https://github.com/apertus-open-source-cinema

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20231126141132/https://www.apert...

"open source and open hardware cinema camera" that is, so like RED cam or something like it I guess.

Red is neither open source nor open hardware.

I believe the comparison was to the class of camera. I.e. this is more for cinematography than photography

I don't think RED is open source, is it?

Came here expecting a still camera myself ended up disappointed.

Check out the CinePi, it's a raspberry pi based camera that's being developed by several people:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/cinepi-a-high-end-film-came...

Archive Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20231126153221/https://www.apert...

Just far too expensive. I'm the exact target audience for this thing, it's beyond scope financially. Create a barebones proof of concept kit, but this is a non-starter solution for 70% of the audience interested.

I assume you're a professional cinematographer/hacker. What would you choose over this?

At that budget? A basic nVidia Jetson Board, a fancy mono sensor of choice, a bunch of extra CSI lanes beyond reasonable scope and I'd prefer to enjoy/embrace a software first pipeline/workflow stack for the data akin to gnu-radio-companion. That's where my itch would be. At this budget I'd want to be experimenting in the stitching sensors game. I'd prefer focus there if I'm throwing money away. Otherwise I'd scratch the itch more wisely with a pi stack :(

With css this bad, I don’t think I’m capable

What's wrong with the CSS? The site seems to be HNed, but as per archive.org the CSS is clearly better than most.

It’s a bit Web 2.0core but functional enough.

The style might be, but the CSS isn't, seems there is css variables and flex usage, that's not web 2.0.

Honestly it would make more sense to buy an old $300 Canon camera, install Magic Lantern (or CHDK)

Hate to say it, but in my experience open source hardware is always been poor quality, unless it's a single board computer.

This targets a different class of imaging. It is meant to compete with equipment typically used to film movies, which cost significantly more.

Yes, but the Canon 5D has been used for (some) professional movies.

Canon 5D markIII with MagicLantern could produce superb RAW footages. I never graded better source material.

Unfortunately, production is huge luck. You cannot preview recorded footages (only BW, low res, low framerate preview). Postproduction require extra step of converting fotages to something more common like ProRes 422. Which is another place for error.

TLDR it is not suitable for professional production because of lack of preview on set.

It's an interesting project, but €4k for a camera without autofocus doesn't seem attractive.

Professional cameras often do not have auto focus, compare to some RED camera models. You either prepare your focus points ahead of time or you work in teams, where your camera assistants act as the "auto" focus.

Indeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_puller

That makes sense, I guess I missed that it's a cinecam not a still camera.

If it has a focus ring motor that’s controllable via the API, you could write your own autofocus algorithm.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com