Debayering a DSLR's Bayer matrix.

[Chris]

I would also be very interested in seeing the tools used to remove the CFA if anyone has some pics? It might help establish what works best in terms of shape further to knowing the material.

I'm still watching Ebay looking for a DLSR cheap enough. Very nearly bought a 300D bundle for 44+6 postage. tempted to put in a bit extra as 350D's are a fair bit better for not that much more money.

Might have to sell a lens or something to get the money together

Chris

[Tf2k]

Damn, i killed some gold wires on my 350D on the first attempt.

But the work on a spare Nikon D40 it worked , with shattered Sensor Glass. pried it of, piece by piece...

didn't had the right chemicals or a brush here, so i scraped the CFA off with a toothpick and Gasket Remover.

Too bad, wasn't patient enough, got some bad scratches in the Sensor. But it worked.

[alistairsam]

Damn, i killed some gold wires on my 350D on the first attempt.

But the work on a spare Nikon D40 it worked , with shattered Sensor Glass. pried it of, piece by piece...

didn't had the right chemicals or a brush here, so i scraped the CFA off with a toothpick and Gasket Remover.

Too bad, wasn't patient enough, got some bad scratches in the Sensor. But it worked.

hi

is the d40 ccd or cmos?

isnt this the same sony sensor on the qhy8

is it working? any pics of the sensor?

cheers

Alistair

[Gina]

Most of the CFA removed - just a few very awkward bits left, mostly round the edge.

[Gina]

Looks like I missed a fair bit of action with all the epoxy and debayering going on.

i've done a 350d and 1000d and didn't hit the issue with the blue on the sides going too far. but yeah good to know.

i just got my hot air rework station delivered, waiting for the 600d replacement sensor to arrive.

i will then start with it but not sure if i'll do the epoxy bit.

we'll see.

do you have a pic of the copper tool you're using Gina?

how much more to go before debayering and testing the 1100d sensor?

Cheers

Alistair

I would definitely recommend the epoxy to protect the delicate bits.

I'll post a couple of pics of my bit of scrap copper shortly

[Tf2k]

Hi,

the D40 should be CCD. Yes, the d40 is working

here are some pictures:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11450954/D40_Sensor.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11450954/D40_Sensor2.jpg

RAW File from Camera, converted with dcraw in monochrome:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11450954/DSC_1155.jpg

hi

is the d40 ccd or cmos?

isnt this the same sony sensor on the qhy8

is it working? any pics of the sensor?

[...]

[Gina]

This is what I've been using to scrape off the CFA. Far from brilliant - just an odd scrap of copper sheet I trimmed off something that happened to be a suitable size. I sanded the end into a chisel shape (not very expertly).

[JamesF]

That looks like it would fit rather neatly into an X-Acto handle

James

[Gina]

It might do - I just used it in my fingers to apply the minimum pressure on the sensor.

[Gina]

Trying to remove the last vestiges of CFA (and also scraped away some of the excess epoxy resin covering the sensor imaging area). Here's a photo of the sensor and a flat image taken using a tissue stretched over the lens hood and secured with an elastic band.

The current images are JPEG and next thing I want to do is to is pass the CR2 files through DCRaw and convert them to 16bit TIFF files with no debayering and no other adjustments - just a linear conversion.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Gina

[alistairsam]

Hi,

the D40 should be CCD. Yes, the d40 is working

here are some pictures:

https://dl.dropboxus.../D40_Sensor.jpg

https://dl.dropboxus...D40_Sensor2.jpg

RAW File from Camera, converted with dcraw in monochrome:

https://dl.dropboxus...54/DSC_1155.jpg

Hi, are you able to post a link to the raw file? is the bayer matrix still present or is that because the software still debayered the image?

how difficult was the D40?

I'd think that the CCD should be a lot more sensitive than all the CMOS sensors we're trying

Cheers

Alistair

[flolic]

I finished my camera, everything is working great!

I leaved some CFA remains on the edges because I didn't wanted to push my luck this time. But I can easily crop this.

I am going to dark location tonight, unfortunately Moon is big but I just want to see how this work.

Last night I did some test exposures to see if cooling works. I can get 30C below the ambient without any problems with condensation.

This is 100% crop, stacked 10 exposures at ISO1600 and with sensor temperature of -5C.

Details and resolution is outstanding

[flolic]

And full frame

[Chris]

Wow! these monochrome images work very nicely for general photography also, definately gives a certain quality to them.

Well done flolic, looks great! Have fun at the dark site, hope the Moon isn't too annoying for you

Edited August 17, 2013 by starfox

[JamesF]

That really does look excellent. Well done.

James

[Gina]

Wonderful You have such a small amount of CFA left round the edge I wouldn't worry about it. Not worth risking going too far. I've still got a lot left around the edge of mine

[Gina]

I've been getting ready to use DCRaw but W7 64bit Pro doesn't seem to have "Execute" from the Start button unlike earlier versions. At least I can't see it

Cancel that - found it Start > Accessories > Command Prompt

Edited August 17, 2013 by Gina

[pixueto]

I'd think that the CCD should be a lot more sensitive than all the CMOS sensors we're trying

Cheers

Alistair

It's something I can't get out of my mind Alistair. It's also been said here that temoving the CFA from a CCD DSLR is much easier. It would be nice to have a go at, say a Nikon D80 or D3000. They are sold second hand at reasonable prices.

Now how good are these cameras for astrophotography? Is the noise ok? Anybody knows or can find some examples in the internet?

Edited August 17, 2013 by pixueto

[pixueto]

I finished my camera, everything is working great!

I leaved some CFA remains on the edges because I didn't wanted to push my luck this time. But I can easily crop this.

I am going to dark location tonight, unfortunately Moon is big but I just want to see how this work.

Last night I did some test exposures to see if cooling works. I can get 30C below the ambient without any problems with condensation.

This is 100% crop, stacked 10 exposures at ISO1600 and with sensor temperature of -5C.

Details and resolution is outstanding

Hi Filip. What control have you got over the raw files in your nikon D40? Are they real raw files? Do you think the solvent method will work with that sensor?

Edited August 17, 2013 by pixueto

[Gina]

Still having problems getting DCRaw running Now getting this error message.

[Tf2k]

i shot another picture, JPG and RAW directly from Camera.

how do i determine, that the bayer matrix has been removed completely?

While i was scraping, i got down through 2? coloured layers...

i don't know if i should try to go deeper on the Sensor, don't have a good solvent or a good tool to scrape... don't want to damage the sensor.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11450954/DSC_1193.JPG

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11450954/DSC_1193.NEF

the removal of the cover glass on the d40 Sensor was the hardest part.

Got it removed with brute force, did a square cut with a glass cutter and drilled on one side into the glass, to make it break.

pried the Sensor Glass off one by one.

As soon the glass is removed, there were much less wires on the Chip, so the work could be done easily.

Scraping the CFA was a bit hard, i would say; harder than on my killed Eos 350D.

Greetings,

Tf2k

Hi, are you able to post a link to the raw file? is the bayer matrix still present or is that because the software still debayered the image?

how difficult was the D40?

[...]

[pixueto]

Gina, don't try to run the exe file. Simply copy it into the location:

C:\WINDOWS\

Then call cdraw from the MS-DOS prompt console

[pixueto]

i shot another picture, JPG and RAW directly from Camera.

how do i determine, that the bayer matrix has been removed completely?

While i was scraping, i got down through 2? coloured layers...

i don't know if i should try to go deeper on the Sensor, don't have a good solvent or a good tool to scrape... don't want to damage the sensor.

https://dl.dropboxus...54/DSC_1193.JPG

https://dl.dropboxus...54/DSC_1193.NEF

the removal of the cover glass on the d40 Sensor was the hardest part.

Got it removed with brute force, did a square cut with a glass cutter and drilled on one side into the glass, to make it break.

pried the Sensor Glass off one by one.

As soon the glass is removed, there were much less wires on the Chip, so the work could be done easily.

Scraping the CFA was a bit hard, i would say; harder than on my killed Eos 350D.

Greetings,

Tf2k

I've opened your raw file with ufodcraw and it's showing a picture in colour. Not sure what's going on here. It's as if the CFA is still there.

[pixueto]

Here it is.

[pixueto]

Also Gina, for dcraw to work you must have the Microsoft SP2 or SP3 installed.