Debayering a DSLR's Bayer matrix.

[Tf2k]

damn, not deep enough? *opens camera again*

lets see...

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.

[Gina]

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

That is exactly what I did. Edited August 17, 2013 by Gina

[JamesF]

Does that DLL exist on your machine at all, GIna?

James

[Gina]

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

My Win 7 is fully up-to-date.

[JamesF]

Actually, there's probably no reason you couldn't run dcraw on Linux, Gina.

James

[Gina]

Does that DLL exist on your machine at all, GIna?

James

No it doesn't - I've just run a search. I'm a bit loathe to download any of the "fixes" listed by Google as this is a known way of catching a nasty.

[JamesF]

No it doesn't - I've just run a search. I'm a bit loathe to download any of the "fixes" listed by Google as this is a known way of catching a nasty.

I quite agree. Give it a whirl on Linux instead.

James

[Gina]

Just been going over the 1100D sensor very carefully removing the last few bits of CFA. Not easy but with lots of patience...

I have taken some more flats. Here's an example. Something has gone wrong Tried various exposures and I think this would be about right.

[Gina]

I quite agree. Give it a whirl on Linux instead.

James

Yes, will do.

[JamesF]

Just been going over the 1100D sensor very carefully removing the last few bits of CFA. Not easy but with lots of patience...

I have taken some more flats. Here's an example. Something has gone wrong Tried various exposures and I think this would be about right.

That's odd. Looking back at your previous image there's a definite darkening to that side of the image though. I wonder if the actual problem occurred earlier on?

It doesn't render the sensor entirely unusable, I guess. You'd just have to position the image on the working section and crop the rest off.

James.

[Gina]

True. There's still a hint of some CFA specs but flats would probably cope with that and they're mostly round the edge anyway. Otherwise, most of the field seems remarkable flat. I think the fine lines might disappear with flats too. OTOH, hopefully I have another sensor coming to have a go at - with a duff camera ther's no guarantee that any of it works of course.

The shading on that side before was where I had scraped off some of the epoxy resin that had gone over the imaging area - I was careful not to apply pressure to the sensor surface though. I'm going to strip down again and carefully examine the sensor.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Gina

[Gina]

Stripped down and examined the sensor - nothing I could see. Also tried exposing without a lens on and result was the same except that the resultant image was somewhat different when I gave it a long time - several seconds. I wanted to see if the shutter was opening fully - it was, the whole sensor imaging area was visible.

These are JPEGs so I guess there's gamma corection to try to fit the image within the 8 bit range. I'll see if I can sort out DCRaw tomorrow.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Gina

[alistairsam]

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?

hi

have a search on the CN forun. guylian and one other have debayered a nikon although I think the model they tried was a cmos.

Alistair

[alistairsam]

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 did you try heating the glass like others have done here with a hot air gun?

[Tf2k]

i haven't tried it, because the Sensor Package is made of plastic, like someone in this thread mentioned before.

[billhinge]

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

You can download the free trial of Pixinsight, it uses dcraw for reading DSLR images and allows you to set various settings to read your RAW file and shows the image in PI (you can then use the histogram tool to stretch it )

[Gina]

Thank you Bill - that's interesting, I'll do that

[Gina]

Been thinking about how to proceed with the next sensor (oh yes, there will be a "next sensor"). I might use a sensor from one of my ambient cooled 1100Ds while I'm waiting for the duff camera to arrive.

1. Cover glass removal will be the same - that went well
   
2. I shall apply epoxy resin all round the sensor covering the edge up to the imaging area but with more care so as not to apply too much.
   
3. I think scraping the CFA off is alright in that there are no scratches this time. With no scratches to be seen I don't think I went too deep on the imaging surface - must have been the edge, under the blue border. Maybe I caught it when I did some centre scraping before I applied the second coat of epoxy. That's all I can think of ATM.
   

Having said that, one thing that occurs to me is that I'm wondering why that tiny bit of electronics isn't covered by the blue layer. There must be a reason for creating that little rectangular gap. Two possibilities occur to me - letting the light in or providing better cooling. Maybe I'll NOT cover that with epoxy and just be extra careful and not scrape up to there. I wonder...

[Gina]

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

Hmmmmm... this shows all well with epoxy well covering the the tiny rectangle. I don't know... (Post #779)

The problem at the RHS only showed after that lat cleaning up - most puzzling.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Gina

[Gina]

Here is the tiny circuitry at extreme magnification. Top right in this pic there would appear to be a matrix of 6x6 light sensors with the usual quads of RGGB colour CFA and what appears to be micro lenses on top but the latter could be my over active imagination.

[Cath]

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

Hi Gina

Where did you get the dcraw file from I wonder?

The one you have is compiled for running in multi-core mode (for speed). If you try a dcraw that is compiled for single core you won't get that message.

[Gina]

Thank you Cath

Manuel Lloren's site, RAWness. Digital Photography Science is the most recommended download site for Windows users. There we can find compiled versions for all Windows platforms (XP, Vista, Windows 7) both for 32 and 64 bits and with different levels of optimisation.

This is where I got it as recommended by Guillermo Luijk 2007 http://www.guillermoluijk.com/tutorial/dcraw/index_en.htm Rather an old tutorial actually. I'll find another from Google.

[Gina]

Yippee! Found one that works (well, at least it lists it's help) - dcrawMS.exe from http://www.insflug.org/raw/Downloads/ Tried the dcraw.exe from there and it was 32bit only - wouldn't work with 64bit Win 7.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Gina

[billhinge]

Thank you Bill - that's interesting, I'll do that

Under View > Explorer Windows > Format Explorer > DSLR_RAW

[Cath]

Yippee! Found one that works (well, at least it lists it's help) - dcrawMS.exe from http://www.insflug.org/raw/Downloads/ Tried the dcraw.exe from there and it was 32bit only - wouldn't work with 64bit Win 7.

You can also get dcraw from here ..

http://www.centrostudiprogressofotografico.it/en/dcraw/