New Raspberry Pi Camera

[fireshipjohn]

Hi,

I see there is a new official camera for the Raspberry Pi, 12 megapixel Sony IMX477 sensor, C/CS mount. 

What possibilities does it have for us? All-sky, Guider, Peltier addition or maybe a  lower risk way to Debayer

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-product-raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera-on-sale-now-at-50/

John

[Stuart1971]

Hmmmm, looks very interesting... 👍

[animal666]

Just been looking at that. 👍

[Gina]

Very interesting indeed.  Thank you for the "heads up".

[Chriske]

That picture of the Moon, made by that camera, looks rather dull. Just out of focus or is there something wrong..?

[Gina]

It looks out of focus to me.  The other images are much sharper.

[fireshipjohn]

That moon picture is the old camera from 2016

 

[Chriske]

Strange, I'd think promoting a camera, you do your best to show prefect, if not your best pictures...

[Gina]

I agree. 

[Star101]

OK, its only £50, not £500.

I checked the net and there are a lot of Pi cameras claiming to be High Quality Pi cameras....but they are NOT The Sony IMX477 chip !

I found this site for UK that does sell the correct Chip even if they do have a typo in their Spec saying 3 megapixels. lol. It is the 12Mp sensor.

High Quality Pi camera with Sony IMX477 sensor.

 

Enjoy

Dave.

 

[Gina]

For use in an all sky camera I would need to know the minimum dimension which is the height which they don't seem to give.  As usual the give the diagonal (as 7.9mm).  I thought at first that the sensor was square but it seems not but they don't give the actual dimensions.

[Gina]

Found spec for the sensor - HERE.  Aspect ratio is 4:3.  Sensor height = 4.56mm.  Not enough for my ASC!  Oh well it was a  thought, I'll stick with the ASI178 camera.  OTOH I'll think about it.  The Pi camera would be much easier to accommodate and cool. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Gina

[Star101]

Free Camera Guide. as a PDF.

 

Dave

[festoon]

There's a parallel thread to this on the same topic...I too think this is a very interesting development.

Looks very interesting given that you can interchange the lens with the C/CS mount

Looking at the spec of the IMX477 sensor https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products/common/pdf/IMX477-AACK_Flyer.pdf

The units of sensitivity are LSB at F2.8 with 1/120s integration. For all the other IMX sensors that I've compared this is usualy expressed in mV at F5.6 and 1/30s integration. Does anyone know a conversion factor between the two?

I would be very interested in this if it compared well to an IMX385 or IMX224

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by festoon

[Gina]

I thought that wasn't the same sensor but diagonal of 7.857 mm is near enough Pi camera's 7.9mm and I misread square pixel as square sensor but it's 4:3 aspect ratio same as the Pi.

Edited to correct my error!!!

Edited April 30, 2020 by Gina

[DaveL59]

looks interesting, wonder if it can handle a switchable IR-Cut filter if you swap the CS lens holder out with one that has it and drive that via a switchable output line?

I'd be almost tempted to move my skycam2 from the 5MP CCTV module to one of these if the sensor suits the existing CS lenses I have, tho I'd have to learn PI from scratch. I assume it'll be easy to access via LAN ?

[Fellside]

Hi

I've thought about a All Sky Camera in the past but could never find a suitable second hand camera. This camera has got me thinking about it again. What lens would you recommend for all sky use? How wide an angle etc.

Graham

[DaveL59]

I guess the lens would depend on the sensor size as they're built around creating an image circle of a specific size, say for a 1/2.7-inch sensor. If you get a lens for a larger sensor then you'll have cropped  the edges, much as mine does here

That one's a IMX290/291 sensor based CCTV module and if I recall a 2.1mm F2 lens giving around 160-170 degree wide view. The other camera is a newer IMX with a CS lens at 2.5mm F2 IIRC which gives around 150 degree wide hence its tilted to give a lower view to the SE as that's at least going to catch the sparkly things as they track across the sky 😉 chip. I've an el cheapo sky camera thread with the details on what I did somewhere in the DIY section.

Both crop as you can see, a potential downside of HD oriented sensor format and finding a lens to give a small enough image circle to fit to it.

I'm sure there's better lenses but given the limitations of the CCTV modules (no long exposure so limited night sky view) I've not pursued further. Probably will again if I get to the point of a better camera for this purpose... one day.

Hopefully Gina may be able to advise better as she's got a real nice sky rig, but essentially you want a short FL lens pref low F rating to get best speed, but then cost spirals too. Something like a 1.8mm F1.8 would give a real wide view but be larger and pricey for example.

 

[Gina]

Best lens I had was a Fujinon Fish-Eye 1.4mm f1.8 but I had an accident with it and that was the end of that!!  I bought a replacement but it was nothing like as good with distortion round the edge.  This is the lens I'm using now :- All Sky Lens for QHY5-II and 1/2 Inch Cameras  with ASI178 camera.  Covers almost a full 180 degrees of sky (or trees etc.).