Lunar Webcam Ideas

[TopHouse]

OK, since lunar doesn't really benefit from being imaged in colour, I'm going to have a go in mono with my toucam. I have however ordered a wratten dark red filter as i know mono lunars benefit from it, BUT

DAFT IDEA (maybe)

If imaging in mono, would it benefit me much to flash the camera (it's a toucam already firmware flashed to spc900) with the mono firmware that's available, ie does doing that convert the colour pixels in the ccd to mono, giving a higher mono resolution?

In effect, would it be worth flashing the camera for a lunar session and then flashing back to the colour version when done?

[tooth_dr]

Might be totally wrong here, but is the colour not achieved by a bayer matrix, not a software but rather hardware issue

[TopHouse]

I don't know, that's why I asked lol. Although checking over the flashing software, where it says flash to mono it says 'mono ccd' in brackets so it may only be for webcams with the mon ccd chip fitted.

[Merlin66]

I'm almost 100% certain there's no way of improving the colour webcam to a hi-res mono. They don't work like that.

I have seen, in the past, a de-bayering hack which gave a mono image, but the resolution wasn't improved.

IMHO you'll need a mono chip to get good mono results.

Ken

[TopHouse]

Ah well, I still reckon though with lunar, if I record in mono with the red filter I'll get better results than without filter and recording in colour, watch this space.

[michaelmorris]

I'm afraid I think Merlin66 is correct. If you image with a colour Toucam with a deep red filter then you'll end up with a red image using almost entirely only 1 in 4 of the available pixels (i.e the red pixels). You would likely end up with a reduction resolution over a non-filtered image, not an increase.

I'm afraid the only answer is a mono chip in the Toucam. I have both colour-chipped and mono-chipped Toucams, and the increase in resolution with the mono webcam is noticeable.

[TopHouse]

I can feel a brainiac come mythbusters coming on... Next decent chance I get, I'll try 4 avi's 1 in colour (standard mode) without red filter, one in same mode 'with' red filter, one with cam in mono mode with red filter, and one in standard mode with red filter but desaturated after processing. Then I'll put them all up. You don't get nowhere if you don't give it a try.

I can do science me!

[TopHouse]

Done the testing tonight, still need to process the avis, will post them to this thread when I've done it.

[TopHouse]

OK, here goes, these were all shot one after the other, roughly same number of frames, a saved wavelets file in registax so all processed the same.

1) Normal toucam image in colour mode.

2) As above but with wratten red #29 added

3) As 2 but the red removed at processing stage

4) As 2 but camera swithched to B&W at imaging stage.

[michaelmorris]

Thanks for the hard work on this Dion - Interesting experiment.

For what it's worth, he's my opinion.

For me, image 3 is the lowest quality (least contrast and lowest amount of detail).

I find it difficult to evaluate image 2 because of the heavy red cast.

Images 1 and 4 are, for me, the two best in terms of resolution. However, it's a bit hard to judge which is the better because image 1 is rather overexposed in places and has blue fringes on crater rims, both of which make it hard to judge which gives the higher resolution.

[TopHouse]

I agree, it was a PITA because of the differences in gain needed with and without filter, but i wanted to use the same wavelets settings for all pics, which has oversharpened the highlights somewhat on the first one, having no filter, but i think 4 'may' have some promise, which was camera in B&W mode through it's software, but with the filter. I think it does add some contrast which on first try, seems to improve the pic. I'll try that one again in a future session and do another in 'normal' mode and try and get image gains similar at the filming stage.

[Glider]

No.4 gets my vote.

[Dangerous-Dave]

Number 3 is a good natural finish. A colour webcam is already filtering the light with the bayer matrix, so you should just be able to take a colour shot and extract the red channel for the same result. Focusing the colour image will be harder though.

BTW, at the magnifications you are using, a green filter would probably render the greatest improvement in contrast. Red is better for seeing-busting at higher magnifications.

One of these days I will buy a Mak and get back into lunar!