Would like to reach out on alternatives for a stop motion scanner. Understand Raspberry HQ Camera is one option on the low-end of the pricing spectrum, and FLIR seems to be the choice on the high-end of the spectrum.
On the high-side of the spectrum I found these, but have not been able to get pricing… yet.
And on the low-side of the spectrum these look interesting, and understand the issues with rolling shutter.
In my present build I am using a DSLR (Nikon D3200) which gives me 24MP raw, at the cost of the shutter which is already over 100K exposures. The other draw-back of the D3200 is that is USB 2.0 which makes the tethered transfer a bit slow.
Welcome suggestions to check out alternatives in the market for cost effective builds. Thank you
With stop motion, there can never be a rolling shutter effect because the subject and camera are always stationary and you are actually taking a picture of a stationary object.
Roling shutter only occurs during photo and video recording where the camera and/or subject move quite quickly.
Edmund Optics sells a decent variety of cameras. You can filter down by sensor type and some other attributes. Lots of Sony IMX series (I wouldn’t recommend anything else, to be honest. Sony is miles ahead of everyone right now). They have their own house brand, but they also sell Allied Vision, Flir, Basler, and a few others.
I completely agree. People often focus on resolution, but a nice scan needs good dynamic range, I would chose something that performs well in terms of dynamic range.
The 4K one that’s been in use in the commercial scanners since 2019 is the IMX253 (2nd gen), but the Pregius S would be the best choice now the 4K one is IMX535 and you can do realtime scanning with USB3. I don’t know if Flir has a camera with that sensor though, Emergent does and you can configure their cameras with USB3 connections if that’s what you want, and also Dual ADC which means you can do HDR scanning like a Scanstation but without needing to double-flash. The next one up from that is the IMX530 which has 5.3K resolution, but the resolution is a bit high for realtime raw capture over USB3. The budget version of the 530 is the IMX540, I’m not exactly sure how much that will affect scanning performance, but I’ll bet it still gives good bang for the buck.
If you don’t need 4K just look into the lower resolution versions they perform quite well.
Are these still the go to recommendations for cameras in 2023?
I was planning to build around a rather old, dust collecting Rebel XSi, but it seems I’d be much better off with any of the more modern recommendations…
You are much better off with a machine-vision camera over a DSLR even if quality isn’t the goal. As for quality, Sony Pregius S is the choice if buying new, but a good 2nd Gen Sony Pregius should be pretty much just as good if you want to pick up something used/second-hand. Really you’re better off buying something cheap to start with (as in under $500 if you can) and then upgrade the sensor and optics later once your scanner is actually running and producing results, otherwise you’re investing a LOT of money into a camera far in advance of the project ever being completed.