New HQ Raspberry Pi Camera with C/CS-Mount

@jankaiser: well, yes. I was using the “offical” 16mm lens. The image of the camera box I posted above is actually the shortest distance you can focus this lens (with the lens screwed in fully).

The lens is not that bad, but if you look closely on the color chart also posted above, you can see some barrel distorsions.

In case you want to image the Super-8 frame with this camera chip and lens, you will need somehow to extend the distance between lens and chip.

For the v1- and v2-cameras, the sensor size is actually just about the same size as the frame area (plus sprocket) of a Super-8 frame. Therefore, any lens can be used in an arrangement which images the frame 1:1 onto the sensor chip. Simplifying a little bit: given a lens with a focal length f, you get this 1:1 imaging if the distance between sensor and lens is 2 time f. And you will discover that the distance you need between lens and Super-8 frame is also 2 times the focal length of your lens.

Now, there’s a twist hidden here. Lenses are manufactured to work optimal in a certain regime. So, of course you can use a normal lens for macro photography, by using just extension tubes. But you won’t get the optimal lens performance out of this setup. Your normal lens is optimized for a distance of one focal length between lens and camera chip. That is the reason some people reverse the lens they are using in doing macro photography.

The choice I made was to pair the camera sensor with a Schneider Componon-S 50 mm. For two reasons: first, this is an old enlarger lens which is optimized exactly for the distances I am using it. Second, I have two of these lenses available from my old analog photolab :smiley:

Whether the Raspberry Pi foundation lenses perform sufficiently well in macro conditions needs to be seen. If I would have to choose between the 6 mm and the 16 mm version, I would probably go with the 16 mm version. First, it is easier for the optical designer to optimize a long focal length, so I would expect the tele-version to have less a distorsion problem than the wide-angle version. Second, if your camera would be in the 1:1 setup (which is not the appropriate one for the new HD-camera, because the sensor size is larger)it would be about 32 mm away from the film gate with the tele-lens, but only 12 mm away when using the 6 mm wide-angle lens. More space around the film gate is usually of advantage, because, for example, you might want to clean it occationally.

All in all, I would recommend not using these kind of lenses, as they are designed to be used in surveilance applications - you will probably have a better image definition if you use a better lens. Even the above mentioned Schneider Componon-S 50 mm has a sweet spot: you get the sharpest image definition at an f-stop of about 5.6 to 8.0. Lower f-stops start to blur the image, quite noticable already at 2k to 3k scan resolution, because the outer parts of the lens focus on a different plane that the central parts. Pushing to higher f-stops leads also to defocusing because the light rays are bend around the small f-stops. All in all, one probably just has to try out the lens.

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