Crazy idea, will it work???

shorty6049

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Ok, so here's what i want to do. I would like to try and make a giant scanning camera. I've seen it done where the guy rigged up a contraption from the parts of a flatbed scanner and the lens rotates to scan, but i'd like to do something a little different. I want to try just tipping a flatbed scanner (fully assembled) up on its side so that the CCD array would scan horizantally. I was thinkign of building something similar to a bellows camera that would attach to the front of it and a lens or some sort would go on the end (possibly a minolta MD lens because they're so cheap) , i think i would probably need to disable the light source in the scanner, but would this otherwise work? anyone have any experience with scanners or possibly tried this themselves??
 
I wonder how the scanner, which works by reflecting light from the target which is then interpreted, should scan a projected image from the glass plate. My guess would be it does not work unless you have some medium in between.

Also the image circle of your lens will be orders of magnitude too small to project an image onto your whole scanner area.
 
doesnt the circle get larger as you move the lens farther from the scanner? and to answer the scanning from glass thing, would it be like how a movie projector screen works? if you put just a long piece of screen up, you see a little bit of the projected image, if you move that piece from side to side quickly , you can view the entire image
 
and ken- i'm not trying to make a panoramic camera, just a scanning one
 
doesnt the circle get larger as you move the lens farther from the scanner?

Yes, but the lens is made for a certain focal length. it's image plane is where it would be on a 35mm SLR.

and to answer the scanning from glass thing, would it be like how a movie projector screen works? if you put just a long piece of screen up, you see a little bit of the projected image, if you move that piece from side to side quickly , you can view the entire image


Well, in that respect you areright, it is basically like a slit which scans over the image.

just the problem is, the image is not really there when you project on the glass plate. it would be there if you would project it on a piece of paper. but then it would on the side pointing away from the scanner.

now the wueation is, if the scanner can handle the light which comes through the lens directly, and I doubt that the sensitivity is high enough. After all such a scanner works with a very bright and concentrated light source.
 
so how are digital scanning backs different from a flatbed scanner? sensitivity? doesnt a scanner produce an all white image if you scan with the top open? from my experience it does, as far as i can remember... I've seen a scanner converted into a panoramic camera before so it SHOULD work, but possibly not quite with the setup i described. the way i've seen it done was by removing the ccd array from the scanner and somehow attaching it to a lens, and then rigging up pullies and gears to move the lens to pan while the scanner sensor records the info. here's a link- http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/scanner.html
 
that looks really like a fun experiment.

the image circle problem is solved by panning the lens then, if I am right?

isn't the image produced with the lid open black?

anyway, sensitivity appears sufficient, just about ... maybe depends on the model and certainly influences the speed of the scanning.

In his case he focusses directly onto the sensor, so this is a fixed unit which then is rotated at constant speed to scan the scene. so you cannot do this with a scanner which is still assembled.
 
do you think, in theory , it would work anyway though, if you focused a lens on the spot where the sensor would pass under it, and then just scan an image circle?
 
do you think, in theory , it would work anyway though, if you focused a lens on the spot where the sensor would pass under it, and then just scan an image circle?

I'm not expert here. but i guess in any case getting rid of the scanner glass is a good idea.

and then it depends on how sensitive the scanner sensor is with regard to light hitting it at varying angle.

it might work. and it might not ;)
 
i'm thinking i'll try out some ideas over easter break here, and see how it works... i have a scanner that my dad PROBABLY wouldnt mind me taking apart... lol, we might even have one that the glass fell out of . I'm just sort of thinking of it this way- if a digital scanning back (like the betterlight digital back) works by scanning across the image plane, then why shouldnt a scanner work basically the same way? i could of course be that i'm completely wrong, but i'd sure like to try it so i can know for sure!, i'll keep everyone updated!
 

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