A Few New Photos Taken with the Linear CCD Back

I finally put together the 3D printed prototype and took a few photos last weekend. The flange distance was way off and it was quite hard to get the right focus. The CCD had quite a few dirt specks on it and it produced this weird streaking pattern when using a a small aperture. Also the sensor saturates easily, leaving lots of white streaks and artifacts. Nevertheless I was excited that I could finally fit it on my Bronica medium format camera body.

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First Photo Taken with the Linear CCD Camera

We have made lots of progress on our linear CCD project since the last article. Last week we spent some time and made a cardboard enclosure for the sensor and tired to take a photo. The good news is we did get a presentable photo, despite the obvious focus issue. The lens was a Nikkor 50/1.8 since the batteries in my Bronica were dead and the camera would not operate without it. The photo has a strong vignetting due to the lens’ small image circle. The camera was only a prototype, held together by hot glue and type. We will eventually design and 3D print an enclosure to house the […]

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Update: ILX508 Linear CCD Imaging Testing

Another update about the linear CCD project. Last Friday we tested out the CCD for image generation. The clock and trigger signal are generated by Teensy and are fed into the CCD. CCD capture the light intensity and return the signal back to the amplifier. The amplifier output then is connected to the ADC pin on Teensy for sampling. The test method is crude — with 2.54mm pin headers on top of the CCD — to generate some shape… here’s the waveform seen on oscilloscope: From the oscilloscope graph, we can clearly see the shape posed by the pin header onto the CCD, here’s the image: I know… it’s hideous, […]

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ilx508 Linear CCD Breadboard Prototyping

Just a quick update. Today I built the linear CCD circuit on breadboard, more or less following the Application Circuit provided in the ilx508 datasheet. Everything went according to plan except for the reel of SMD transistors decided to jump out of the anti-static bag into a half-a-meter deep vent on the ground when I opened the bag. I ended up spending a significant amount of time trying to get my transistors back poking the vent with a wooden stick. You may tell there is one wire missing, but I expect to fix it next time when I get back to the lab. I’ll also try to power on the […]

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