[max_wedge]

I couldn't believe this worked!!

The K750 lense is crap, whereas the 2MP cmos censor is actually quite good. The problem with the lense is the degree of distortion visible on shots that utilise the entire frame. The solutions is to use a better quality lense, but this means removing the existing lense. Since the Lense and CMOS sensor are one module, this module needs to be dismantled to remove the Lense part.

Okay, take one old clapped out K750. remove camera module and rip it apart. Remove the whole top layer, including the lense itself, leaving only the base with the cmos chip exposed:

 Image1.jpg (195.08K)
Number of downloads: 1560
 Image2.jpg (111.58K)
Number of downloads: 1134
 Image3.jpg (225.8K)
Number of downloads: 1018

The modded lense module (without lense) installed in the camera body. Notice the mirrored surface of the CMOS sensor. DO NOT TOUCH THIS, the acid on your fingertips will destroy it.

 Image4.jpg (174.95K)
Number of downloads: 1020

The camera with lense from an old VGA Powershot (I will replace it with something better eventually, but this is still a much better lense than the K750 original). This picture shows the lense with a another 2x lense in front - this provides a good macro effect.

 Image7.jpg (315.59K)
Number of downloads: 1716

And here is the original K750 Lense:

 Image5.jpg (109.61K)
Number of downloads: 873

I haven't finished this project yet - I need to devise a sliding tube within tube method for focusing (fixed focus at the moment). But it's proof of concept!

Here's some sample photos, remember that once the method is improved the photos will get better:

Toy car taken with normal K750, notice the shape distortion due to poor lense:
 DSC04374.JPG (508.83K)
Number of downloads: 1935

Modded K750 photo of the same car:
 DSC00085.JPG (356.72K)
Number of downloads: 1884

Here's some macro samples:
Original K750 Macro Mode:
 DSC04375.JPG (442.15K)
Number of downloads: 842

Original K750 with 10x eye glass:
 DSC04373.JPG (401.6K)
Number of downloads: 820

Modded:
 DSC00073.JPG (333.03K)
Number of downloads: 737

And look at this Telephoto shot. Keep in mind I took this photo of the computer monitor from 3 FEET AWAY! And you can make out the individual pixels on the screen:
 DSC00083.JPG (161K)
Number of downloads: 738


NOTE: Lense is from a Canon Powershot 350.

Attached File(s)

•  Image1.jpg (195.08K)
  Number of downloads: 578

This post has been edited by max_wedge: 06 January 2007 - 01:53 AM

[_Sensible]

Wow, looks like you are really on to something there! The improvements look very very good.

[max_wedge]

gbrooks3, on 2006-11-20 21:14, said:

Wow, looks like you are really on to something there! The improvements look very very good.

Thanks mate!

yeah, I'm really excited about the potential. The hard part is finding a suitable lense. All my old cameras (pulled apart three so far) have massive cmos or ccd sensors, so when lense is placed so that the image focuses on the smaller K750 sensor, it effectively crops the image (since the old cameras have smaller res sensors, but the pixels are bigger, therefore sensors are huge).

Since the lense is for a larger sensor, it also has a larger magnification factor, hence the picture's are telephoto and while fun, not specifiaclly what I'm looking for (though a zoom lense assembly out of a digicam would be interesting to play with (I wonder could it be powered by the K750 autofocus power? Doubt it)

So I'm now looking for a newish digicam with a glass lense.

The right lense will fit right over the sensor and may even fit within the lense cover, which would mean a pocketable camera. If that's possible, I'll put the assembly in my day to day phone.

An optical Zoom would be great, but what I'm attempting is to simply give the K750 a decent lense that doesn't have horendeous distortion on full frame pics. If I had simply placed a pair of binocs in front of a normal K750 (which I have done before), there would be distortion still. These following shot's are a bit fuzzy, but there is zero distortion and no way a standard K750 could achieve such pictures.

 DSC00099.JPG (186.69K)
Number of downloads: 535
 DSC00107.JPG (191.58K)
Number of downloads: 439

[ikjadoon]

max_wedge, on 2006-11-20 17:59, said:

Thanks mate!

yeah, I'm really excited about the potential. The hard part is finding a suitable lense. All my old cameras (pulled apart three so far) have massive cmos or ccd sensors, so when lense is placed so that the image focuses on the smaller K750 sensor, it effectively crops the image (since the old cameras have smaller res sensors, but the pixels are bigger, therefore sensors are huge).

Since the lense is for a larger sensor, it also has a larger magnification factor, hence the picture's are telephoto and while fun, not specifiaclly what I'm looking for (though a zoom lense assembly out of a digicam would be interesting to play with (I wonder could it be powered by the K750 autofocus power? Doubt it)

So I'm now looking for a newish digicam with a glass lense.

The right lense will fit right over the sensor and may even fit within the lense cover, which would mean a pocketable camera. If that's possible, I'll put the assembly in my day to day phone.

An optical Zoom would be great, but what I'm attempting is to simply give the K750 a decent lense that doesn't have horendeous distortion on full frame pics. If I had simply placed a pair of binocs in front of a normal K750 (which I have done before), there would be distortion still. These following shot's are a bit fuzzy, but there is zero distortion and no way a standard K750 could achieve such pictures.

attachment
attachment

It looks great, but needs a bit of improvement, which is expected.

Will this mod still apply to W810i users?

~Ibrahim~

[max_wedge]

ikjadoon, on 2006-11-21 09:10, said:

It looks great, but needs a bit of improvement, which is expected.

Will this mod still apply to W810i users?

~Ibrahim~

Yep, and to most digicams I expect - the key is the whether you can disassemble the lense module without damaging the sensor and associated circuitry.

W810 lense module is the same as K750 from what I can gather (modules are interchangeable between W800 and W810 chasis's)

[ikjadoon]

max_wedge, on 2006-11-20 19:07, said:

Yep, and to most digicams I expect - the key is the whether you can disassemble the lense module without damaging the sensor and associated circuitry.

W810 lense module is the same as K750 from what I can gather (modules are interchangeable between W800 and W810 chasis's)

Awesome! Is there a "standard" lens that we can use, instead of getting them from old cameras?

~Ibrahim~

[max_wedge]

ikjadoon, on 2006-11-21 10:38, said:

Awesome! Is there a "standard" lens that we can use, instead of getting them from old cameras?

~Ibrahim~

We need a new camera lense, since the old lenses throw too big an image due to the huge cmos sensors of the past (huge in size, low in pixel count).

I haven't found any off the shelf components yet...

[Vizzpv]

Kool man ..

[Goldfiinger]

Vizzpv, on 2006-11-21 14:00, said:

Kool man ..

Very very kool man good luck !

[CrazyJ]

I have to say this is quite interesting but I don't really fancy doing this to my phone as it would turn it into some mosntrosity that I would be ashamed of showing in public.

[max_wedge]

CrazyJ, on 2006-11-29 06:33, said:

I have to say this is quite interesting but I don't really fancy doing this to my phone as it would turn it into some mosntrosity that I would be ashamed of showing in public.

I agree, which is why I did it to a spare K750 :-) I also had a spare camera module (I bought a brand new unit for my main K).

What I plan to do if possible is find a lense that fits within the body, if I can do that then the whole assembly should look just like a normal K750 but with a better lense with no distortion The lense won't actually be telephoto, the only reason the photos are zoomed right in is because the only lenses I could find to play with are too big. I'm looking for a better quality lense but the same size as the K750 original.

[CrazyJ]

How did you come accross a spare one? Did you buy two or did you find one realyl cheap or were they both free with contracts or what?

[e_p_a_k]

sounds nice. i'm excited to see how things come out. i'm curious, how much better is the k800i lense than the k750i? and how much better is the n73's carl zeiss?

[max_wedge]

CrazyJ, on 2006-12-01 00:29, said:

How did you come accross a spare one? Did you buy two or did you find one realyl cheap or were they both free with contracts or what?

My brother in law goes through phones like they are going out of style. But mainly because he breaks 'em, not 'cause he's a phone buff. My first spare I got from him the left softkey and 1,2,3 keys are dead (he threw the phone in anger), and the second spare I got off him the mike doesn't work (dropped the phone hard). I couldn't make one good out of the two because they are both main pcb problems.

But the cams work on both, plus I can use one for spares when I need to.

Just recently a customer gave me an XDA mini that they dropped in the pool. I pulled it apart and cleaned it, it works fine except for the USB port (charging works though, and bluetooth works so I can use active sync via bluetooth)

I do pretty well out of other people's throw outs!

[CrazyJ]

You really do do yell from other peoples throw outs, my mum used to work for vodafone asnd all I ever got was 1 k750, it was a customer return but it was only about 6 moths after release

[max_wedge]

here's some more pics. I have modified the lense so that it now has an adjustable focus (pictures at the end) - which means I can take extreme close ups much better than standard K750 (without lense distortion). Focussing is difficult since there is no longer auto-focus! - it is easier if you zoom in first using the digital zoom, focus the shot, then zoom out (since the image on the screen is too small when zoomed out to focus properly).

The lense is mounted to the camera via a screw mount, and the focus is adjusted by screwing the lense in or out (in to focus on distant objects, out to focus on close up objects)

This bug is about 4mm long.
 DSC00319.JPG (174.13K)
Number of downloads: 269

This bug is about 6mm:
 DSC00330.JPG (192.33K)
Number of downloads: 166

Fern:
 DSC00335.JPG (202.42K)
Number of downloads: 97

Wallaby (about 5-6 feet distant)
 DSC00363.JPG (306.15K)
Number of downloads: 142

The lense assembly:
 K750_lense_mod_assembled.jpg (140.82K)
Number of downloads: 289

The lense housing is glued to the K750 backcover. Black tape has been used to block out light leakage from around the base of the lense and from holes in the K750 back cover (example, speaker grill).

 K750_lense_mod_disassembled.jpg (92.81K)
Number of downloads: 181

There is a bit of crap in the lense housing but that will all be cleaned up when I'm finished. When I got some crap on the cmos sensor, I discovered that it's safe to clean the cmos sensor with a fine clean enamel paint brush (not game to try anything thicker). A positive side effect, some blotches that had appeared on the pictures I was taking before I had ripped this lense module apart (you can see in the early shots start of this thread) have been cleaned up also.

This post has been edited by max_wedge: 06 January 2007 - 01:28 AM

[max_wedge]

Another pic:

 DSC00377.JPG (176.64K)
Number of downloads: 192

I've also realised what's causing the haziness. It's the same reason that the lense assembly has ZERO depth of field - there is a huge aperture! My next addition to this mod is to install an adjustable aperture, so that I can set a narrow aperture for landscape pics (which currently are very difficult to get properly focused because the viewfinder only shows a very small picture with no indication whether the picture is properly focused or not.

I tested with black card with a pin hole and it seems to solve both depth of field and haziness.

More testing is need though to confirm

[CrazyJ]

Thats pretty cool man

[max_wedge]

CrazyJ, on 2007-01-08 04:08, said:

Thats pretty cool man

Thanks!

Here's some pics of my new UV filter. It improves the colour reproduction (less blue). I've also installed a fixed aperture, and it fixes the haziness the pictures have been getting. I'll post some sample pics after I do some more testing.
 DSC04695.JPG (529.5K)
Number of downloads: 335

This post has been edited by max_wedge: 08 January 2007 - 05:09 AM

[CrazyJ]

awesome man