Digital Modul M on Leica M4

This is an accomplishment indeed. Its usefulness may get questioned, but it definitely takes guts and engineering skills to get it done.
 
This is a really great project.
And I like the look of the glitch.
I would keep shooting it to see how other things look.

varjag said:
Haven't been working much on it, aside from using it for intended purpose (testing the lenses I convert).

However, the other day I bumped the back and it developed a fascinating glitch, a bit of a surreal look. Not sure if I should even fix it!


Still Life / DMM by varjagg, on Flickr

The lens on camera was a French beauty, Som Berthiot Paris Flor 50/3.5 collapsible, without IRUV cut-off filter.
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Thanks, perhaps I should take it outside for a spin and find out what it sees in gloomy Bergen weather!

Raid, thanks. I do embedded systems for a living, so the reverse engineering part and getting the first images out was fairly straightforward. The bulk of effort went into mechanics and assembly: adapting the design intended for something else, and getting around all too short cabling and wrong geometry of sensor enclosure. But well, another thing chalked off now!
 
Bit of an update.

A digital back is only so much fun when your top speed is 1/8. Still was able to grab a shot now and then.. but had to carry a film P&S as a back-up!


New sofa by varjagg, on Flickr


Loddefjord skole by varjagg, on Flickr

So yesterday I decided enough is enough.. cracked open the M4, and ran a wire in the flash bulb sync system to make it fire as soon as button is fully depressed:


Digital Modul M shutter sync by varjagg, on Flickr

It's a cheat, but so far it was the only "hard" intervention into the camera, and I figured I'd unlikely ever use flash bulbs with it. The electronic flash capabilities are unhindered.

But finally, the full range of speeds up to 1/1000!
 
Shot at 1/250:


Fantoft by varjagg, on Flickr

The back is pre-set to shoot at ISO 200. The control PCB has an output for ISO control by simulating button presses, and there was a support for that in software at some point. However I dropped that as running another cable between the modules was getting problematic.

If anyone would think of repeating it, I'd suggest doing all communications via SERDES on a thinner cable.
 
varjag said:
If anyone would think of repeating it, I'd suggest doing all communications via SERDES on a thinner cable.
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Yes, I'm sure everyone will be rushing to do it!

At some point I toyed around with the idea of gutting a Zorki of the shutter mechanism and putting inside a fuji X-A1 or similar, but I could not quite get myself to pull the trigger on the components. Way too ambitious for my limited free time...

I got another summicron instead, hehe.
 
Well there been attempts at Leica digital backs for as long as consumer digital is around, and people would likely try that in the future.

The hardest and most tedious part by far is grinding down the ceramic sensor enclosure to fit camera film rail at correct working distance. If one is content at gutting a camera it can be done much easier; however I wanted to keep the back optional and retain the original functionality.
 
varjag said:
Well there been attempts at Leica digital backs for as long as consumer digital is around, and people would likely try that in the future.

The hardest and most tedious part by far is grinding down the ceramic sensor enclosure to fit camera film rail at correct working distance. If one is content at gutting a camera it can be done much easier; however I wanted to keep the back optional and retain the original functionality.
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That's why I was considering a Zorki/Fed. The removable back you see...

Anyways, may come back I suppose.
 
I think you misunderstand. You would have to do that with any camera. If you place an unmodified sensor against film rail you would not get infinity, as the chip sits about 0.6mm deep in the enclosure and there's 0.55mm thick glass on top.
 
I understood that part and my reply is all wrong and confusing - apologies for that!

In a Zorki I would get rid of the film crate completely, the only thing that would stay within the lower body would be the rangefinder arm sticking out.

Different approach altogether, I suppose I know that personally I would never be able to work any magic to make the digital part utilise the Zorki shutter.
 
Oh in that sense, sorry. Yes, you either have to mill into the camera chassis or grind the chip enclosure.

It's also unfortunate there are no off-the shelf large sensor development kits available to private customers. This whole thing could be made much smaller and simpler if one didn't have to cram a "foreign" deisgn in.
 
Not necessarily a bad thing, as long as there are cheap APS-C bodies around.
Though to be fair yes, it would be great to have a developer kit with an APS-C sensor with a reasonable price tag.

With what I had in mind I would be essentially bolting the sensor/shutter assy on a set of four spacers mounted behind the mount throat, inside the chassis in order to achieve the required 27.60mm offset.
Then I'd have to figure out something about how the back would look like, but with Zorkys I'm fairly confident I could get something going.
From whatever USSR cameras I had (lots) the Z4 is possibly the tallest and roomiest body with a removable back.

But I digress - your project is coming along *very* nicely. It is a cool project as well, so little disruption to the original body.
 
You wrote,
varjag said:
So basically we are left with three approaches:

a) grind down the chip as I did
b) find an aps-c chip that fits entirely into film gate and manufacture our own positioning surface on the custom back
c) order a custom shape enclosure for the sensor.

Option a) is what I did. Option b) is by far the easiest and is suitable for mass production, but you have to find a chip tiny enough. Option c) is available only for volume manufacturers.
Click to expand...

But with 3-D printing isn't it fairly easy to do option C, custom design what you need? And use a full-frame sensor? Canon 5D original is around $350-400 used, the 5D Mk 2 is $700-900. And for body, has nobody thought of the Nikon F? Like the Zorkis it has completely removable back. Thanks!
 
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