"mass" production is really expensive, as you have to add design-for-manufacturability and design-for-testing, and account for yield loss and customer support (how happy would you be if your expensive camera appeared DOA?).

At that price-point, are there other devices on the market that already fulfill the need?

> Adding network connectivity to this project probably wouldn't be a large endeavour

lol

No there aren't. Webcams in 2022 all have miniscule lenses/sensors paired with decade-old tech and none of the big players seem interested in producing anything higher quality.

https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/

If you want high-quality video capture, your options are pretty much just (1) plug in a "real" $$$$ DSLR/mirrorless camera which will be fiddly and prone to overheating, or (2) use a cell phone as an IP camera, which will add noticeable latency and is still a tiny sensor compensated for by AI.

If this was for sale fully assembled I'd easily spend a few hundred on it. I don't care about networking, just give me plain old USB.

I have a coworker with this setup and it’s easily the best video quality I’ve ever seen on a teams call even in his fairly dark room.

The “professional video” category has quite a few

Is the video quality that much better? Or is there some other feature that justifies the price?

Physical lens zoom on most of those, with decent lens sizes, but that's not that helpful for a Zoom call, unless you've got a very weird setup.

SDI is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface

NDI and 2110 are video-over-IP standards. https://renewedvision.com/blog/guide-to-video-standards-sdi-...

HoW I can't figure out.

I like how the original comment was kind of slagging HoW and legislative to the lower realms of quality. For the most part, that's going to be true, but there's definitely edge cases. I run in weird circles having grown up in HoW production and moving into cinematic production. One of the megachurches in town is one of Sony's flagship install locations. They always have the top end equipment that even some production houses can't get yet. The amount of money that flows through these places is flabbergasting. Their control rooms are better equipped than some of the live sports trucks I've been in. The only thing they are missing is the crew of slo-mo operators. They have a couple of seats for shaders, they have chyron ops, they have technical director, director, multiple sound boards (one for record, one for stage, one for broadcast), and just an incredible amount of gear overall. Yes, this is said from a state of jelly.

* I actual have a love for HoW as a vertical because they’re much more willing to try wild or experimental things with their production since they often have a greater tolerance for things going wrong and often have entire days of downtime between shows to tinker. This is probably part of why they’re a Sony flagship - willingness to run beta software! I know of at least one other vendor who has churches as beta testing sites…

But before anybody freaks out too much, it's probably worth pointing out that the median church size is 75 people.

PTZ is really nice but for normal webcam use doesn't add much.

> No there aren't.

There are tons of cameras that meet this need. They're "machine vision" or "scientific" cameras, google for those. Edmund Scientific has a good selection. They're ridiculously expensive for what you get if you're comparing against a webcam or a surveillance camera since they're very similar to those for >10x the price. That's the price of low volume assembly, proper support, et cetera.

A lot of sbc boards support MIPI CSI (iirc even RPI). Nvidia robotic modules has IO for Sony's LVDS (driver not provided though).

Not quite a fully assembled solution but all you have to do is screw the two boards together with a few standoffs.

The IMX477/R sensor supports Full (16:9) Binning 1080P @ 2028(H) × 1128(V) with 240hz/fps availability in a drive mode. However, no IMX477/R package I've ever found - including those from Arducam - support a CSI->USB board or similar that can drive this mode, only allowing 100 FPS maximum on most packages. (ex: https://www.uctronics.com/arducam-high-quality-complete-usb-...)

I am looking to buy a product involving the IMX477/R sensor that can drive this mode or similar 240 FPS modes, but cannot find it for the life of me despite the datasheet openly supporting this drive mode.

Image sensors are really just high speed ADC clocking out data, whether the data is useful or not is up to the viewer. What I’m getting at is forget FPS and think data rates.

So, you need a processor that is that can handle that data rate. The napkin math says 2K@240FPS has the same data rate as 4K@60FPS. All you need is a processor or module that can handle it and you’re golden. There are demos of the RPI pushing 1000fps (at a significant lower resolution) but you get the point.

Off the top of my head, NVIDIA jetson, imx8m mini plus, the latest allwinner V series, and a whole host of unobtainable in less than 10k qty parts all supported this. The rest is up to you.

Also, RPi is out even with 4 lanes because the CSI input doesn’t support the speed required on each lane.

Any idea where to start? I am proficient enough in scripting/coding to pick up a new platform like the Jetson/Nvidia products, but no idea where to find the correct sensor+board package to actually give me the data rates I need.

Looking for 240fps/hz @ 720p in some form of greyscale, for the record.

You can use them directly via USB using Camo or OBS - no IP needed, and that changes the latency equation.

Also, the new iOS continuity webcam feature is essentially zero latency - it's better than my good webcams.

Companion app is pretty shit though, but they seem to be working on it.

The cameras themselves aren't especially "hackable" but then they don't need to be, because everything going in and out is extremely well-documented.

If you want an open source and open hardware camera there's nothing on the market AFAIK. Of course when people discover that open source costs 10x more than proprietary they are usually no longer interested.

After working with cheapish cameras before, I won't ever look back.

or you can plug in one or more usb webcams, some of which have good cases.

You'd need:

- Find components from Mouser/DigiKey/etc

- Order PCBs w/ a stencil from JLCPCB/PCBWay

- USB-C Mini Hot Plate

- Pinecil/TS100/TS101 soldering iron w/ a set of fine tips

- Soldering paste, regular solder, flux, IPA, old tooth brush, magnifying glass w/ light

- Steady hands

Then you apply solder paste over the stencil to the top side with all the chips, put components on, and reflow on the hot plate. You solder the rest of the components on the back with soldering iron and flux.

Overall the whole set is gonna cost you ~300 bucks (provided the components are not crazy expensive). But you'll have a pretty advanced electronics setup AND an open-source camera.

> IMX335 is also MIPI CSI sensor, So it can be added, I just did a quick search and found sensor itself is not available for purchase but you can buy IMX335 based cameras pretty cheap and get camera sensor out of it.

Do you desolder the sensor (and how would you do that)? Or does the sensor still needs to be on its original PCB?

[1] https://openmv.io/products/openmv-cam-h7-plus

RPi is no good for that? If they are available.

There will be Third revision of this camera coming in few months. I am working on absolute new hardware with lots of improvement in image quality.