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Thread: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

  1. #1
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    I buy from this company, they sell DIY Robot parts. They just announced a cheap LIDAR Range Finder sensor safe for eyes that can range to 12 ft. Which could be built into a system to AF a big camera. FOV is 27 degrees which can be tightened.

    12 feet is enough, for now. Combine this part with a processor, off the shelf stepping motors and a simple program. Use a lead screw.

    I cannot start the project yet, I need to finish a dozen other projects first...

    https://www.pololu.com/product/3415?...180501_vl53l1x

  2. #2

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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    Wow, Randy! This is quite the combination of very old and very new. I'm curious to know why this would be something you'd want to do. I'm not judging; just actually very curious.

  3. #3
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Kinzer View Post
    Wow, Randy! This is quite the combination of very old and very new. I'm curious to know why this would be something you'd want to do. I'm not judging; just actually very curious.
    Bad eyes, which may be much better after Cataract surgery with -7 lens implants I am getting May 18th. One eye at a time.

    I thought all photographers have bad vision?

    I take pics so I can see objects better!

  4. #4

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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    Ah, I get it now, and should have thought of it.

    My eyes aren't good, but lenses in front of them still do the trick. Unfortunately, I damaged my dominant left eye a few months ago. I got a tiny piece of steel embedded dead center, while working to get my shop ready to start making my 14x17 camera. It was surgically removed, while I watched, but there is a bit of scar tissue that causes halos around bright objects now, and focusing is difficult. My ophthalmologist recently told me I'll need to get used to it because it isn't going away. I was wearing eye protection at the time, but nothing is perfect, I guess. It especially stinks because I only use my left eye: I am slightly cross-eyed, and long ago my brain stopped paying attention to what my right eye sees.

    I'm into astronomy*, and have a few friends who have been very happy with the results of cataract surgery. Good luck!

    *I realized that one big reason I probably got into astronomy was not so much that it made things look bigger, but that, like photography, it made them look sharp. I didn't start wearing glasses until I was sixteen. I had no idea I needed them because my parents never took me in to have them examined. I just always figured, that's the way the world looks to everyone.

  5. #5
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    Ditto on both problems. I got a piece of steel in my eye while drilling upside down at 18. They used Cocaine and a head vise to remove it. Nice scar. I tried magnets first.

    I was considered an idiot and troublemaker until I got glasses at age 7. Made a big difference in my World View. Then everybody else was the idiot! And I could read their faces much better.

    I think both issues made me see a bigger picture.

  6. #6
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    I mounted a Bosch laser rangefinder beside my viewfinder camera (Veriwide). It's good to about 200' which is fine with a 47mm Super Angulon. The RF trigger is immediately beside my left hand.

  7. #7

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    Re: ULF Auto Focus DIY Now Possible

    Hmmm...maybe work up a bit of software, additional stepper motors on some movements, some sort of oblique light ray sensing focus controller which could be aimed at points of the focus screen of desired focus - then...push a button and, presto...focus plus movements executed to arrive at the desired image! Maybe also work in selectable, multi-point exposure sensing/integrating (remember the Olympus OM-4?)...and, wow! And hey...a few accordion reeds built into bellows intake/exhaust ports - maybe combined with a built in "Garage Band" type app...and the thing could really make some music!
    ...its been a very slow day...

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