I am a former electrical engineer on my way to becoming a dentist (2 years to go). I live in Gilbert, Az.
Actually, there is no such thing as a former engineer. Engineering isn't a job, it's a way of life. I still do a lot of engineering projects at home and expect to eventually be doing some of that with dental materials/techniques/instruments.
Right now I have a small project in mind that will be to make a large format digital camera by adding a lens to a scanner. I have seen many articles on the subject (I especially like Heidrich's work) and it looks interesting so I'm going to try it. I picked up a canon scanner and now I'm looking for a suitable, yet inexpensive lens. If anyone knows where I can get a cheapo lens, maybe 200-300 mm (no shutter needed, but an iris is desirable) that will provide 8x10 coverage I'm all ears. I've been watching ebay and have seen a few potential candidates but I don't know what would be a fair offer to make on any of them.
I am hoping I will eventually be able to post some pictures taken with my DIY LF digital camera.
I'm not planning tilts and swings initially, but you never know. I bought a cheapo scanner off craig's list for $10 (a Canon N670U) that uses the easy to modify LIDE type mechanism and gives 600 dpi optical resolution. If I manage to get some promising results I will invest in a higher resolution scanner. I think the LIDE 200 is good for 4800 dpi optical resolution.
At 600 dpi an 8x10 image will be about 120 MB- not too bad. I'm planning to make a bellows to fit the scanner/lens combo once I have a lens. I'm still not sure what I'll do for the mechanical stuff which is why I'm not thinking about tilts and swings just yet.
Have a look at this: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~heidrich/Papers/EG.04.pdf. The results seem worth the effort, but I have a lot to learn about color correction and some of the other processing steps he uses.
Thanks,
MR
PS: What's a reasonable price for a 210 mm f9 ultragon enlarger lens?
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