How to get raw data from a CMOS image sensor?

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Danilewort

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How to get raw data from a CMOS image sensor?

PostFri Sep 27, 2024 7:26 am

Hi all,
I am recording a long journey, in attempting to create a fully fledged imaging system from already existing parts. I've been disassembling cameras, researching, and tinkering for several months now, and i'm running into a heck of a problem.

I know that a CMOS sensor records all the rows of pixels simultaneously, as opposed to a CCD which takes the data a row at a time. How would you go about getting and organizing the raw data from a CMOS image sensor?

Any ideas?
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Charles Bennett

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Re: How to get raw data from a CMOS image sensor?

PostFri Sep 27, 2024 8:28 pm

It's the majority of CMOS sensors that output line by line which gives rise to rolling shutter artifacts on fast movement. The Sony A9 lll has a global shutter CMOS sensor, but does not record RAW.
May I ask why you don't choose a camera that already records in RAW like the Canon EOS R5 or the
Panasonic Lumix S1H, or a camera that records in Blackmagic's BRAW format? As you are going on a long journey have you considered the amount of data RAW files generate?
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castrorec

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Re: How to get raw data from a CMOS image sensor?

PostFri Nov 01, 2024 6:20 pm

That sounds like a really cool project! When I was working with a CMOS sensor, I found that connecting it to a Raspberry Pi was super helpful for pulling in the raw data. Just make sure you have the right libraries set up for the sensor— that saved me a lot of headaches. Once you have the data, I used OpenCV to organize and process the images, which made it way easier to work with everything.

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