Tag: camera

Camera – what options do optical zooms offer in phones?

I have a question about the optical zoom that is currently in vogue in cell phones …

I bought the Huawei p30 pro in May 2019 because the phone dropped $ 300 within 2 weeks thanks to Trump.

One thing I don't like is the optical zoom – before I bought it, I was impressed by the 5x optical zoom, which is still pretty impressive 8 months later.

The problem, however, is that the optical zoom is only activated when I zoom in more than 5 times.

In other words, a 3x optical zoom is much better if I only zoom in 3x or 4x.

Now I've read rumors that the Samsung S20 will have a 10x optical zoom – do you know if it will be the same problem?
Because then a 10x zoom is actually inferior to a 3x zoom?

What about other cell phones that are already on the market? Do you also have the problem I described?

Unity – When I move my character / camera, the environment stutters

I am learning to make a tilebased game with Unity using the Zelda Alttp assets.
I only have tiles, a camera and a moving character with a Rigidbody2D and a CircleCollider.

When the camera follows the character, the scene feels jerky.

The information:

  • The camera uses the 2D Pixel Perfect package.
  • The character moves over Rigidbody2D.MovePosition () in the FixedUpdate Method:

Code:

void Update()
{
    float yInput;
    float xInput;

    #region yMovement
    if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveTop))
    {
        if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveBot))
        {
            yInput = 0f;
        }
        else yInput = 1f;
    }
    else if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveBot))
    {
        yInput = -1f;
    }
    else yInput = 0f;
    #endregion

    #region xMovement
    if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveLeft))
    {
        if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveRight))
        {
            xInput = 0f;
        }
        else xInput = -1f;
    }
    else if (Input.GetKey(keyMoveRight))
    {
        xInput = 1f;
    }
    else xInput = 0f;
    #endregion

    //Walking
    isWalking = Input.GetKey(keyMoveWalk);
    moveDirection = Vector2.ClampMagnitude(transform.right * xInput + transform.up * yInput, 1f);
}

private void FixedUpdate()
{
    _rb.MovePosition(_rb.position + moveDirection * (isWalking ? walkSpeed : runSpeed) * Time.fixedDeltaTime);
}

You can see the problem here:
https://youtu.be/MA2zZPME5X4

Edit: All my motion code added

Digital – low-end camera with electronic shutter and fast exposure

I need a camera module with which I can trigger a picture electronically and support exposures in the range of 10 microseconds or less (1 / 100,000). I understand that this would be a dark exposure under normal lighting, but I have the ability to accurately measure bright stroboscopes in connection with the shot. The purpose is to image fast moving objects (max. 90 m / s) in order to obtain position and speed data.

I am an engineer with experience in electronics and software, but I have no knowledge of hardware for digital image processing. I have to find a camera module that meets my requirements and at the same time is inexpensive enough to be integrated into a personal project. I've searched everything I can think of and can't find anything that isn't suitable for a laboratory device and costs thousands. I don't need specific product recommendations if this isn't allowed here, but help where or how I can find what I'm looking for would be an acceptable answer.

To edit: After some reading, I now understand that an exposure of 1 / 100,000 does not mean that my picture is taken in 1 / 100,000th of a second. This means that I need a complete registration in this period.

Unit – Move the camera smoothly like the middle mouse button from Google Earth

I can roll the die if it is a direct throw that is not smoothed but is executed immediately:

Enter image description here

I was hoping it would run smoothly, but it just doesn't want to work or at least it's very slow:

Enter image description here

The first order trans.up is the first GIF, the second, commented out is the second GIF:

using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
using UnityEngine;

(SuppressMessage("ReSharper", "Unity.InefficientPropertyAccess"))
public class Example2 : MonoBehaviour
{
    #region New region

    public Transform Target;

    public Camera Camera;
    public float CameraSpeed;
    private float CameraDistance;
    private Vector3 CameraZ;
    private Vector3 CameraXY;

    private Vector3 Mouse;
    public Vector3 MouseSpeed;

    private void Reset()
    {
        CameraSpeed = 2.0f;
        MouseSpeed = new Vector3(+0.25f, -0.25f, 0.25f);
    }

    private void OnGUI()
    {
        if (GUILayout.Button("Reset"))
        {
            Camera.transform.position = Vector3.back * 1.5f;
            Camera.transform.LookAt(Target.position);
            UpdateDirectionAndDistance();
        }
    }

    private void OnEnable()
    {
        UpdateDirectionAndDistance();
    }

    private void UpdateDirectionAndDistance()
    {
        var vector = Target.position - Camera.transform.position;
        CameraZ = Vector3.up;
        CameraXY = vector.normalized;
        CameraDistance = vector.magnitude;
    }

    private void Update()
    {
        var mouse = Input.mousePosition;
        var delta = mouse - Mouse;
        Mouse = mouse;

        var xAxis = Quaternion.identity;
        var yAxis = Quaternion.identity;
        var zAxis = Quaternion.identity;
        var trans = Camera.transform;

        if (Input.GetMouseButton(0))
        {
            xAxis = Quaternion.AngleAxis(delta.x * MouseSpeed.x, trans.up);
            yAxis = Quaternion.AngleAxis(delta.y * MouseSpeed.y, trans.right);
            zAxis = Quaternion.identity;
        }
        else if (Input.GetMouseButton(2))
        {
            xAxis = Quaternion.identity;
            yAxis = Quaternion.identity;
            zAxis = Quaternion.AngleAxis(delta.x * MouseSpeed.z, trans.forward);
        }

        CameraXY = xAxis * yAxis * CameraXY;
        CameraZ = zAxis * CameraZ;

        var time = Time.deltaTime * CameraSpeed;

        trans.position = Vector3.Slerp(trans.position, -CameraXY * CameraDistance, time);

        trans.up = zAxis * trans.up;
        // trans.up = Vector3.Slerp(trans.up, zAxis * trans.up, time); // does not work, extremely slow

        trans.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(Target.position - trans.position, trans.up);
    }

    #endregion
}

Here is Google Earth Roll when you hold / drag / release the middle mouse button:

Enter image description here

Question:

How can I implement smooth rolling like with XY axes?

Camera – "budget" film SLR systems in 2020?

Xiota gives a good summary. As you notice, it's the lens system that makes it affordable – old film cameras are all cheap unless it's a collector's item.

"Budget" preferably means low cost, but good optical quality. Since good autofocus lenses can be used with modern cameras, cheap lenses are generally of low quality. So this leads you to manual focus lenses.

With the new mirrorless cameras, classic lenses with manual focus can be used, since these new cameras can be easily focused manually compared to modern DSLRs. That means rising prices for the better lenses with manual focus of well-known brands that can be easily adapted to these mirrorless cameras.

So this leads you to the dead end manual focus systems that are considered the cheapest glass of good quality. Yashica comes to mind as a quality brand (Carl Zeiss Contax in the same mount are still popular and expensive). Praktica is different, but older ones and bodies are of lower quality – Pentacon and Zeiss Jena lenses in M42 screw or Praktica B bayonet can be very good. There were many smaller or own brands that used this screw mount – Petri, Cosina, Chinon, Fujica. Miranda and Topcon / Exacta are older bayonet systems.

With well-known brands, Canon FD, Minolta MD and Olympus OM manual focus systems are the dead end, but are still popular with mirrorless adapters. The bottom line is that if you want the relatively modern amenities and good optical quality, you have to compete with digital photographers.

Still, kits can be offered for sale cheaply, especially if you avoid global markets and hunt locally. Kits are now sold as a lens collection that a film body is thrown into because it is believed that a buyer is using a digital body.

There were always cheap, below-average lenses. Therefore, avoid buying junk lenses, pay attention to haze, oil and fungi, narrow focus, etc., and for cameras, corrosion of the battery poles.

I would bend over to Nikon because any good Nikkors on your D7100 can be used for fun, and even if you buy a long lens or macro for it, it's probably FX and can be used on your film body (except AF-p lenses, I think). The same applies to accessories such as extension tubes, converters and possibly flashes.

unity – How to bring the camera control of the scene view into the game view

I have a scene with a large ball in the center (the earth) and many smaller balls (the stars).

scene view

Above is a screenshot in the scene view with the camera in the "front view" position.

I really like the controls in Unity's scene view when I move around the viewport, and I was wondering if it could be brought into the game view.

How can I do that?

Postprocessing – How are quarter circles used to correct camera alignment?

I have seen several scales / scale bars for use in field research / scientific photography that contain quarter circles (similar to targets). If I understand correctly, they are useful for correcting images that were taken with the camera at an angle to the surface to be photographed – a circle photographed at an angle would appear as an ellipse in the final image.

Still, I was never able to find a clear explanation of how this was done in post-processing / imaging software. Can somebody help me with it? Many thanks!

Why is the camera set to ISO 400 by default in auto ISO mode with flash?

Although the value chosen is brand specific, you are right that this is common behavior. My Fujifilm Point & Shoot preferred ISO 800.

If you increase the ISO from 100 to 400, the effective range of your flash doubles, which is important for a relatively anemic built-in flash. This also means that half of the flash output can be used for a subject within the normal range, saving battery life, shortening the time it takes to flash again, and shortening the duration of the flash pulse to better freeze motion.

Another approach would be to increase the aperture (more open; smaller number), which would have a similar effect, but would decrease the depth of field. This means that the focus must be activated more. Typically, automatic exposure modes are only programmed when no other option is available.

I don't know the specifics of auto ISO logic in your camera model, but I wouldn't be surprised if the ISO could be kept at around 400 and only increased if there wasn't enough flash power.

When I use the flash outside of the camera, I usually set the ISO manually, but by default it is around 400, just like your automatic mode. That gives me a lot of flexibility with the aperture, and although my camera isn't the latest generation of sensors, the ISO is clean enough that I don't worry about noise.

Equipment recommendation – things to look for in a camera to match the image quality of the camera phone

I have a 10 year old entry-level DSLR camera. I am considering switching to a new camera, but I am interested in what kind of things are suitable for achieving the image quality of my latest phone camera.

I mean that with my question. I understand that the camera sensor is larger and should therefore provide a higher quality image (e.g. less noise, etc.), but my relatively new phone often offers higher quality images in low light and scenes with high contrast (apparently with a kind of "Instant HDR" that my camera needs a tripod to try at all, and still with poor results. I can often only "show and take pictures" and get a great picture while myself With many manual settings on the DSLR – assuming the moment is not over – I often get photos that look inferior. I like to have full control when I need them (and even to be able to shoot sequences in.) some sort of scripting language if possible) but I find that I often do this only to bypass camera problems, for example it's not uncommon that I overexpose 2 or 3 apertures when shooting objects such as airplanes or birds in the sky so that they are not underexposed.

Then why don't I just use my cell phone? I do this in many cases when things are informal, when I don't need a lot of control, and when I don't need a safe ergonomic design that I can shoot over long periods of time without worrying about dropping and breaking something. No phone can really have the DSLR's range and take a decent picture. At the moment I can only take portraits in the camera (and that works very well), time-lapse animations, everything that requires zoom or telephoto, and large panoramas (with approximate gigapixels).

I don't know how many of my age difference issues (e.g. 1 year old phone versus 10 year old DSLR is a 9 year window in which technology has improved) and what I should look for now , since I took refuge, haven't really kept up with the new camera technology since I bought my current camera.

I really only identified one hard criterion – every new camera I get doesn't have an "optical low pass filter" because I've never been satisfied with the natural sharpness of the pictures I take. Another criterion is that I want GPS coordinates to be recorded automatically, although with some new models this will only work if you pair your phone with your camera, which is fine with me. I also had various sharpness problems (lost a lot of pictures because the camera decided to go in focus when I tried to press the shutter button with the target already focused) or cases where for some reason it didn't work either to determine the sharpness to low contrast or not to find out which moving object to focus on.

I know that new phones have a lot of sophisticated software to improve their image quality – for example, the Pixel Line has a "night vision" mode that combines multiple shots, sensors and some kind of AI algorithm to get phenomenal results to achieve images with very little discernible blur (at least in my experience!) Some phone cameras also have an internal burst mode, which takes a whole series of images in full resolution in succession and then selects the best that is displayed by default. I don't know how much camera software (or firmware / image processors) has evolved to keep up.

From what I've read, a mirrorless camera appears to be superior in some ways and allows it to approximate some of the good points of a camera phone while providing a better sensor and lens system. With a mirrorless camera, I often have to shoot through the lens. For example, when I take panoramas with a telephoto lens, I rely on the markings in the lens to align the next shot, which may be more difficult on an LCD screen. Over time, I could take photos with the camera all day. Often these are not possible unless I take pictures without the screen switched on to extend the battery life.

I'm not sure I have given enough details for specific brand / model recommendations (although I can add my current brand / model / lens recommendations), but generalizations or comparisons would be welcome if they illustrate the trade-offs between different ones Brands and models even exist that have classes of cameras. For example, is there a sweet spot where I should pay a little more for a medium-weight camera to get a particular feature and where I would just waste my money?

Edit: According to the comment, my current setup is a Nikon D5100 with a Nikon 35mm f / 1.8 prime lens and a Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 VC macro zoom lens. (It is clear to me that the latter is considered by some to be pretty crappy, but it fits my budget for the focal lengths I aim for. In the future, I would prefer a somewhat higher quality in the range of 150 mm to 600 mm.) Because the majority my shootout is at the top of my current range and I would like to go further in some situations.)