Because the developments made with mirrorless digicam techniques and their digital viewfinders, cameras with optical viewfinders have grow to be considerably uncommon, with hybrid viewfinders being even tougher to search out. For this reason Getschmann determined to dive into his physics and engineering background to construct one from scratch for his smartphone digicam.
On this twenty-seven minute video initially noticed by Hackaday, creator and YouTuber Christopher Getschmann reveals us his path to constructing a really hybrid viewfinder for mirrorless cameras and smartphones, impressed by the Hybrid system discovered within the Fujifilm X100. All through the video, Getschmann goes into nice element on the physics and science behind your complete course of, and why he felt the necessity to go “old-school” and construct out this venture.
Getschmann says within the video, “I needed to know make one myself for a venture and that information was surprisingly arduous to search out. Right here I share what I discovered and clarify (by means of a historic perspective) how one can get to the flamboyant fashionable hybrid viewfinder.” He then poses the query, “Why use a viewfinder in any respect when you’ve got a show with a stay sensor readout?” And his reply goes deeper than simply nostalgia.
The design utilized by Getschmann leverages an attention-grabbing mixture of lenses and “beamsplitters” positioned in a 3D-printed enclosure that’s all merely press-fitted to keep away from utilizing something overly fancy or the requirement of glues and adhesives. Getschmann says he tries to keep away from these glues as even the tiniest quantity of superglue will create sufficient vapor to completely blur any glass floor within the neighborhood.
As soon as assembled, your complete factor slides over one facet of the smartphone and combines an optical view of the scene that matches the digicam’s area of view with a small digital overlay from the cellphone’s display which incorporates some pointers and a gyroscope/tilt indicator that Getschmann programmed himself. Within the video, he says that including further data might be simply finished and could be value programming, however he had needed to deal with the opposite optical points first.
There’s a lot of science and a few nice guides included on this intensive video for these fascinated with studying extra about viewfinders and the science behind the glass optics concerned in these techniques, however for many who wish to simply get to the precise DIY construct portion of the video, you possibly can soar forward to the 23-minute mark to see the ultimate construct.
Regardless of making a enjoyable and useful completed product, Getschmann says there are nonetheless a couple of kinks to get ironed out within the design with the biggest being some vital distortion and chromatic aberration on the digital overlay which he says is usually as a result of lack of further lenses in between to cancel out these errors. Maybe in some future replace it should present area for these lenses to assist repair this. Even with the slight flaws, the deep dive into the viewfinder optics is sort of attention-grabbing and well worth the watch.
See extra of Geschmann’s movies on his YouTube channel right here.
