How To Mod A Cheap Action Camera To Use C-Mount Lenses For Infrared Videography & Time Lapse
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- čas přidán 25. 09. 2017
- In this video I convert a $35 action camera to use inexpensive (and awesome) c-mount lenses. Thanks to LastPass for sponsoring this video! Click here to try LastPass for FREE: bit.ly/2huNj2L
The specific action camera used in this video is HEIHEI brand, but the exact same style of camera can be found under dozens of brand names. Chances are if you purchase a camera that claims 16mp photos and 4k video resolution (at 15fps) it will be the same or adequately similar in design that this modification will go smoothly. You can find these cameras even cheaper than the $35 I paid for mine. Here is an ebay search results link that should turn up a lot of options (This is an affiliate link. Results are filtered for cameras under $40): ebay.to/2h8dd8A
Here is another affiliate link where you can find c-mount extension tubes: ebay.to/2wituCk
And another one for a few c mount lenses. I particularly like the Computar 8.5mm f/1.3 lens on this camera (I also like the Computar 6mm f/1.2, and the Fujian 25mm, 35mm, and 50mm. Tons of great inexpensive c mount lenses out there!): ebay.to/2vZd79m
A big thank you to my Patreon supporters for having just pushed past my $300 support goal! And a special thanks to my top Patrons: Syniurge, Matthew Leitzke, TheBackyardScientist, & Enzo Breda Lee!
If you would like to become one of my Patreon supporters yourself you can check out my page here: / nighthawkprojects
A lot of you will probably notice a number of black spots on my action camera footage. That is dust on the sensor. It seems my tape didn't do an adequate job of protecting it but I was able to clean the dust off with a little bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab. I think it could have used a cleaning anyway even before I opened it up as I noticed a smudge probably left by someones finger during assembly. Certainly there's not a lot of quality control on a $35 off brand camera.
If you have any questions please leave them in the comment section below! Thanks for being one of the rare viewers to read the video description!
-Ben
Alternatively, just buy a replacement M12 mount lens with a longer focal length instead of the much larger c-mount. Simply swap it with the stock lens. It'll just screw in and you won't have issues with alignment.
That camera looked cool as! One thing that I saw with IR cameras is when someone hides in a huge garbage bag, you can still see them through the bag because of the IR light. I would be interested to see another video about that camera and different experiments you could do with the IR lens.
In my digital photo class I got to play around with a camera that had the IR filter removed, it definitely creates some bizarre looking images. Also, a few years back when Venus made a transit across the sun, I used a few ND filters and an 850um IR pass filter to make the sun dark enough, it came out really cool! I love seeing your bird in the outro of all your videos.
850nm *
swiss Thanks. I knew it was somewhere between kilometers and picometers
Any link to the Venus photo?
There is actually M12 (the camera thread size) to C mount adapters, though it depends how much recessing you need, but usually none I think.
The possibilities with this are endless. Could really shoot some cool videos.
All wonderful stuff, especially the IR. If you can make some sort of clamping device to hold camera and lens, take a long focal length lens set to infinity, and adjust distance between C-mount and camera before the epoxy sets so the horizon is sharp, this will get your mount in exactly the right place. Also if possible, adjust so all four corners are sharp at this stage. Everything you shoot with this thing will be much clearer. As good as the original lens or better. The softness in your video from it is because the lens is in the wrong position. Multi-element lenses need the correct mount position. You can still adjust them to bring things into relative focus, but they work much better when the mount is at the correct distance from the sensor. Your epoxy method is great because it allows some time for this adjustment, and additional epoxy can be added to fill any gaps that develop during the adjustment.
it's good to see you out in front of the camera more often in your later videos
schel sullivan hey there nitrocellulose man!
This was absolutely great! Thanks
There are also m12 to c mount adapter rings available that make this mod a lot easier to do. It's basically an adapter from the internal lens mount to c mount.
I've done infrared photography in the past, very cool.
Now add an IR spotlight and you have a night imaging devices (i.e. cheap night vision goggles).
Have it feed to FPV goggles through an HDMI would be even better
Im actually gonna do this
Love your videos! You could have just used an M12 to C mount adapter. I'm actually going to attempt this!
Did you end up trying this? I'm thinking about doing this, but don't want to completely destroy my camera
Nice mod, easy to follow tutorial. What I found most interesting is adding the ND to infrared to get the "infrared look". I had no idea that's how it would be done!
Awesome project
I just got the tlc 200 pro and was messing around with this type of infrared photography using cs-mount lenses. Interesting that you put this video out at the same time I started exploring cctv lenses. Thanks!
That's awesome!! I've been looking for how to do exactly this in order to use an action camera for close-up shots. I'm going to have to build this now.
If you want to get rid of the spots in the image like at 12:49 (assuming they are dust particles on the sensor) then you will need some soft q tips, isopropyl alcohol, distilled water, and clean containers for the alcohol and water. What you need to do is wet the q tip with the alcohol water first and lightly touch the sensor with it while using as little force to push down onto the sensor as possible, the alcohol will act as a solvent and help to clean up any debris. Then you can use the other side or another q tip to remove any alcohol remaining on the sensor. Then do the same with distilled water to remove the minerals and repeat this until it gets as clean as you want.
You also will have to keep from touching the ends of the q tips before using them, otherwise you will risk getting oils from your skin on the sensor which would be harder to remove and mess up the image even more.
Yeah he wrote that up above in the description (just below the video channel name) he explains what happened and how to fix it.
02:04: “Must jump on head, must jump on head, must jump on head…”
02:13: “Yes!”
Great video, I was just working in a very similar project just as you upload this video. I was surprised, but very happy too since I follow you from a very long time.
I´m modding the same kind of cameras for survaillance, exploration and for scientific research. I'm currently investigating tiny lifeforms, but I'm also concerned about it's potential for scouting, so i'm modifying it with support for interchangeable pack of li-ion batteries (the ones from cellphones, as well as the ones pc batteries contain inside), for solar panels (farmed from backyard led lamps) and a dynamo charger option (made from a small driller motor). As you, I made support for optic lenses (farmed from a lot of sources, mainly recicled), and for various types of light; visible, UV and IR for nighvision.. In the end I'm tranforming it into a portable, versatile, more sustainable tool for long time recording for a broad spectrum of aplications; research, investigation, etc.
Good to point out the advantages of purchasing these v/s expensive brand ones for these applications, at least. Mine even came with the typical polycarbonate case, to film underwater and other accesories as well, that I plan to upgrade in the future too. Finally, I got to say taking out the IR filter built on the camera its a very easy mod following the same principle of maybe the most famous camera hack on ytb, the famous "IR filter from an old camera film, in a digital camera sensor", but even easier. Greetings, and keep on like this!
Excellent work, when I have some time, I will have to give this shot.
I found that video to be very informative, I do aerial mapping and crash investigation, love that IR hack
I've been into IR photography for a while. In fact I've modified my old Canon 300D by removing the "hot mirror" IR filter and installing in place a piece of wideband glass of equivalent optical path. Makes for some cool pictures - and you can do pseudocolor if you use different band pass filters. Composing an image is pretty difficult though because this old camera doesn't have live view, and the image that you get in the viewfinder is what passes through the front filter i.e. very little visible light with most filters. I've thought of modifying a more modern camera (one with liveview, that would cost quite a bit), but now I think I'll do this mod and have something that can record IR movies instead.
I'm very blessed to see a soul tearing apart inventions to learn how to better use them, a true inventor. Utmost blessings!
wow great video! i think i will try this! the only thing is the 8mm seemed a bit blurry can this be corrected afterwards? an what other lens would you recommend an ring mount size? thanks a million : )
The 8mm only looked blurry because I missed focus and the camera sensor was dirty. The opening shots of the burning toilet paper roll were also with the 8mm after the sensor was cleaned. I used a Fujian 35mm lens for the macro shots, with another extension tube to move it further from the sensor.
The problem is that the adapter may not be perfectly centered on the sensor. Also the focus plane may be tilted because the axis of the lens is probably not perpendicular to the sensor. A solution could be to put the lens on the adapter (screw it almost fully on the adapter), set its manual focus distance, use a low aperture (more light, smaller in-focus zone), then power on the camera and verify the quality of the image. Only glue when the result is ok...
ND filters are not designed to let ir pass. They are supposed to block all wavelengths equally. Very low quality ones work only on visible light and will let nir pass but it's not a feature, it's a defect. Google "ir pass filter"...
It's very rare to find a variable ND filter that also filters IR, there's only one that I know of that was only recently released by SLR Magic I believe. Regular ND's can filter IR, but not all do because IR filtration is accomplished successfully by the internal IR filters on most cameras, and external IR filtration can be a negative especially when using wide angle lenses because you can get red vignetting. ND's that do filter IR are obvious because they have a metallic red coating on them. Concerning centering and alignment of the lens, it's not too big of an issue since the sensor is so small. If your plane is off slightly there isn't much difference in distance from one side of the sensor to the other. You can afford a little bit of misalignment before any sort of tilt shift effect becomes noticeable. Much more than you could with a larger sensor anyway.
Nd filters are designed to block visible light. There's a whole variety of response curves. Search Google images of "nd filter wavelength" Everything else is a side effect. So I guess it's a cheaper way to get a nir-pass-filter if you get the right type of ND filter. Howether ND don't fully block visible light and attenuate ir light (more or less depending on the wavelength response curve). So you don't get a pure nir image. So maybe it's better to use the proper filter designed for the task instead of another one designed for something else(and that could eventually works more or less).
The sensor is small but still if poorly aligned you get tilt-shift photography. The pixels are very very small. Any miss alignment means that on the border light from a point in the object may not focus onto a single pixel on the sensor. So the small size of the sensor means a small blur but still even more magnified. The size helps with aberrations but not with tilt angle.
On another subject, an alternative for your design would be to use a raspberry pi 3 with the "noir" version of its optional camera.
Thank you soo much!! I was waiting for it since a long time !!!
Very interesting and a great way to get very useful filming-hardware without spending too much. Thank you very much, I'll be sure to try in near future :D
Cool project. Might want to add a step to clean the sensor after you cut out the housing for the new lens. There are very visible amounts of debris that can be seen. Also, You may want to manually step down exposure compensation for full spectrum and visible light. IR looked fine.
Always glad to your feathery friend in a video. :)
Last pass saved me when i was hacked from my PSN. If i didn't change to lastpass i would have lost every account i owned. I can vouch for it without a doubt.
Thanks man think this is one of the best ideas in photography and video of the past year, can buy a nice action camera a nice fast 1.4 lens and get a pretty decent infrared camera, just for the conversion of a dslr shops are asking 300$
Really cool project!
Fun video! Makes me want learn more about this subject.
Nice! I am researching this path
Awesome as always NHIL!
I've been looking to do something like this for a while now, of course you have a video on the topic! Keep up the great work as always!
Whew! I click and I’m blasted with some gorgeous 60Hz video!
Awesome stuff. I can't wait to try this myself! 👌
One of the reason your image is so soft is because you set the lens mount rather randomly. A not centered sensor or not in plane would show aberrations but the soft focus is mainly due to a wrong flange focal distance. Each kind of lens has its own distance from the focal plane (your film or sensor are that focal plane) and if that is set properly than the lens is able to achieve focus through all it sees from its minimum focusing distance to infinity, if set randomly you might be able to achieve focus just at certain distance ranges but lose the ability to focus outside of that or in some cases lose the ability to focus at all (extension rings works on that principle).
For C-mount lenses the distance between the lens flange and the focal plane is 17.53mm (and with a simple wooden jig and checking the image focus at infinity you can get to that precise distance without much difficulty, a jig will also help you to mount the ring centered and in plane).
The image comparison should have been made between the same camera with original lens and the modded one to give it a fighting chance.
PS: some people mentions m12 to c-mount adapters, the problem there is that it will all rests on the original lens mount attached to the circuit board and thats too weak for the heavier
c-mount lenses.
Good video :) I was planning make a mod like this for my M42 lenses. It is kind of a shame that you used a really cheap camera but I can blame you, you already risked it by melting the chassis.
It is good to see that you can use IR filter in front of the lenses. Thank you for that hint.
Your cat looks much better, I'm glad it found a good home!
VERY HELP FULL
That $35 action cam image quality is “great”! I like the result! …..with caveats, it’s GREAT!
Thanks for producing this video. It is a very interesting mod. I like your IR video clips, too!
Very good video, an interesting project.
For info:
All these cameras are known as Allwinner V3 clonics.
The plaid on your shirt disappearing was really cool.
i love your parakeet and as always great video!
If you get an infrared flashlight and set your camera up at night you will be able to see in the dark and have a night vision camera setup. I've tried this myself with less high tech components shown here and it works really well and I think its very cool.
Excellente vidéo et bonne explication, merci beaucoup pour votre partage 👍
_Is that a bird on your shoulder, or are you just happy to see me?_
😊😊😊😊
*GREAT VIDEO!*
I love seeing Mose in your videos!!!
great stuff mate ! :)
Holy shyt, I guess I'll be doing this now thanks 😆. I had no idea what I was going to stumble into learning how to hack a action camera for fpv, well I've learned a lot today suffice to say.
mad max style camera
this project is f***ing cool !!
Very interesting!
Making it into an ir camera is a cool idea. That trail by fire way of cutting it was scary!
Great experiment, and your parrot is cute!
Thanks for another great video!
Ur such a nice n cool guy :D
Love this video!
this is fantastic. Thanks. Great content. Subbed.
For none of the content shown in this video I am the target audience. Why did I watch? Parrot nice doe!
Excellent tutorial! And the part about blocking visible light spectrum is very interesting in particular! Is there an option to make some sort of thermal camera by tweaking the filtering of the light? IR image seems to be the right way to make thermal cam, right?
You need a special sensor made to detect infrared light to get it to detect enough to act as a thermal camera.
Been looking for a cheap way to set up a camera to record in ir for ufo hunting. Think I found it. Thanks.
This is approximately a Near Infrared camera. So 700 nm to ~2000ish nm but it likely falls off in sensitivity far before the 2000nm. This is different from true thermographic Infrared cameras that cover the 900-14,000 nm spectrum that most people expect with Infrared cameras.
But nonetheless a very nice project, something that I've tried before and I think others should do too.
Keep up the great work :D
nope in real life the sensors of consumer products can catch max to 1100nm and in theory they should see up to 1300nm. if you know of a cheap 2000nm camera, please give me a link :)
"but it likely falls off in sensitivity far before the 2000nm"
where did you read that? on wikipedia they wrote 1100nm as upper limit which is true from my practical experience.
Do take notice that I was making a general rule of thumb note about the Near Infrared spectrum range, on a youtube video comment, not about consumer cameras. Where do I know this from?: Experience with the technology. Most Sensors fall off in QE around the 700nm range with 10%QE (Quantum Efficiency) and get worse to useless. Some manage 900nm and above. It can be slightly improved by modding & cooling the sensors with Co2. So please stop hounding me.
i just wanted some info, dont be hyper sensetive , its a youtube comment section discussion.
Considering that fact, i was extreme-above-average polite :D.
Cool video.
Amazing work. Can you please share how far into the IR spectrum this unit will go? Can you measure this for us?
Nice mod! One thing I think you didn't take into consideration is the flange focal distance for C-Mount lens - it's 17.526 mm. If they are farther or closer to the image sensor, the image will never focus as the labels on the lens would imply.
Hmm.. does it mean it will not focus if we add extension tubes to it for macro videography?
@@reedtan it means that if you use extension tubes, the focal range is locked at very close distance and you can't focus at infinity. That holds true for all cameras with extension tubes.
Oh yeah, this is amazing, love the "Brilliant" mod. KUDO'S.
interesting video. the parrot is sooo cute :D
I want a bird now. The lens change is easy but, I really enjoyed all the information and detail in the video.
I ended up buying a different model. I don't plan on modifying the lens, but the model I bought can be used for time lapse and has a dashcam feature that turns on and off when power is supplied. At 1080p60 native resolution, it should also make a passable toy for getting shots I don't want the GoPro to endure.
Very good results!
I was wondering if the camera allowed you to lock the automatic exposure adjustment?
Most of cheap camera's won't allow this by default unless you hack it's firmware. All footage looks absolutely great, especially the fact you invested more time than actual money for a very cool and custom camera.
Gladly these cheap Chinese 4K/15fps camera's don't have built in zoom mechanisms, which brings you directly to the image sensor. Nice idea for the next project: Find a comparable cheap cam with auto exposure lock options and maybe a little bigger image sensor than this model, I'm sure everybody will get exited to build one themself!
And If not... Well... People will be bagging to sell the little monsters to them! Great project!
No lock for the exposure, but you can adjust the exposure baseline
Coooool. Might just do half the mod and pop out the IR filter leaving the stock lens. Do they make a standard visible light filter attachment for the action camera? I'm about to find where the elusive draft in my apartment is! Thank you
I love the bird!! :)
Interesting!
Well I know what I'm going to do if I find a c-mount lens at a thrift shop. Really interesting video
I don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but if you're using the screw mount to focus the lens it appears that it's difficult to get a good focus looking at the small screen at the back. For my Nikon DSLR live view, increase the magnification on the back screen: easy, but apparently not for the inexpensive camera. It would be very easy to set up a testing set up, even just a tape measure, then establish a starting point: lens screwed down (soft) finger tight and then backed out. The threads of the C-Mount are I think 32/inch, so it would be very easy to divide one turn into 8 parts, or 1/256". Once you find a close point and a distant point, every step in between would be equidistant.
Depth of field formulas are easy, but subjective. The general DOF indicators on SLR lenses are good enough... not for the focus but for the range of subject depth that would be acceptable. Good project, thanks. The infrared is a real bonus, but it's not to be mistaken for a temperature gradient camera. Infrared as a selfie option will always be more interesting than any of the canned filters in your phone. I would suggest that a gel filter close to the sensor is generally more practical than front filters and adapter rings. No fingerprints, probably fewer internal reflections, and less expensive. (I did photography professionally for 40 years and one adapter ring for one filter was about all you could ever count on. I ended up using tape far more often than the rings. It's as bad as USB plug nonsense. But when gels and small sections of gels can be placed behind a lens generally everything is better.
You filmed your sponsored app right next to your bong 1:07
“Smoking gold is bad mmmkay!”
may be you can made a 3d print part to replace the lens holder.
I wondered why you cant just simply 3d print an adapter that screws in place of the the original lens? will that make the focal length too far?
That's an interesting idea. I suppose it might be tricky because the resolution of the printer would have to be very high to print such fine threads. It probably would make the lens too far from the sensor as well, but worth trying.
I would suggets 3d printing a body of the adapter but using taps to create the threads. However only using the thread on the PCB to center the lens but not to hold its weight :)
just buy c mount to m12 adapter
Thukfudo i agree, however i think a large tap would be more expensive than a e-bay C mount
It would cost significantly more to have an adapter 3D printed in metal that to epoxy the extender to the camera.
About that plastic spudger, I don't remember where I heard this, but it was from someone who disassembled Apple products for a living, I think. They recommended using what they called a "MacBook access tool", by which they meant a credit card or guitar pick.
A guitar pick might work.
Theoretically, you could carve away a section of the extension to accommodate the battery. If you are careful to cut through the threads cleanly, it would still work.
I hadn't considered that. You might be right.
man, I fkn like the way u xplain!
Please make a video testing the night vision capabilities of the camera! Maybe accompanied with a IR only flashlight
Yay more good videos
Very interesting
Cool!
Your bird is a Caique right? So cute and great video
Interesting idea. I assume "missed focus" is due to the lack of a view finder. I wish you had done a comparison of the cameras in focus.
It's amazing to me how over complicated and expensive lens mounts and branding are when all it is is a few machined threads in a weird size.
The heated pipe idea is interesting. I haven't tried that one before in this context.
I would probably prefer removing the original 2 stud/tab mount and create a new mount to replace it for a level result. However I have taken apart a few old Canon film camera lens and often take macro pictures by simply holding a phone camera behind the hand held canon lens assembly. This can create some interesting effects although it is limited by the lack of a RAW file to manipulate after.
As far as future hack-a-YT content, I'd recommend adapting whatever ultra cheap off brand old film camera lens I could find lots of on eBay for $5-$15 as that would probably generate more spontaneous DIY projects IMO. At this kind of price it might be fun to create a dedicated tilt shift setup, astrophotography, or a stereo scopic 3d setup.
-Jake
First thing I tried was to remove the old mount from inside the camera entirely, but it's permanently glued to the sensor board. Once you take the screws off the sensor comes off with it.
Now this project is one of them I feel like I can just go out and make right away with hardly any big cost and hardly any big tools.
Yet another great video! I'm wondering if you could make some impromptu Night Vision Goggles with a bank of IR leds and a portable power bank. 💡! Ill be back.... I have a uhhhh pie in the oven.......
Cute birdy!
I have two of those cheap action cameras.
The first one is the same as yours, with the IR filter attached to the back of the lens, which is super easy to convert to film IR. The other one has the IR filter attached directly onto the sensor, which I destroyed the sensor trying to remove the sensor (sigh). At the moment, I'm trying to buy another one to convert, but don't have a good method to distinguish the difference.
BTW, the c mount ring is also used as an adapter for CS mount lenses. C and CS mount lenses use the same mounting thread, but have different flange distances. (CS=12.50 mm, C=17.5mm)
Nighthawkinlight became a pirate
In general, metallic coatings on glasses are not going to be transparent to IR.
The metal coating is far more reflective in IR than it is transparent.
Tinted plastic lenses are going to be similar to the example you showed.
I am not sure if the IR wavelength is right for this, but one fascinating experiment is to watch gasoline or other hydrocarbons evaporate.
Some of the vapors are quite opaque, and so you will see black clouds arising from the evaporation.
This technique can be used to find gas leaks...
yes...good to know it can be doe! . i have been trying to figure out how i could modify my cheep action cam for better lenses, just like this!!...... the only thing i would change is, it would be nice to still use the battery, especially sense i have extras.
i also worry i would not be able to get the lens lined up properly.
Do all these cheap action cameras have the ir-filter mounted to the lens tube instead of the sensor?
Please make some videos about cool things to film in IR! I know there are some more things that are transperent for IR light!
Its not what this video is about but this parrot is so unbelievably cute :3
I checked out your link and boy have prices changed since you made this video. There is a wide selection available for as little as $9.99.
There are some better quality cameras too at decent prices. Who knew that deals like this would happen as the tech became more available and Cheaper sources appeared?
great! i love this! XD
Another great vid! Awesome hack of a cheap camera. Just one comment though, you should definitely try to re-attach the front cover as dust will eventually get attracted to the surface of the CCD element through those holes at the front. And they are an absolute PITA to properly clean because the CCD surface is quite delicate. Also I see that front panel (that was melted) had screws in each corner, is the panel removable? If so then it's also probably a good idea to remove the panel prior to modifying it. That way there's no risk to possibly damaging the internal electronics. One other thought too, I've seen some cheap camera's that won't allow you to power up the camera on usb without the internal battery being in place so for some models you might need to externally attach the battery.
Unfortunately the part I melted and the back side that the sensor is attached to are all one piece. The screws just let you pull the whole skeleton out of the camera. Doing so is kind of a pain though because getting the buttons back in when you want to reassemble is difficult, and you have to take the screen off the back which is held by an adhesive that never wants to set correctly a second time.
Ahh right, hmm that's unfortunate. Anyway you've inspired me to go and try that on a cheap camera I've got. Currently rummaging around for a piece of copper pipe. :) . Please can you do a video on some experiments with this camera? Like filming at night? Cools effects you can do with it? What materials it can see through? Maybe try looking through smoke/fog with it? That kinda stuff. As soon as I'm employed back to full time again I will definitely be contributing to your Patreon.