this is awesome! I’ve wanted to go down this same route and make either a fully custom camera or a digital back for a medium or large format camera, but the amount of expertise and expense involved in making even a relatively simple scanner back (much less a full CCD camera) is daunting. til then, I suppose I can always do an 8mm cinema camera if I get that kind of itch: https://youtu.be/cuwTC194y_8
and because my palms are now sweating about building a cinepi:
there’s apparently a CinePi XL coming out with a custom 1” sensor (I didn’t know this was possible — can you just source a good 1” CMOS from somewhere and manufacture a board and mount for it?): https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/cinepi-xl
and as always, it’s a shame they’re just shy of good 4k and reliable in-camera audio sync because of how flaky raspberry pi’s engineering tends to be. it’d be interesting to spec out a version of this camera with a different SBC and sensor architecture, though I do like how singularly inexpensive and scriptable the cinepi itself is
apparently the CinePi XL sensor is already available and supported by CineMate, and there’s also an even more advanced sensor sporadically available and also supported…
fuck. a 1.2” Sony sensor plus manual controls taken together are more than good enough for still photography alongside cinema use. I must not start a photography project, I will go bankrupt
but I really want to design a camera system around this!