Digital Camera build using a Phase One H10

[pdentrem]

Here are a few pictures of the camera that I built last year.
It uses a H10 Hasselblad Digital back from Phase One. This is an old unit that has been replaced with a more current version, so it is free to be played with. It has a full frame chip, ie same size as 35mm negative. It cost somewhere close to 25K back in 2003, the replacement was twice that! It has a chip also twice as large!

I made a .125" subplate to mount the original mounting hardware to hold the back and use that to mount to the large Al disk. This hardware is inletted into the surface of the plate just like it would be on the back of the camera body. I used a CNC machine for the inleting as the location has to be spot on. I placed 2 dowel pins to act as location pins to align the two Al pieces and carry the machining over to the large ring.
The large Al body, I machined out the areas to receive the shutter assy from a Pentax ME Super and electrical hardware and wire runs to open and close the shutter. Other than the shutter assy the rest of the milling was done freehand. Next I threaded the center hole, used the same thread pitch for all the threads (0.75mm) to use a DIY removable adapter that allows me to screw in a Light Pollution filter on the back (metric 48X0.75 threads) and mounting ring on the front for Canon FD lenses. The adapter also gave me the capablity of screwing in or out to achieve focus at infinity. Once the two pieces were finished, I bolted them together and turned the outside OD to remove any misaligment between the two. This was done on my Atlas lathe, CNC mill and a old Busybee imported mill.

This is all controlled from a laptop although one can use a simple momentary switch to cycle the shutter if need be.
Pierre

 

[stupoty]

Awesome, now we want the telescope mount ) , is it computer connected because it downloads the images as it takes or just easier to integrate?

next step view finder ;-)

Stu

 

[pdentrem]

Thanks
It requires a computer be attached as there is no on board memory. Tethered only shooting as they say. I have tried it a bit but need a good cool night that does not include snow to really get a feel for it. Likely it will be 30 sec shoots for the stack. Due to the early design (2003 is early?) it is noisier than current chips.
I may have to remove the back cover and increase cooling with a cold box. Have to see what happens.
Pierre

 

[Bill Gruby]

Absolutely amazing. Your mind is alive and well. Beautiful. Pierre. ------ "Billy G"

 

[stupoty]

Whats good for blacking the inside of the body?

Hope to see some nice shoots when you get the chance.

stuart

 

[pdentrem]

Either flocking material, like what Protostar sells or flat black paint. I used flat black paint on the interior, as well the opening for the lens mount is fully threaded so there is no flat areas to reflect light.
Pierre

 

[dickr]

That's really magnificent. I assume that will be for astronomy. Is it for elapsed time ? Not being either a camera or astronomy person.I've got to show my ignorance. The machining and assembly really wowed me. Thanx
dickr

 

[pdentrem]

Yes. Astro photography is the topic.
What is done is take many pictures of the target over the evening or several evenings and stack them together to form a new image that includes all the data from the X number of images. Then you have to stretch, colour balance, etc to get a good final image.

Here is an example of what a small telescope Orion 80ED, using a Canon 350D (also called XT) that the IR/UV filter in front of the chip was replaced with a different one that allows the light from burning Hydrogen, called HAlpha, to get to the chip. This picture is a stack of 85 individual pictures, one on top of the other, approximately 6 hrs over 3 summers, at the observatory that I share with a good buddy. Individaully the pictures do not look like much, but added together you have something better. This is the galaxy called M51 near the last handle star of the Big Dipper. It is in collision which a smaller galaxy, upper right. All the faint stuff around the two galaxies are stars that have been ripped out and moved around by the tidal forces, Gravity, and they will likely rejoin in the future to the combined galaxy.

Friday night it was clear and I took some pictures of the Orion Nebula, M42, using the Canon again but used a 70-200mm Tamron lens. This is just a short duration of 4 minutes in 30 second exposures. Orion is very bright and you can see colour even using 7x50 binoculars. This is from my backyard which is about only a mile from the city core of Buffalo NY. obviously a light pollution filter is required, i use an Astronomik CLS-CCD EOS clip in, in this case. It is placed between the lens and the mirror/shutter assembly of the camera.
Pierre