DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

This is the worst digital camera in the world with a resolution of only 48 pixels and no lens

Oct 24, 2022 by John Aldred 6 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Digital camera sensors have come a very long way in the last few decades. Even just in the last 20 years, we’ve gone from the likes of the 4.1-Megapixel Nikon D2h to 100-megapixel monsters from Fuji, Hasselblad and Phase One. Hell, even smartphone camera sensors now boast 200-megapixel resolutions with a lot of neat digital wizardry. But as complex as processors have become, they’re very simple at their core.

This one, proudly proclaimed by its creator to be “the worst digital camera of all time ever”, shows that basic principle off extremely well. It was created by Peter Sanchez at Electromechanical Productions. It features an 8×6 grid of light-dependent resistors (LDRs) for a grand total of 48 pixels of resolution.

It’s a fascinating proof-of-concept experiment. Based on an Arduino Nano, it reads the light values on each of the 48 LDRs in order to try to build up an image. A very blocky, small and rudimentary image, but an image nonetheless. The Arduino on its own doesn’t have the capability to read all of these sensors. So, they’re fed through an array of integrated circuits (ICs) known as multiplexers.

These multiplexing chips allow the Arduino to check each pixel individually to record what value the sensor sees. The Arduino reads each row of six light sensors in sequence very rapidly in order to build up the raw pixel data. This means that it’s not only a very basic sensor but it’s a very basic rolling shutter sensor.

The data that is received from each sensor is then fed out via a USB cable to a PC running some custom software written in Python to be processed. You can download the code from GitHub to check it out for yourself. This script reads the data coming from each sensor and draws out the final result as a PNG file. It’s essentially like shooting a camera without a lens on it, exposing the sensor directly to the light. But with a sensor this low resolution, focusing an image onto it wouldn’t help much. Which is probably why Peter’s calling it “the worst digital camera of all time ever”

This isn’t the first DIY camera sensor we’ve seen here at DIYP. Sean Hodgins designed the Open Source digiObscura in 2019 that contained 1024 pixels in a 32×32 grid of tiny surface mount phototransistors. Sean’s was also based on an Arduino and used multiplexing to access the entire array.

[via Amateur Photographer]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

The largest digital camera ever built is being installed and its resolution is 3.2 BILLION pixels Does Adobe’s Super Resolution eliminate the need for high resolution cameras? This DIY digital picture frame lets friends send digital postcards from across the world Samsung’s new 50-megapixel JN1 sensor has the smallest pixels in the world

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: arduino, digital camera, DIY, DIY Camera, Electromechanical Productions, Peter Sanchez

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« What it’s like to photograph football players
Canon shows commitment to supporting DSLRs with a new firmware update for the EOS 1DX Mark III »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Comparing iPhone 13 vs iPhone 14 for astrophotography
  • Don’t buy a Z8 directly from Nikon, customers say
  • YouTube is killing off “Stories” to focus on Shorts and Live
  • Four ways to shoot epic stop motion hyperlapse with a smartphone gimbal
  • Canon reported to be working on a “zoomable” teleconverter

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy