Hi - Is there a recommended source for a raspberry PI HQ camera sensor build out? Looking to build a high res optics module like here: OpenFlexure Microscope - Assembly Instructions
Except that it uses the HQ module rather than the PiCam v2. Thanks!
There is not currently a released version of the software that supports the HQ camera, or a released version of the hardware. There is a thread on this forum that discusses the progress towards HQ camera support, and a couple of merge requests in the GitLab repository where development is taking place.
For a first OpenFlexure Microscope I would strongly recommend building one of the standard versions, with a Pi Camera V2. Then you will know what you are aiming for when you try more experimental features.
Hi there!
I am working on the implementation of the HQ Camera lately, including the adjustment of the optics module and optimizing sensor usage via a 150mm achromatic lense, since currently, a implementation of the HQ Camera is a bit of tinkering and includes the removal of the C-mount ring and only uses about 25% of the sensor, if I worked that out correctly.
It is hosted on University internal Gitlab instance, so I cannot give you access to that, but if you are interested in joining, I could mirror the repository to Gitlab/Github.
BR
Thanks! I’m a novice so wouldn’t able to contribute much, but would be interested in seeing your progress! Thank you @florian !
Hi @florian. 150mm lens seems rather long, I thought it came out as about 75mm to fill the same field of view as the standard OpenFlexure optics with Pi Camera v2? The explanation of our calculation is here Assembly Instructions
In fact with the few builds that I have seen with the HQ camera, the objective lenses have a larger image circle than basic standard. This means that for a 50mm tube lens only the very corners are outside the image of the HQ camera. There are captured images from builds by a few different people on the thread OpenFlexure with HQ Camera . The different objective lenses have slightly different image circles, but all nearly fill the camera.
We recommend removing the c-mount from the HQ camera mainly because it is heavy. The Microscope optics mount is designed for light optics systems. The OpenFlexure Delta Stage moves the sample in all three axes and so has a fixed optics mount that can take more weight, however the hardware design and instructions are a long way behind the development of the cartesian Microscope. I would only suggest using that if it really is necessary to have stationary optics.
Hey William! I must admit, that I am new to the topic, and AI is doing a lot of the work here, yet the approach seemed natural to create a C-mount onto the optics module.
This is my first attempt with OpenFlexure and frankly, I opened a never-ending box. My calculations are based on a 10X/0.25 objective (enough for my cause). This is, what I got:
```
At M = 0.261 (50mm tube lens): image on sensor = 18mm × 0.261 = 4.7 mm → much less than 9.79mm diagonal
At M = 0.515 (150mm tube lens): image on sensor = 18mm × 0.515 = 9.3 mm → nearly fills sensor
```
Are these not correct? And would you still recommend, removing it?
Next thing is, that I will need the optics to be vertically aligned, so my x axis becomes the z axis (vertical specimen module). The whole device will also be attached to a rail, to process multiple reactor cell modules in series.
I guess, I will open its own thread for this, might be interesting for some people 
Yes, you are right, the lens does come out at a long focal length. The actual distance from the tube lens to the camera would need to be not so much more than 50mm, but with a finite conjugates objective the focus is already designed to be at 150mm, so you the lens that you need gets weak quite rapidly with increased distance.
I think the HQ camera is 7.9mm diagonal though, not 9.3mm. That gives more like f=120mm, and lens to sensor 65mm?
Hey William, sorry my answer took so long. You are absolutely right, the sensor diagonal is 7.9mm, not 9.3mm. That said, I will need a 100mm achromatic doublet for 95% sensor usage, correct?
In practice it seems that the standard 50mm tube lens fills more than 95% of the sensor with the different objective lenses that people have tested on the other threads.
The beauty of 3D printing is that it is relatively straightforward for you to test different lenses and see which gives you the performance that you need.
Thanks man, I will try it out.
I am working on a less invasive version of the hq cam setup, will share it as soon as it produces results.
Just a note on the software side.
The development branch of the server now has a refactored camera API so HQ camera should be a first class citizen (with a configuration change). It is still far less tested than the v2 camera, but we can fix that with testing.
The numbers we use for a lot of the testing on the camera assume this optics module is being used.