HELP! Crazy Newb Seeking Advice on DSLR Sensor Manipulation

BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Nice!! That's got to be way better than using software to simply desaturate your image, or shooting in Monochrome mode. There's no way you could ever get that sharp without using a knife.

businessman-banging-his-head-against-the-wall-ispc026073.jpg


Seriously, though, whatever your reasons, feel free to share them. It's an awfully expensive experiment, and I'd love to know what could possibly be the reason for this kind of alteration. I suspect there are monochrome-specific cameras that might be a smarter and cheaper alternative.
 
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Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
puchekit said:
I am interested in permanently manipulating a Nikon D600/D610 such that it mimics a monochrome dslr. I planned on following the instruction of the following posting:

Scratching the Color Filter Array Layer Off a DSLR Sensor for Sharper B&W Photos

If my attempt goes badly, is there a way I could purchase a replacement sensor? I can offer more information about the reason behind my crazy experiment if anyone is interested!

Thanks!
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I'm not going to say finding a replacement sensor would be impossible because nothing is impossible to my way of thinking. That being said, if you're asking if you can ring up the Nikon Parts Department and have them ship you out a brand spanking new D610 sensor please and thank you very much... The answer is no; they won't do that. You MIGHT be able to get a local repair shop to order the part for you but, if it were me, that's something I'd want to know for a stone cold fact *before* I started rubbing layers off my existing sensor.

I wish you good luck, should you decide to go forward with this bold plan of yours...

.....
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
How about... trading my D3100 for your D610, and you can scratch the hell out of that sensor. :cool: If ya mess up, you can replace the D3100 about 6 times for the cost of the D610 and not have to worry about parts?

Sarcasm? Yes. I can't imagine doing this to a high end camera/sensor when there are SO MANY amazing PP packages that will help create phenomenal B&W shots. I guess that means I'm sure interested in why you'd be pursuing a project like this, so please share!
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Buy yourself a medium format film camera for about 1000 $ with lenses and send me the other 1000 $ for the advice.

Or buy 2 D610, screwup one and then use the other.

You wrote it yourself "Crazy experiment"... I hope you will listen to your own words.
 
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jrleo33

Senior Member
I am enclosing a JPEG image of the filter stack that sits atop of the D600/610 sensor. The JPEG states this sensor is for the D800, but is the same sensor used in the 600/610. backdoorhippie explained the Magenta filter was removed from the Nikon D800e. I am not sure if each of these filters can be removed, one at a time. It would seem, if the yellow and magenta filter were removed, your sensor resolution would be affected.

img_30.png
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
jrleo33 said:
I am enclosing a JPEG image of the filter stack that sits atop of the D600/610 sensor. The JPEG states this sensor is for the D800, but is the same sensor used in the 600/610. backdoorhippie explained the Magenta filter was removed from the Nikon D800e. I am not sure if each of these filters can be removed, one at a time. It would seem, if the yellow and magenta filter were removed, your sensor resolution would be affected.

View attachment 76830
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Pieces of the filter stack interact with other pieces, so you can't just remove one without possibly removing something else. Removal of low-pass filters will help with sharpness, but you can't just simply pull them off the stack (and remember, these are filters, not part of the sensor). But then again, I'd be one to tell you that you can't scrape a layer off the sensor.

Speaking of which, the example is a Canon sensor - has anyone confirmed that any/every sensor has the same type of construction? This really seems like major lunacy.
 
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SteveL54

Senior Member
This can't be a legitimate post. Look at the picture of the sensor after it was scraped (or is that scrapped!). Same "vignetting" effect in the shot of the camera. But with the same camera, the shot of the dog has a completely different border. Not sure I'd want that effect in every single picture......

Looks like April Fool's Day arrived early this year.......
 
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tmcguire17

Senior Member
You can do it! Its called buying a Leica Monochrom m. Or you could just buy a D610 ship it to me and you will have the same effect.....no camera! D610 sensor 1100$

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
 
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tmcguire17

Senior Member
So if you scrape the filter layer off as shown, but not completely the remaining filter layer shows in the pics taken as green bwaaaaa I definitely call BS

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Given the lack of a follow-up I suspect "disgruntled and out of money" (check your thesaurus) troll may have posted this to stir the waters.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
You could buy a d600 body which is damaged beyond repair - broken mount or cracked body or what ever and salvage the sensor. I believe that D610 and D600 have the same sensor.

By the way, does the RAW data have unmodified pixels or are they processed for colour balance before writing?
 
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puchekit

New member
Friends,

This idea is crazy, yes. But people are investing thousands of dollars to get this conversion done to their cameras. They are spending more money on the conversion than the camera itself! See below

diglloyd blog - A 36-megapixel Pure Monochrome Camera (Modified Nikon D800)

I am interested in capturing a light event whose duration is a mere 1/20 of a second. The event is displayed on a green phosphor screen. I have been using post-processing techniques (not very savvy ones) to convert these images to BW, but I am not confident that I am getting the most of the image that I can. This is what led me to consider permanent conversion to monochrome.

Any tips on PP techniques that I can mess around with. I am currently using GIMP to process.

Any help would be great!
 
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aroy

Senior Member
puchekit said:
Friends,

This idea is crazy, yes. But people are investing thousands of dollars to get this conversion done to their cameras. They are spending more money on the conversion than the camera itself! See below

diglloyd blog - A 36-megapixel Pure Monochrome Camera (Modified Nikon D800)

I am interested in capturing a light event whose duration is a mere 1/20 of a second. The event is displayed on a green phosphor screen. I have been using post-processing techniques (not very savvy ones) to convert these images to BW, but I am not confident that I am getting the most of the image that I can. This is what led me to consider permanent conversion to monochrome.

Any tips on PP techniques that I can mess around with. I am currently using GIMP to process.

Any help would be great!
Click to expand...

If you are interested in capturing screen shots, then I suggest you look at industrial cameras.
Scientific Imaging - Teledyne DALSA Inc
PL-H9629 Machine Vision Camera, Microscope Camera from PixeLINK

These are available in various configurations and you can trigger them externally from the scope itself. Consumer cameras are no match for Industrial cameras in terms of linearity, pixel uniformity and availability of both monocrome and multispectral.

You will find a lot of articles in industrial computer vision field for assembling the whole system from scratch.
 
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Somersetscott

Senior Member
Just spent 10 mins of my life I will never get back reading this..

I see you can buy a D600 replacement sensor for £80 on everyone's favorite internet auction site. - Just for information.

I've never looked at a mono/B&W and thought - oh damn! that doesn't look sharp enough! - Mono/B&W can cover up a multitude of sins; Contrast, sharpness and clarity can be pushed way further than colour photos IMO.
 
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