Old flatbed scanner + 50mm lens = amazing 130-megapixel scancam
And it helps that its creator is a great photographer.
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Tinkerers have been turning flatbed scanners into cameras for a while, but this version by a Japanese modder is one of the finest I’ve seen—both in technical execution and the incredible quality of the massive 130-megapixel images it creates.
Basically, this is the digital equivalent of a large-format view camera. Only even bigger. A mechanical implement moves the scanner’s CCD sensor over the image projected by the old Canon FD lens (he has other lens mounts, too). And here’s a still life, all 13,068 x 10,173 pixels of it:
And a full-crop detail of the tiny print on the side of the battery:
Spyuge, the camera’s creator, has a lot more amazing scan captures on his Flickr stream, including this one of a wristwatch. At high resolution, it’s stunning. Amazing work.
[Spyuge (Japanese) via Boing Boing Gadgets and Bouncing Red Ball]