03 March 2007

Hacking Web Camera's To 35mm Lens



Of all places to find this hack, I found it at a UFO watching site.
Basiclly if you take the lens off your camera and expose the ccd you can take a standard 35mm film lens and using some pvc pipe and some glue and screws you can construct a decent camera for watching the back yard.
You will need to work out the focal length to get it focused and the easiest way to do this is with a torch and a tape measure.
First set your lens to a know length on the lens, say 1meter , then you need to place the lens 1 m away from the torch so the light shines though it. Now take a sheet of paper and place it behind the lens, you should see the torch light on the paper, move the paper in and out untill the light is focused ( all be it on a miniture scale) on the paper.
This is the distance the webcam screen needs to be for it to be in focus.
Work out a system to hold it in place and then plug it in.
I know this is a basic tutorial but as all lens are diffrent you will have to muck around with the right way to mount the components together.
happy hacking..The image is streamed from my camera when it's up and running.
refresh to see new pic, updated every 2 mins or so.