[theora] handheld theora video camera wish list

[Tom Sparks]

I am NOT looking at selling the cameras
the camera well be put under an open hardware license
when we have some working version for our community

On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 16:05 -0400,
saulgoode at flashingtwelve.brickfilms.com wrote:
> If I could ask a couple of questions first, what is
the expected  
> target price for the unit? Will it be using CMOS or
CCD sensor  
> technology?
> 
> My main interest is that the amateur stop-motion
animation community  
> currently has very few options available for cameras
suitable for  
> their needs. While they don't need a movie camera
per se (they build  
> up movies from individual snapshots), if you are
designing a camera  
> (even a movie camera) you might take into account
some of the  
> necessary features at little or no additional cost
and thereby attract  
> more customers.
> 
> You probably wouldn't attract oodles of customers
(which is one of the  
> reasons animators have basically been ignored by the
larger camera  
> firms), but if your camera were available in the
$150-$200 then you  
> might marginally increase your customer base. If you
could  
> (eventually) get you price down towards $100 then
you could (I am  
> guessing) attract the interest of a few hundred
animators.
> 
> The two features that would have the most dramatic
impact on your cost  
> would be the focal range of the lens and the image
sensor the unit  
> employed.
> 
> Animators typically need to get in close to their
subjects (puppets or  
> claymation) and a minimum focus distance of less
than four inches is  
> very desirable. If the lens you have chosen can not
support that  
> directly, perhaps a macro-type attachment could be
offered for an  
> additional cost.
> 
> Your choice of image sensor will probably be the
biggest factor  
> impacting your camera's production cost (from the
standpoint  
> attracting animators). CMOS image sensors typically
don't have the  
> image quality necessary for stop-motion animation
and the more  
> expensive CCD sensors are preferable. You might be
able to use a CMOS  
> sensor if it was of the higher resolution variety
(1.3 megapixel  
> versus the 300K megapixel of 640x480 sensors) -- or
maybe there is  
> better technology of which I am unaware, but image
quality is important.
> 
> Other factors in your camera's design which would be
of interest to  
> animators are basically just a matter of "software"
implementation.  
> Stop motion imaging requires that the camera provide
manual settings  
> of all the features, particularly no auto focus or
automatic  
> brightness. It would be nice if the manual settings
could be set  
> remotely over the LAN/WIFI/USB, but this is not
absolutely necessary.
> 
> Though you will be providing a continuous video
stream, it will also  
> be nice to have a remote capture trigger that will
take a high-quality  
> snapshot and then allow that to be transferred to
the computer.  
> Depending on how you have things set up with the OGG
streams and  
> networking, this snapshot capability may present
some difficulty to  
> the software.
> 
> Zooming is desirable, but not necessary. If powered
zoom is available  
> then it should also be remote controllable (not
necessary, but it  
> should only be a matter of software programming to
make it a useful  
> feature).
> 
> I don't know if it will make sense to incorporate
the above features  
> in your video camera, but I thought I'd throw it out
there.
> 
> Best of luck.
> 
> Quoting Tom Sparks <tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au>:
> 
> > What would your wish list be for a handheld theora
> > video camera?
> >
> > 640x480 25fps/30fps
> > 320x240 25fps/30fps
> >
> > Record to a memory card (SD)
> > Lan / WIFI support (auto/manual upload of file on
> > memory card)
> > Live streaming (icecast like)
> > Videoconferencing support
> > Voip (sip) speex audio
> >
> > I am bouncing the idea around of developing a
handheld
> > video camera
> > designed for mobile video streaming
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> 



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