CinePI - 2K RAW cine camera on Raspberry Pi base

[19:11 Mon,24.April 2023 by Rudi Schmidts]

CinePI is an open source project that can turn a Raspberry Pi into a 2K cine camera. So it should currently be possible to record 2K RAW as Cinema DNG sequences with up to 50 fps at 12-bit color depth, which can be edited with the free version of DaVinci Resolve, among others.

For the freely available components, developer Csaba Nagy has not only developed his own software components in recent months, but even provides free CAD software files for the housing.

Thus, the whole project is reminiscent of the early days of Apertus Open Source Cameras, which, however, also had cine computing power for 4K RAW recording packaged with an FPGA board.

The CinePI camera uses the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera sensor module with Sony IMX 477 sensor, which costs around 60 Euros. However, this "only" offers a width of around 8mm, which is comparable to Super8 - at 4K-12MP resolution (4056 x 3040 sensors). Of course, this immediately raises the question of how 2K RAW should ultimately be created from this. Because in the 12-bit readout, only 4K resolutions are available without 2K binning. However, since the camera is advertised with up to 2K 50p, 4K cinemascope formats with 24p should also be technically possible.

The DIY body of the CinePI is most notable for its

square touch display, which is not exactly high-resolution at 720 x 720 pixels and also not particularly cheap (about ).

The CinePI is currently filming in 2K RAW with a Raspberry Pi 4 as base.

Since Raspi boards are still hard to get since Corona and therefore quite expensive, the whole project is currently even more expensive than buying a used Blackmagic 2K Cinema Camera or a

Canon EOS M with Magic Lantern.

But the first CinePI configuration presented here is just a start. Thanks to open source, technically savvy users can customize and/or further develop the camera with their own external sensors, buttons, HATs and I/Os. With a connected HDMI monitor or other LCD touchscreen, there are certainly many more ideas to be realized. And the fun of tinkering with such projects is usually the real added value over off-the-shelf cameras anyway.

more infos at bei github.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: CinePI - 2K RAW-Cinekamera auf Raspberry Pi Basis