View Single Post
  #31  
Old 14-07-2013, 07:54 PM
Rac's Avatar
Rac (Raymond)
Registered User

Rac is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Whangarei, New Zealand
Posts: 120
Quote:
Originally Posted by alistairsam View Post
Thanks Ken, Bojan, Rowland,

the guys in SGL have gone through several chemicals and some of the partially successful methods were
using a buffing tool with a dremel - worked for a 1000D
some sort of a paint remover
toothpaste!!

but after thinking about it and the fact that the photosites are composed of multiple layers sandwiched and are quite hard, i thought the wooden tool was the safest because it doesn't cause any scratches on the layer beneath the CFA and also because the CFA layer is brittle.

one of the members there, Gina, did every imaginable thing possible to remove the glass off a 1100D sensor and finally gave up. these sensors are actually a lot tougher than people think.

and as Ken mentioned, removing the IR filter and removing the CFA gives you a full spectrum camera, only limited by the slight loss in sensitivity due to the microlenses being removed which is unavoidable, and the fact that the QE of these sensors are lower than astro CCD's.

but still, making use of all 4 pixels opens opportunities for so many applications, narrowband, Ha, luminance, all at a fraction of the cost of a similar sized CCD.

I can now do narrowband imaging from my light polluted backyard. once I cool it of course which is another challenge on its own.

I figured, if I'm going to spend 2.5K toward a CCD, I might as well spend a few hundred trying it with DSLR's and worst case, each 350D sensor is $60 on ebay. so its very cost effective and is not really that hard if you're good with small things.

it certainly requires a steady hand and I'm used to soldering SMD's by hand, so I had no issues controlling or restricting my movement.

Bojan, it takes a bit of practise to control the hand movement based on the microscope visual feed, but its quite easy.
as I mentioned, the two edges with the contact wires are the most risky cause one contact on those wires and its very likely the sensor would be dead.

I'm thinking of moving on to a 400D or a 1000D which I know is noisier but is quite cheap and the glass does come off.

Bojan, you're welcome to come over. but be prepared to spend atleast a few hours. I have heaps of questions for you as well. pls drop me a PM.

Cheers
Alistair
I'm the nutter that started that thread on SGL and buffed down the 1000d sensor to see what would happen

It took a Kiwi to kick it off haha
Reply With Quote