[Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

I would like a program to record videos with the main camera (preferably at least as good as the default one), but with zoom functionality that instead of blowing up zoomed out pixels, zooms in into the sensor pixels, cropping out pixels outside and keeping the pixel size of the image constant (the sensor has 5MP resolution, if you're recording a 800x480 video you can either discard every Nth pixel and get a full frame, or get the full resolution rectangle measuring 800x480 pixels that is in the center of the sensor discarding the surrounding pixels, or a mix of the two approaches for intermediary zoom)




It really annoys me when i see on TV amateur video where people use digital zoom (blowing up the size of the pixels, lowering the effective resolution) trying to get a better image and ending up only making things worse.


brainstorm

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

not possible sorry. Camera app is closed source.

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

search for "Fcam"

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Right on the spot! Search for Fcam..VIDEO.

No such video support has been added yet. API may be there but not enough.

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

If i expected there to be a program that did this already done and avaiable on the N900, i would have worded the original post differently

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Make change to your request title.
Change it to "Fcam App- Video Recording with sensor pixel based zoom"

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Why restrict it to Fcam? Someone might make another way to use the camera hardware

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

fcam is the API, not the application.
(Someone already said Search for fcam....for example with Google.)
http://fcam.garage.maemo.org/

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

What i meant it, why change the thread title to restrict the request to just programs using the Fcam API? Someone might create another API or find another approach (API related or otherwise) to use the camera hardware.

It was a response to max's post telling me to change the thread title.

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Ok. Well the real API for the N900 Camera is (I guess) closed source, so only practical way to develop such an app is using fcam API.
See http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38671

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

i know Fcam is the big thing now, but i don't see the point it excluding the chance someone is making another API, or has figured out another way to use the hardware

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

The idea is great (although I don't know if it's technically possible - there's probably a reason why current implementations don't do it this way) and I wouldn't see why one should change the thread title, as it says exactly what the OP asks for. Technical implementations and APIs don't matter at all, the result does.

@TiagoTiago:
You might also consider opening a brainstorm for this. Not that brainstorms are the most useful tool on maemo.org, but you never know - and your proposal just is the typical brainstorm use-case.

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

The N900's sensor isn't as flexible as we'd like, for something like this.

It has a set of predefined zoom modes, which are various mixes of on-sensor crop and on-sensor binning. (As an example, when you run it in the regular video recording mode, the sensor doesn't crop at all, and averages pixels down to 1296x974. Then the OMAP3 imaging pipe resizes that down to what's actually stored). There's probably a zoom mode for getting 1:1 pixels off the center, but since we targeted FCam more for photography (Where cropping in post is usually not a big deal) than video, we didn't really investigate supporting those modes.

So right now, FCam doesn't let you specify digital zoom modes, and you always get the full frame, optionally reduced in resolution at the sensor itself.

-Eddy, one of the FCam devs

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

What about that foveal imaging thing?

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

I am not sure but I think the N86 was the only Nokia to do this. Shame they didn't put that camera on the N900.
________
TastyNataly cam

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

TiagoTiago,

That can work on the image sensor in our F2 prototype (the same sensor the N95 has, incidentally) - it's more flexible in terms of region-of-interest control. The N900 Toshiba sensor isn't as flexible.

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

oh, it wasn't with the N900? :(

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Side question:

Why was the N95 chosen over the N82 as a development phone? The N82 is reconized as a better camera phone than the N95. Where there hidden hardware/software isses with the N82 that made the Fcam team choose the N95 instead?

Re: [Request] Video recording with sensor pixel based zoom
 

Deaconclgi, we don't have FCam running on an N95 - there were some early experiments done on it, but in the end, there was a strict limit to what you can do to the phone (like no manual exposure possible on standard firmware).