The Sony QX10 is a nice lightweight 18 MegaPix camera for very little money (mine cost less than 100$ online, shipping included). It looks like a good one for aerial mapping missions. Unfortunately, it does not support USB cable remote triggering (unlike the much more expensive models in the QX family). Also, a smartphone app allows to trigger the camera via Wifi but that does not allow a direct shutter trigger control via Pixhawk, which was the purpose for getting this camera. Therefore I decided to modify my QX10 to see how trigger wires could be directly hacked on it...
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Hi.
I made a similar mod to a DSC-Wx220 and it works great (I understand it has the same lens and OIS and a very similar sensor if not the same). I'm just starting on mapping but the initial tests are really good for me.
Can you make a test about the shutdown of the camera in absence of phone connection ? How many time it stay ON. ??
How do you connect it to the pixhawk ??... I understand the pixhawk has a trigger signal that is normally tied to cero and pull it up to 5v when trigger, but the camera works at the inverse. (I never found if the Pix can be configured reversed and made a custom board with a N-mos transistor ).
I found that the wx220 refuses to trigger if focus is not tied to gnd so I wired the trigger signal to the focus too.
thanks
If you want more shots per seconds the QX100 is great! I never had the courage to mod mine but after that I think I'll give it a try. thanks!
I spent a while on this camera last year and overall was impressed for the price. As yet no wired control is known about, although the firmware uploader (over USB) knows a few tricks so it could be that there's a possibility.
The RemoteAPI (thanks to Sony for making that public) is supported by a few Open-Source projects, there's a security/development level baked in which is known to enable a few (minor) extra functions:
https://github.com/Bloodevil/sony_camera_api/issues/9
If anyone wants to break open the firmware, there is a tool for decrypting the firmware update packages. Originally written for the Nex/Alpha.
http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/sony-hack/fwencryption
http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/sony-hack/hack-development
There's also a possibility for buidling a ESP8266 (or the like) project to connect over WiFi and trigger the shutter and other functions.
@Paul Meier, I understand that it's a great deal, but I only fly airplanes. I've only ever used shutter priority when taking photos. Do you have any experience with the camera?
Thank's Martin and Hugues
@Martin: you will not get a better deal on pixel per gram......
I looked into the camera. The price is great, but it has a few shortcomings - no shutter priority, a rather small sensor, no raw output.
I got it here : http://www.mediamarkt.be/fr/shop/sony_qx.html
I do not see the Sony QX10 cheaper anywhere than £150, what is about $200
Where do you get it for less than $100???
1 shot per second is fast enough for mapping. I wonder how many shots at 1 per sec before the buffer fills and it has to slow down, or whether it can keep shooting at that speed.
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