Now I can announce that soon I'll share firmware repacking tool for E1. Everybody will be able to make changes in camera's firmware (but only if user has some programming background).
Nice to know that you are fine in this problematic time
there are a few things you could help us with
I originally cloned the github project to my windows machine and tried to use the files directly without success. Ended up using notepad ++, turned on “show all characters”, and did the find and replace on the carriage returns that was posted earlier (page 7 I believe). Getting 101mbps now. Thanks for posting that fix.
I want to ask, what do people feel are the optimal settings for the e1? I’ve seen discussions around setting noise reduction to lowest setting but I get crazy noise, even at 100 iso, if I don’t do strong noise reduction. I’m also getting green and magenta artifacts when I shoot log and try to bring saturation back up. So I’m curious about noise reduction, sharpness, brightness, contrast, log vs rgb, and also what you guy last are doing in post to get the best image.
I hope @storyboardcreativity is doing well.
Unfortunately, I cannot understand why you have problems. unfortunately, "storyboardcreativity" is rarely here in the forum.
I have a Z CAM E1 that I have put through the ringer. It's screen is cracked, and the power plug port no longer works, so that has rendered it unusable to me.
However, I figured for the right person this camera could still be of value. If you use these as a locked off cam somewhere in your set up or studio, then you could have this one for $10 to cover my time, plus whatever it costs to ship it to you. I've got it packed up in it's original box and ready to go.
You would need the battery charger which you can buy directly from Z Cam for $40. This way you can charge the batteries externally, then slip them in the camera.
All the buttons and wifi/remote control work perfectly fine. Sorry for not posting this in the For Sale section, I just wanted to get it in front of the right audience.
Let me know if you're interested!
Just didn't want to throw it in a landfill. Thanks
Back to E1
The case mod goes into the next phase
1.) Remove accu, cut out direction to sensor for peltie element
2.) heat to the outside with a laptop cooler with heat pipe on the outside cooler
First test :Cool the sensor to 15-20 C to avoid condensation. This works very precisely at + - 0.5C
Second test : measured temperature of the "On Chip temp sensor" reduced from 42 C to 17C
On photo´s you can immediately see a drastic reduction in noise
"Noise that does not arise does not have to be removed"
A friend is currently using the 3D data from the E2 to adapt a housing for 3D printing
If that fits send it to printed in metal 3D
Vitali-Kislev I've been a fan of the GF3 since your hack and fully agree with your criticism. I referred to E1 at kinson I am currently using 3 Zcam e1 and looking for 2 more. only through the hack can the e1 be used properly.
Since the E2, zcam has been trying to shine with special functions and new extreme data . the result is an unmanageable number of resolutions and special functions and codec mix. For professionals it may be great if no normal mortal person knows about the confusion of codec resolutions, LUT and frame rate. The thermal design and the delusion of constantly overclocking the sensors constantly requires external software to hide the defects.
strange that I have never wished for a hack with my blackmagic cameras, You have a logical menu and all resolutions simply work cleanly without stress.
After I had the opportunity to test an E2, I immediately decided on the BMCC4k and I did not regret the decision.
turn on . 30sec. set and film ...... Plug and Play
OK, lets go back almost 2 years in time, and Kinson Loo a brilliant marketing manager :-)
At the time they decided to go after cinema cameras market, instead of focusing on smaller, smarter cameras, especially suitable also for direct connection to computer (read games streamers, conference cam, and so on). And they did not want to hear anything, no arguments.
Note that almost all team expertise had been Ambarella processors and not the chips they use now.
Now they have amazing community and lot of good products (in small niche!), but as business goals are - Kinson decision had been badly wrong. They also abandoned almost all E1 users base (same error that Panasonic made gradually).
Actually all this webcamera drivers craze (Z-CAM also participated in this) already showed how right my position had been.
Anyone who knows the history and development Zcam E1 will recognize the limits of the E1
The start of Zcam is possible by meeting:
the rest is history
I Love all my 3 x Zcam E1 - and 1x BMPCC4k 2 x BMMCC amd my Olympus E1 II
@ Vitaly-Kislev
probably not developed rather changed and slimmed down so that it doesn't stand out Unfortunately Zcam has changed the BF1 design on Zcam E1 with Sony "IMX159" to the panasonic sensor for cost reasons, to return to Sony "IMX159" with the Zcam C1, unfortunately this backward innovation was then officially discontinued in favor of the E2 the development was not end because it was still used in stereo and multikam systems
Here's the video I was referring to above: https://vimeo.com/user91667195/review/436677331/3ff364fa15 Vimeo doesn't seem to keep the original version anymore, but hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.
Are we 100% sure that cooling is the reason for these weird color effects that I'm seeing? I've attached a sample video. The effect I'm referring to is on the baby's arm. It looks like the color depth is reduced or "posterized" to just few shades. There isn't much noise anywhere else in the video beyond what I'd expect.
E1 design is horrible regarding cooling, and comes from core team expirience (at the time) as they mostly designed OEM barebones action cameras (as samples to manufacturers) at Ambarella.
Yes the noise and ‘posterized’ color artifacts are seen in the HDMI monitor, so this tells me that it’s not the encoder issue. I think auto white balance was adding some aggressive color correction and clipping come colors. I have disabled AWB, noise reduction to light and ISO 100 in the video sample I posted above. It’s seems to do ok in that low light environment, but I’m using a full-frame lens with a speed booster - probably at f1.4 or less effectively.
I’m still curious about trying a bitrate of 85mbps or something
I have 3 Zcam E1 but One of my Z Cam E1 has a display defect, I've had it open a few times. its all standart not magic
The sensor is in contact with the front part of the battery compartment with a simple thermal paste, which is ideal for the LIPOs.!!!
I am currently in the process of converting them.
Accu out of the case, Peltie element on the sensor, with heat pipe heat out of the case
The processor is cooled with a copper sheet behind the display, in between is a sloppy thermal pad without air one of my E1 lacked the thermal pad,.
The SD card limited to 100Mbs, a SanDisk Extreme Pro has a write speed: up to 90 * MB / sec !!!!!
I like my 2 Zcam E1 still running but It is and remains an action cam with a 4/3 sensor with an internal 8 bit color and limited processor performance.
great distance from the colour and image quality of my BMMCC with 10bit ProRes ..
if you set the noise reduction to min and deactivate the lens correction and do it with davinci resolve, you will have gained more.
check if the use of the HDMI output (1080P) at 4k is noticeable in the image quality
That’s a good point about temperature. I haven’t tried the MJPEG encoding yet - it’s supposed to be much easier on the CPU, but maybe more harsh on the I/O since it’s way more bandwidth. Has anyone tried a VBR between 60-100 to see if there’s a sweet spot? Wonder if removing the case and adding a heat sink will allow for reliable 100mbps video...
I have NR set to light, is there a way to disable it completely?
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