Focus Bracketer
Objectives
- Automate the process of focus bracketing with a digital camera
- Focus bracketing is taking multiple photos of the same subject with different depths of focus
- These can then be combined in software to create a single photo entirely in focus
- Some cameras have this feature built in, but mine does not
- Require no permanent modifications to the camera and be easily removable
Single photo; the background is out of focus.
Digital combination of five photos taken with the FocusBracketer; the whole photo is in focus.
Process
- Designed bracket to attach servo motor to camera, and 3D printed it
- Created wheel for servo to turn the camera lens
- Rubber grip is a length of audio cable glued to the wheel
- Designed PCB in KiCad
- Includes OLED screen and four buttons for the user interface
- Has terminals to connect servo and camera shutter cables
- Controlled by Seeduino XIAO microcontroller, programmed with Arduino framework
- Chose this board because it can be soldered directly to the PCB, which keeps the device thin
- Program allows user to set start point, end point, and number of steps
- As start/end points are being set, the servo is jogged
- Tested device by taking close-up photos of small objects
Reflection
- The device generally works well
- Sometimes the servo does not travel to the right place after the endpoint is set
- This could be because the wheel is slipping
- Measuring the rotation of the camera lens and providing feedback to the microcontroller could fix this
- Using Focus Bracketer is more efficient than moving the lens manually, and results in more consistent images
- The process was a good test of my PCB milling skills
- This was the largest PCB I had made in a while
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