“You press the button, we do the rest” (gpn23)

Digital cameras are black-boxes during use: "you press the button, we do the rest". In this media archaeology project, I open this black box by disassembling an off-the-shelf DSLR camera as a case-study. I extract the image sensor, reverse engineer its interface, and build a new camera-apparatus around it. This lays technical groundwork for artists, hobbyists and researchers building custom digital imagers for greater control over photographic image formation. Image sensors are the material basis of digital photography: semiconductor chips that are sensitive to light and convert images into electrical signals. While using commercially available cameras is easy, it limits the freedom over the image making - many decisions and processes are already fixed and hidden by the camera manufacturer and thus cannot be creatively controlled nor politically discussed. "You press the button, we do the rest". The promise of this Kodak advertisement slogan from 1888 is as present as then, the camera a black box more than ever. The aim of this talk is to open the black box of the camera as an intervention into this automated imaging, starting from the image sensor. Reverse-engineering, documenting and discussing the inner workings of a fairly modern high-end digital camera and the interface of its image sensor allows hackers and makers to use a cheap full frame CMOS image sensor. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ about this event: https://cfp.gulas.ch/gpn23/talk/YSNRZY/