Yet another Hacker News

Line Scan Photos from MUNI Heritage Weekend in San Francisco

74 points plun9 1 day ago 13 comments

dllu 20 hours ago | parent

OP here, ask me anything! I've also written about the process previously:

- Line scan camera image processing: https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2025-09-21-line-scan-camera-... Previous discussions:

  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44996938

  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383593

  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46388084

- Standalone line scan camera hardware: https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2026-06-12-standalone-cnc-li...

- Line scan camera image processing 2: https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2026-08-02-line-scan-camera-...

plun9 19 hours ago | parent

oh ok

0xfaded 1 hour ago | parent

Very cool.

I never thought about it until seeing these, but line scans yield an orthographic projection in the scan direction. There was a little bit of uncanny valley being able to see parts of the front/back of the car that would have normally been compressed out occluded by perspective.

ramses0 38 minutes ago | parent

Yarp... Mr. Lu, please go to your nearest gigantic poster shop and immediately start selling these prints at art-gallery prices! There's a brief moment in time where you've a monopoly on "pictures that look like this" and you'd probably be able to make your money back (and more) on this highly distinctive photograph style. Do some back and forth chat with AI on "fine art photography pricing structure" and "signature style / visual voice" and you'll likely be pleasantly surprised.

...and I'll be surprised if I don't see these pictures hanging in a bank/startup lobby at some point!

dole 24 minutes ago | parent

Hell, I'd shop them around to transit authorities. Gorgeous photos, awesome hardware and processing techniques that went into them.

ramses0 6 minutes ago | parent

Donate copies to sfmuni (no matter what!), or front them as "distribution partner", ie: they sell those posters for $999.99 or whatever and cut checks to Mr. Lu for $99 each (or something).

Goatsgiats 19 hours ago | parent

These are really lovely.

gerikson 1 hour ago | parent

Very cool images!

What lens are you using? Does it have to cover 135 format?

muststopmyths 1 hour ago | parent

beautiful !

phgn 1 hour ago | parent

Woww so cool, thanks for sharing!

matja 49 minutes ago | parent

I like the photos, they look like architectural diagrams.

I suppose the subjects moved past the camera perpendicular to the lens direction, so you only see one side.

Are there any examples of what it looks like with a line scan camera when a subject goes past at an angle?

Also, for anyone setting up a tripod with a tripping hazard in public, do consider public liability insurance :)

abeppu 43 minutes ago | parent

Ok the photos are cool and it's nice to see the vintage street cars. But Muni has a budget shortfall and is planning on cutting a bunch of bus lines and reducing frequency on lines across the system. Meanwhile, it has an internal supply chain to custom build replacement parts for vintage vehicles that no other city will operate, and teams of specialist restorers. Viewed in isolation, they look cool! Viewed in context, is this ... irresponsible?

landonalder 36 minutes ago | parent

Incredible shots