Diy Camera

One of the things I was aiming at when making this camera is that it should be as simple as possible. And by simple, I mean light-wise. So the design would be of light entering through a lens and hitting a light-sensitive element. That’s it.

Here is where the limitation lies: with large format cameras, the negatives are stored on cartridges, where each cartridge holds two sheets of film. That means that to take 10 photos you’d have to carry 5 cartridges. Tedious. My design got rid of this and allows for up to 50 pictures to be taken on a single load (all automatically protected from stray light while not exposed). I also wanted to be able to use different focal lengths with the body, so that had to be taken care of too. Here is how it was done. Bear in mind that while I go practically step by step on this one, you don’t have to follow the footsteps exactly. In fact, I encourage you to change, mod and experiment with your own designs.

1.a box,

2.photo paper,

thin piece of metal like a can or brass shim,

tape,

xacto knife,

needle,

and sand paper.

Now. Make a pinhole. poke a hole into the brass sheet. If the are any lumps around the edge of the hole then use a sand paper to make it smooth.

Take the box, the box has to be light proof. There should be now light entering the box except from the pin hole. Now that you are sure there are no light entering the box you can paint the box black. After painting the box black you can now cut a square slightly smaller than the brass sheet with the pinhole.

Now place the pinhole inside the box and stick it on with duct tape,(or anything that will make it stay in place). Remember to center the pinhole at the middle of the square.

Now you can make the shutter, the shutter is just a flap so you can make it out of a piece of black cardboard. Then, attach the cardboard over the square with duct tape(or sticky tape).

Now it is the time for placing the photo paper. You must do this in a very dark place. Stick the photo paper inside the box across from the pinhole. Cover the pinhole and put the lid on the box and now you may go out to the light.

Point the pinhole at where you want to take the picture and open the shutter. you can open the shutter from 30 seconds to 4 minutes depending on the brightness.