July 7, 2015 | By Simon
Although many people refer to modern ‘makers’ as those who use modern small-scale manufacturing equipment to realize a variety of projects, the activity of ‘making’ goes all the way back to the beginning of civilization. But while the term could be used to describe literally anybody who had made something with their hands, it’s usually projects that have happened in the last century that most are commonly referring to.
While there are many projects that have been done and improved upon over the years, one that has remained timeless for many -while also teaching the principles of photography - has been in constructing a pinhole camera.
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens that features a single small aperture; a pinhole. Because of the simplistic construction of the camera, people have made pinhole cameras out of a variety of objects and at entirely different scales - some as large as a barrel! In order to successfully ‘take a picture’, the pinhole is opened up on a chosen scene and light passes through the pinhole and into the box, where it is effectively projected and inverted on the opposite side of the box. When the photographic paper is exposed to the resulting image, a scene is recorded and thus, a photograph is taken.
Unsurprisingly, the simple construction of a pinhole camera has helped it maintain its status as a ‘maker’ project throughout the decades and is still just as popular as ever amongst 3D printing enthusiasts and other types of makers. Among others who have used a 3D printer to create their own pinhole camera designs is Thingiverse user ‘schlem’.
Inspired by both his love for Kaiju (japanese monsters) as well as his love for photography, schlem created a giant mutant-inspired pinhole camera using his 3D printer - the terraPin Kaiju 6x18 Pinhole Gamera.
“I grew up watching Japanese Kaiju movies on TV every Sunday afternoon on channel 11's Sci-Fi Theatre,” explains schlem.
“Gamera, a rocket-powered flying turtle beast, was and remains my favorite Kaiju. I hope it is obvious that the terraPin Kaiju is a giant mutant pinhole, a pinhole Gamera!”
In addition to being a well-designed pinhole camera from a pure functionality standpoint, schlem’s camera design is also the perfect example of how 3D printing can be used to create one-of-a-kind custom products for consumers who are looking for products that might not be as common as those that are otherwise mass manufactured.
The final design uses 120 film, features a 6 X 18 cm frame at 116.5 degrees, has an 86mm concentric film plane, an f/215 aperture and was designed for 0.40mm pinhole. To ensure that the photos come out consistently, the Gamera was designed to work flawlessly with the exposure calculation setup for the PINH5AD, which determines how long a scene should be exposed for without over or under-exposing a photograph.
“I typically embellish my pinhole cameras with knurling to add interesting visual and tactile textures,” added schlem.
“Unfortunately, the mutant size of the Kaiju required so many thousands of extra polygons that they constituted a persistent source of non-manifold errors and rendering ambiguity.”
For users interested in creating their own Gamera, schlem has conveniently provided the necessary files and instructions for assembly. In addition to the STL files, users will need the following supplies:
- 0.40mm pinhole
- 4 x panhead M3 bolts 10mm length
- 2 x M3 nuts
- 1/4-20 flanged nut for tripod mount
- Finishing tools like files
- Flat black paint for inside (minimize reflections)
- Translucent red plastic for indexing window
- Super Glue
Once the parts have been 3D printed and finished, they can be assembled using the bolts or their snap-fit design features.
According to schlem, the film winds on the left and the frame is indexed at frames 1, 3, 5, and 7 for 4 exposures per roll of 120 film. The film clip can prevent your roll of film from unspooling during unloading and being ruined by light that may leak into the roll of film. Of course, when working with any analog photography equipment, care should always be taken to not expose the film prematurely.
For those who are fans of Adafruit, the Ruiz brothers recently discussed the camera during the latest 3D Hangouts episode on YouTube.
While there is certainly some print time and assembly required for the project, it just might be worth the effort to be able to carry around both a smartphone camera and an analog camera for relatively little cost. Be sure to check out the instructions and source files by heading over to the project’s Thingiverse page.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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