custom

Thanks to the prevalence of digital photography and the fact that camera stores seem to be closing left and right, it can be hard enough to find film in the first place these days. But if you shoot with ultra large or specialty format films, your job is even more difficult. Thankfully, Ilford is here to help.

Harman technologies Inc. -- the folks behind the manufacture of Ilford film -- are opening their annual window during which photographers can order as much custom-manufactured specialty film as their hearts desire.

Back in 2010, we featured the beautiful macro bug photographs of a Belgian photographer named Frans, who uses a custom laser camera rig to capture insects mid-flight. Inspired by fotoopa's work, biochemist and photography enthusiast Linden Gledhill decided to pursue the same photographic subject.

South East England-based photography student Mark Hilton came up with an ambitious New Year's resolution this year: he's in the process of building his own 20x16 "ultra-large-format" camera by hand. It's a camera that's designed to expose Ilford Harman Direct Positive paper.

For their Chicago-based rent-a-photobooth business Fotio, event planners Nick Harvey and Theresa McMullen created a custom camera rig that looks like a vintage view camera. The ingredients -- besides the wooden shell and bellows -- included a DSLR and an iMac.

A few weeks ago we shared a custom-built workspace by a photographer named Tom Brinckman. This week we have a glimpse into photographer Dan Jahn's dream studio, a 2800-square-foot space in downtown Denver, Colorado that Jahn designed every inch of himself.

After seeing the "woodenized" Canon F-1n that we featured earlier this month, Vancouver, Washington-based photographer Charlie Boucher decided that he wanted to give the mod a go. Unable to find any wood shoots locally, Boucher decided to go with a somewhat different (but slightly related) material: cork.

In the Star Wars universe, Lightsabers are hand-built as part of their wielders' training, and each one is as unique as the person who made it. Photographer Matt Abelson seems to have the same idea about cameras: he builds high-quality one-of-a-kind pinhole cameras based on his own designs.

The Hyperscope (shown above) is one of his creations. It's a cylindrical can camera that takes medium-format roll film, and is crafted out of chunks of aluminum.

Want a personalized pencil holder for your workspace that features your photography? Check out this neat “photo-roll holder” idea …

California-based designer Joy Kelley of How Joyful upgraded her camera recently and needed …

Slit-scan cameras are used to shoot finish line photos due to the fact that recording a moving subject along a strip of film makes it impossible to miss any frames. Engineer and photographer James Guerin was interested in the distinctive look, so he went about building his own slit-scan film camera using an old Pentax SLR.

He ended up with the heavily modified camera seen above: a Pentax ME Super SLR that's equipped with a special winding system that automatically moves film across a narrow slit as the photos are being exposed.

Potter and pinhole camera enthusiast Steve Irvine created the awesome camera above using fired stoneware, glaze, copper, and found objects. The shape and pressure gauges make it look like an old school diving suit from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Yes, the camera actually works: it uses a 4x5 sheet of photo paper as film.

Design Lovefest has a tutorial on how you can make a custom-designed …

Leica charges thousands of dollars extra for its limited edition white cameras, but a Boston-based photo enthusiast named Andrew successfully customized his camera for only a few dollars by going the DIY route. After spending two hours strategically placing green painters tape onto his Canon Rebel T2i DSLR using a razor, he hung the camera by the strap mount and applied six coats of white spray paint and three coats of matte clear.

For Valentine’s Day this year, Samsung created this short film that features custom bokeh shapes shot with Samsung NX …

A week ago we published a tongue-in-cheek post on how to improve the quality of your Canon kit lens by painting a red ring around it. While that wasn't intended to be taken seriously, we were pointed to a Korean workshop named Park in Style that actually takes custom lens body work quite seriously. What you see above is a Canon 18-55mm kit lens that they disassembled, painted, and then reassembled to look like a Canon L lens!

Here’s a fantastic project/gift idea for those of you who are both tech-savvy and artsy: make a …

Slide Light is a wall light designed by SUCK UK that provides low level background room lighting that's customized using slide film. Adding different photographs to the light provides different moods.

We never thought we'd say it, but someone finally found a DSLR that makes Pentax's limited edition models look bland. Erle Kaasik was walking on a sidewalk in Seattle when she walked past a woman using this eye-popping Canon DSLR and 28-135mm lens that a local artist had decorated. It looks like someone mistook the camera for a cupcake or something.

In 1974, Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama had an exhibition in Tokyo called "Printing Show" that featured a Xerox machine in the center of the room manned by Moriyama himself. Visitors were encouraged to select photos from the show, which were then reproduced and assembled into custom photo books. This past weekend, Moriyama repeated the show in New York, once again using a photocopier to provide attendees with custom signed editions of the DIY book. The book was titled "TKY" and bound in a nice silk-screened cover.

When husband and wife photography duo Jodi and Kurt got married last year, they were determined to do something photography-related for the guys' boutonnières. Luckily for them, Kurt's sister Lynn is a brilliant wedding stylist who helped make these one-of-a-kind designs. Kurt's featured an old camera lens, while the best man's was a flower made from film negatives.

Here's something you've probably never seen before: a white "L" version of the cheap Canon 50mm f/1.8 (AKA the "nifty fifty"). No, it's not an uber-rare and expensive special edition. It's a custom paint job by Clubsnap forum member nntenzo.

Photographer Mitchell Feinberg wanted to continue shooting 8×10 large format once his Polaroid …

If you find ordinary camera bags too boring, then check out these custom-fit bags for DSLR cameras. Each “Pixbag” …

Now here’s something we haven’t seen before: Flickr user Damon Hair made this …

The P.90 is a limited edition pinhole camera by Kurt Mottweiler, an Oregon-based builder of wooden cameras. It's constructed using Cherry wood and brass, has a tripod adapter on the bottom, and is loaded with 120 roll film.

Mother’s Day is in just a couple of days, and if you’re planning on writing a letter for your …

Beth Blafka (known as bethtastic on Etsy) makes hand casted resin bangles that …

Erik Pettersson was looking for a nice digital frame, but found that all the commercially available ones were too …

If you love the fact that IKEA furniture is cheap and easy to put together, but hate the fact …

You've probably seen do-it-yourself pinhole cameras or even large format cameras created with foam core, but what about a solid metal do-it-yourself 35mm camera? That's exactly what Denis Mo decided to create, posting his step-by-step documentation to French camera forum collection-appareils.fr.

Denis had wanted to do such a project for 25 years, but it wasn't until he was almost 42 that he had the technical know-how to actually do it. Except for the shutter curtain fabric, ball bearings, and screws, all of the individual pieces that were used to create the camera were custom made.

When Jon Martin found an old Kodak Ektar 101mm f4.5 lens from the 1940's at work, he decided to try it on his D700 by freelensing to testing and see if it was compatible. After finding that it was, he began on building a rig to use it as a tilt-shift lens. He ended up building a rig using old camera gear and some custom wood parts.

I have a small obsession with cameras, also, a slightly smaller obsession with film cameras. My favourite camera is Lubitel 166B. It is a medium format camera, this basically means it has a large image area to capture photos, using the larger 120mm film. The Lubitel's were twin lens reflex (TLR) cameras. They have a little pop up cover on top, you then look down through the viewfinder. The nature of holding the camera like this will getting the settings set up for the shot can sometimes be a pain, so having a nice camera strap to hold it at the correct height, and nice and steady is a great idea.

Mats Wernersson's website is aptly named, "The Camera Maker". Wernersson creates his own custom cameras by hand, making everything from 9x12 field cameras to "frankencameras" created for specific purposes from existing bodies. The above camera is a 3D 35mm camera created by fusing two Konica FS1 bodies together.

Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram had this novel wedding ring designed for his wife …

Stereo Portrait Project, by Alex Fry and Jamie Nimmo, is a 3D photography …

peekfreak is a collaborative project between industrial designer Wai Lam and experimental photographer …

Stephen Von Worley over at Weather Sealed …