Can't wait for Nikon and Canon to launch their new mirrorless cameras and want to fork over money for the ones already on the market? Photographer Eric Rossi made this 4-minute video that shows how you can convert your existing DSLR camera into a mirrorless camera.
While some tinkers are building automated at-home solutions for film processing such as the Developist and Filmomat, Mexican photographer Pablo Zárate has created a much simpler processing aid: the Develophead. It's a film development tank cap that does agitation for you.
Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has been studying and tinkering with lenses for years, and a few years ago he made a discovery: by reversing one of the elements in a vintage lens, he found himself with a lens that produced beautiful and unusual "magic" bokeh.
The Standard 4x5 is a new 3D printed large format camera that's perfect for aspiring large format photographers on a budget: the camera comes as an IKEA-style assemble-it-yourself kit that costs just $320.
A truly mass-market (and widely adopted) at-home automatic film processing machine has yet to appear in the world of photography. Photographer Mark Webb didn't want to wait around for one to show up, so he cobbled together one with his hardware and software knowledge. It's called the Developist.
How accurately do you expect your camera to be in representing the real world? If your answer is "not very," then Draw This is an instant camera designed for you. It snaps pictures and prints them as cartoon drawings.
The Think Tank Logistics Manager 30 is my absolute favorite when it comes to all the camera bags, tripods, photo bags, and other bags I own for my flash equipment, tripod, and cameras. But, like almost all rolling bags, it's mostly made for being taken indoors at airports, offices or other places with flat floors.
When low-quality photos or videos are posted online, people often say that they were shot with a "potato camera." But if you actually want to shoot photos with a literal potato camera, how would you go about doing so?
Dora Goodman, a maker of handcrafted cameras and straps, has released a new open source camera called the Goodman One that anyone can make if they have access to a 3D printer.
Photographer Mathieu Stern loves experimenting with very old and/or strange camera lenses, but his latest project is quite strange, even by his standards. He used a 3D printer and created a lens that looks like a giant eyeball.
The Carl Zeiss Kipronar 120mm f/1.9 is a vintage cinema projector lens that was designed to beam images rather than capture photos, but you can mount it to modern cameras using adapters. Photographer Mathieu Stern created a homemade adapter after buying the lens for $70 and has been delighted by the "insane swirly bokeh" that the lens produces.
My name is Gerald Gattringer, and I'm a photographer based in Austria. I recently built myself a custom star tracker for DSLRs, and it works pretty well! In this article, I'll share how I did it.
After watching the spread of the selfie stick over the past several years, photographer Peter McKinnon recently decided to try one himself for the first time. But then he decided he wanted something better... so he built himself a $10,000 ultra-Canadian selfie stick.
Polaroid cameras are fun to use, but shooting high numbers of instant photos can get very expensive very quickly. Tim Alex Jacobs, known as mitxela online, recently solved this problem by modifying a standard Polaroid camera into an instant camera that prints photos on thermal paper (the kind used for receipts).
Here's a tutorial on how you can shoot Polaroid i-Type instant film in an old Polaroid 600 instant camera. I think the pictures speak for themselves
Photographer Lucus Landers has built one of the most impressive do-it-yourself cameras we've ever seen. Called the Landers AL6, it's an all-aluminum camera that shoots medium format film.
I really enjoyed reading the Photography: The Definitive Visual History and it got me thinking about blending older forms of photography with newer digital equipment. I became obsessed with TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras -- not for their ability to view through one lens while capturing an image through the other, but for the style of photography that this type of camera forces the photographer to adopt.
Professional portrait backdrops can cost over $1,000 apiece. If you'd like to get creative without getting broke, photographer Jessica Kobeissi has a thrifty DIY idea for you in this 4.5-minute video. She shows how you can create a custom backdrop using less than $5 in materials purchased from your local dollar store.
I recently got bored and decided to expand a super-budget project I'm working on. I love gridded beauty dishes for dramatic artsy stuff, beauty, and as a generally very versatile modifier. However, even a cheap one is out of budget for this project. So... I made one.
In December 2015, Shane Arsenault and I had started talking about a joint photography project with the purpose of using his 16”x20” Bellows Camera on a larger scale, which would give us the freedom to work outside a conventional studio space.
Want a remote motion-activated wildlife camera without shelling out big bucks? You can build one yourself using Raspberry Pi. PiBat recently built a pint-sized one, and it works quite well.
If you're looking to add a creative touch to your photos, you can consider making a DIY lens filter for custom effects. Here's a 3-minute video from COOPH that suggests 8 photo filters that you can make at home to spice up your photos in seconds.
Have a camera body cap lying around collecting dust? Did you know that you can easily turn it into a do-it-yourself pinhole lens? Matt from Blue Mantle Films created this 1.5-minute video tutorial that shows how.
Looking to make your own DIY overhead camera rig? Well, look no further - here is a 9-minute tutorial from photographer and YouTube star Peter McKinnon that shows you how to do just that.
Photographer Zev Hoover has created a rather unusual camera: it's one of the world's first 8x10 large format video cameras.
A few days ago, for the first time ever in my experience with wet plate photography, I mixed up collodion from scratch. I thought I'd share about the experience.
Trying to think of a photography-related present for a photography-obsessed person in your life? Here's a 4-minute video by COOPH that features 10 great DIY gift idea for this this holiday season.
Here's a 5-minute video by photographer Bill Lawson that shares 7 different DIY gobos (go-betweens) that you can use to introduce creative shadows to your portrait photos.
There is an almost endless supply of lighting modifiers available on the market right now, some are cheap and some of the better ones are certainly a lot more expensive. But does cost directly relate to quality? Well, a lot of the time yes it does if you're referring to build quality.
Here's a 2-minute tutorial overview from Circuito that will show you how to make your own automated turntable for photography. With the ability to start, stop, and trigger the camera all by itself, this turntable is great for people looking for a streamlined product photo workflow.
Photographer Cole Rise has a deep obsession with space cameras. So deep, that he just spent over two years creating a 100% accurate replica of the first Hasselblad medium format camera used by NASA in space.
Do you enjoy making your own lighting gear instead of spending hefty fees for commercial products? Here's a 10-minute tutorial by photography instructor Joe Edelman on how to build and use your own strip light modifier for under $25.
Photographer Dieter Schneider started building cameras about five years ago, and last year he fashioned a 4x5 camera using a CNC Machine. This year he took things to yet another level, creating an 8x10 large format camera entirely by hand without using computer-aided machinery. You can watch the entire build process in the 35-minute video above.
In this 4-minute video from COOPH, learn how to hack your way to better photos using cardboard.
In this 5-minute video from The Slanted Lens, learn how to create a window in a seamless and add beautiful shafts of light into your studio shots.
Danish designer Milan Madge recently built himself a gigantic Leica III rangefinder camera out of LEGO blocks. The level of detail is impressive.
Here's one of the more unusual camera modifications we've seen: a Chinese photographer over in the Xitek forums posted photos showing how he removed the electronic viewfinder from his Sony a7 full frame mirrorless camera. As you can see, his camera now looks more like a Sony a6500.
Daniel DeArco has created what he claims to be the "world's fastest camera slider." Capable of sliding 5 feet in just 0.15 seconds, this thing is pretty darn fast - check out what it can do in the 3-minute demo above.
For years now, I've been looking at using the Lexar Hub to efficiently transfer multiple SD cards to my iMac. The reason I never pulled the trigger was that it seemed like it was a bit much. The Lexar hub is pretty large and it requires its own power source which is an inconvenience while traveling and having to back up cards on your laptop. I think I finally found the solution!
Albertino of Instax Magic created a unique camera that blends the old and the new. Half of it is made of LEGO, and half is a 90-year-old Zeiss-Ikon Trona folding plate camera.