This Woman Made a Digital ‘Vintage’ 8mm Camera with Raspberry Pi
Want the look of an 8mm film camera but the convenience of digital? Instead of using a filter app and your phone camera, you can hack together your own digital 8mm camera using Raspberry Pi.
The camera consists of the lens mounted to an enclosure that contains the rails from an old CD-ROM drive. An HDMI screen is connected on top to provide a live view, and a pistol grip is mounted to the bottom to allow the camera to be handheld more easily.
Thanks to the old lens and tiny digital sensor, the camera has a vintage look that may give you a pang of nostalgia:
You can see sample footage shot with the camera during a road trip to Austin, Texas, in the video below starting at 2 minutes in. Wright also tells the story of her custom “Pi8” camera:
Here’s another sample clip Wright posted on Instagram:
Hackaday reports that Wright is currently talking to a local 3D print shot to create a 3D model to replicate her camera creation. You can follow along with Wright’s work on YouTube.
Image credits: Video and still frames by Claire Wright