This Awesome DIY Digital Camera Has a Waist-Level Viewfinder

Aug 28, 2025

Jeremy Gray

On the left, a person with short platinum blonde hair and red lipstick looks slightly down. On the right, there is a vintage-style boxy camera with a metallic lens resting on a wooden surface.

Photographer Malcolm Wilson, who recently converted a broken film camera into an infrared digital point-and-shoot, is back with another awesome camera build. This time, Wilson combined a Mamiya C220 TLR viewfinder, Raspberry Pi, and Sony image sensor to create a waist-level viewfinder digital camera.

“At a high level, it’s a waist-level viewfinder camera built around a Raspberry Pi 5, a Sony IMX283 Type 1 sensor, and a Mamiya C220 TLR viewfinder,” Wilson writes on his Substack, “Camera Hacks by Malcolm-Jay.” But his new DIY camera is much more than that.

Powered by the Raspberry Pi 5, Sony IMX image sensor, and clever coding, the 3D-printed camera offers focus peaking, a live histogram, manual shutter speed control, Wi-Fi image transfer, and automatic ISO. It also sports a large four-inch HDMI display.

The sensor is actually the OneInchEye V2 from Tindie. It costs $179 and pairs the IMX283 sensor with an image processor, CS mount, CS-to-C mount adapter, and IR filter.

A close-up of a vintage-style camera with a large lens, placed on a white surface with a blurred indoor background.

For lenses, Wilson opted for C-Mount on this camera project, which enables the use of many excellent Fujinon television lenses. He used the Fujinon 9mm f/1.4 and 25mm f/1.4 primes on prior projects, and gave them new life with his latest camera. He also tinkered with Pentax Takumar lenses.

A close-up of a compact black optical device with a lens on top and a small rectangular opening on the side, placed on a light-colored surface.

Once Wilson printed the camera’s case and acquired the sensor board, he had to determine how to power the camera and what type of viewfinder to use. The camera is powered by a Geekworm X1200 battery module, which is wired to a momentary switch mounted in the camera’s case and attached to Raspberry Pi 5.

A close-up of a person holding a gray, boxy camera with an exposed sensor and no lens attached. The background is neutral, with two blurred lenses visible to the side.

The “viewfinder” is the aforementioned four-inch HDMI screen placed inside the waist-level finder borrowed from the Mamiya C220 TLR camera. It is really nifty, and a charming blend of old-school analog photography and modern digital technology.

As Wilson demonstrated in a fashion photoshoot in his studio, the camera, despite being powered by a relatively small image sensor, can deliver some truly incredible results, especially when used in good lighting conditions.

A person with short, platinum blonde hair and bangs looks intently at the camera. They are wearing a dark textured jacket and have bold eye makeup and dark red lipstick, set against a neutral background.

A person with short, platinum blonde hair has glowing digital numbers projected across their eyes, giving a futuristic or cyberpunk effect.

A person with short, light blond hair sits on a chair in a dimly lit room, wearing dark clothing. They look directly at the camera with a serious expression, one leg crossed over the other.

A person with short, bleached blonde hair and dark clothing sits indoors, extending their hand forward with rings on their fingers, giving a confident, intense look toward the camera.

A person with short, bleached blonde hair and wearing a textured dark jacket looks thoughtfully out of frame against a softly lit, neutral background.

Beyond being very good at hacking custom cameras, which Wilson details on his Substack, he is also an excellent photographer. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Image credits: Malcolm Wilson