One of the greatest things about film photography is its friendliness toward do-it-yourself approaches. Want to hack together a working camera out of discount hardware store supplies? All the power to you! Want to shoot on art paper coated in a home-concocted emulsion, contact-printed using authentic techniques from the 1800s? Why not?
As a wildlife photographer, I'm always looking for ways to capture stunning images of animals in their natural habitats. One technique I've found to be incredibly effective is using a custom-made, DIY, DSLR camera trap, which is a camera setup that is triggered by the movement of an animal.
Reveni Labs has announced Dunkbot, an automated film processing machine. Dunkbot fits three 35mm film rolls, a pair of 120 rolls, and up to six sheets of 4x5 medium-format film.
Raspberry Pi's new 1.6-megapixel Global Shutter Camera module promises instantaneous readout across the entire image area, eliminating rolling shutter distortion.
Years ago, photographer Markus Hofstaetter purchased a 140mm f/1.0 lens designed for projectors. He recently found the right opportunity to pair this unusual lens with an ultra-large format camera.
Photographer Mark Hiltz designed and 3D-printed a functioning film camera. Unlike many 3D-printed cameras, as impressive as they are, Hiltz's camera includes a 3D-printed shutter.
Belgium-based YouTuber and DIY enthusiast Handy Bear has created a simple organizing station that lets photographers easily manage charged and uncharged batteries.
Photographer and e-paper fan Cameron Dowd has designed and produced a working Polaroid-like camera that records images on e-paper. As such, the "film" can be used over and over again.
Last year, PetaPixel wrote about photographer Ryan Kojima who built a DIY medium format camera using the CCD sensor from an Epson flatbed scanner. The DIY scanner camera captures massive, detailed 514-megapixel photos. Kojima built his first scanner camera a decade ago, although he recently upgraded it to deliver even better performance.
The Mitutoyo long working distance objectives are popular in macro photography, but often difficult to mount to a camera.
Released in 1971, the Polaroid Big Shot was a funky, green plastic camera that was built for one thing: portraits. The plastic behemoth is simply designed, using a fixed focus 200mm, single-element plastic meniscus lens.
Australian photographer and avid DIY-er Jim Metcalfe recently decided to up his macro photography game by building his own stereoscopic macro camera to capture and create 3D images.
A photographer built a DIY medium format camera from an Epson flatbed scanner and shot a 514-megapixel picture with it.
A team of photographers built a super fast f/0.3 29mm lens from a Leitz projector lens to shoot a beautiful short film.
Photographer and computer science undergrad student Joshua Bird has created a 3D-printed movie camera that uses "normal" photo film canisters, with the goal of letting him enjoy the nostalgic look of film video without paying for expensive motion picture film.
A 3D-printable adapter allows fans of the Game Boy Camera to use small CS-mount interchangeable lenses with it, which also opens the door to adapting much larger optics to the camera first made available in 1998.
A team of designers has created what it calls the Photon: a small, simple, light meter that is powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico and costs a fraction of what most camera accessory companies charge for one.
A photographer came up with a novel way of protecting his lens when using a remote camera to capture rocket launches.
For those with family members who grew up in the 1980s (or earlier), a slide projector was a pretty common way to share and show images before the internet was a thing. But these days, finding a way to get people to sit and view these images in a dark room with you is even harder than finding a functional projector. To covert his old 35mm slides to digital, photographer Scott Lawrence built a custom digitizing system based on a slide projector.
This trinocular "wigglegram" lens creates vintage film-looking stereographs and is made with a combination of 3D-printed parts and scavenged disposable camera lenses.
The KineCAM is an instant camera-inspired "DIY" device that allows users to capture and create "animated" photographs (of physical GIFs) in the form of a kinegram.
As creatives are tasked with greater and greater volumes of work, accessories to help speed up their workflow become more and more valuable. While editing consoles can be incredibly useful, they can also be incredibly expensive, which is why YouTuber "Pedro" of DSLR DIY CNC has shared how you can build your own custom "InfiniteDeck" for just about $50.
Have you ever had a repeated inconvenience that finally makes you say to yourself, "Okay, I’m done with this garbage"? Well, that’s the exact feeling I had with using contrast filters on my enlarger. Anytime I wanted to use a contrast filter, I needed to use tape to hold it in place while I was printing.
Benedek Lampert, a Hungary-based photographer who specializes in photographing toys and miniatures (especially Lego), has shared a behind-the-scenes look at one of his largest projects yet: the 801-piece Harry Potter Hogwarts Express train set.
Apple's foray into digital cameras was short-lived but one photographer is still using his, only with a Nikon F-Mount placed on the 1995 camera.
Photographer Felix Steele has created a design for a 3D-printed 164mm f/2.5 lens that has no fasteners or screws, uses affordable glass elements, and can be built at home for less than $15.
Photographer and lens enthusiast Mathieu Stern has attached a disposable camera lens to a Sony Alpha A7 II to recreate the 1990s look.
A filmmaker has built a home-made motorized camera rig out of the recycled parts from an aging 3D printer.
Steve Giralt's The Garage Learning film school raised over $410,000 on Kickstarter in 2020. But now, just under two years later, the business has filed for bankruptcy as the idea "did not work as planned."
A British man has built his own lens with a super fast 35mm f/0.4 equivalent bokeh that is constructed around an old episcope projector lens and a mechanical system for controlling focus.