A photographer in Japan was forced to sell his favorite camera earlier this year after being impacted by the COVID-19 recession. Instead of letting that put a stop to his art, he decided to build his own 4x5 large format camera... using LEGO blocks.
Why does someone build their own camera? Maybe for technical reasons, usability enhancements, or perhaps personal style and artistic outlook. The raison d'ètre for the experimental camera I made here falls somewhere between all of the above.
Want to shoot indoor "natural light" photos... at night? All you have to do is build yourself an artificial sun. That sounds wild, but it's actually neither too difficult nor too expensive -- this 24-minute tutorial by DIY Perks will teach you exactly how it can be done.
When I started freelancing as a professional photographer, I knew I had to put together a printed portfolio. Unfortunately, I found it very hard to find useful resources on the Internet on how to actually do this. As I had some experience in bookbinding I managed to bind my first book by myself, but after three books I realized that in this stage of my career, I needed to have something a little more flexible.
Pye Jirsa from Lin and Jirsa Photography and SLR Lounge dispels the idea that making a great home studio is expensive. In this 20-minute video, Jirsa explains how you can make a quick studio at home for as little as $20.
When COOPH has something new published, it's very likely going to have some cool ideas that you can execute at home. In this 6.5-minute video, that remains true as they show eight clever lighting tricks you can easily try for yourself.
A must-have tool when shooting a number of photography genres, including the night sky, is a remote release trigger for your camera. Triggers range from very simple cable releases over phone apps that connect to your camera’s Wi-Fi to very specialized intervalometers. I wanted to build something even better...
Steve Giralt is a New York City-based director, visual engineer, and founder of production company The Garage. He shoots those visually-stunning commercials you see on TV, and while most studios keep secret how they are made, Giralt wants to share it all with the world.
Simone Giertz is known for making some unique and interesting devices. Her original fame came from making "useless" robots but in this 14-minute video, she constructs a photo booth that would allow her dog to take her own picture.
Redditor Whomstevest has designed and 3d-printed a fully-functional Canon EF to RF tilt adapter and provided the design so that you can build your own at home. The adapter allows any Canon EF lens to adapt to an RF body and features infinity focus, 7 degrees of tilt, and 180 degrees of rotation.
After making a fairly straightforward thermal modification to his new Canon EOS R5, maker/tinkerer Yifan Gu was able to get the camera to record unlimited 8K without having to resort to various timer resetting "hacks." All he had to do was swap out the thermal pads and add a couple more.
Photography equipment has come a long way in recent years; staggering megapixel counts, blisteringly fast AF systems, and low-light performance that was unheard of not long ago. But in my opinion, one of the most useful and underrated advancements has been in off-camera lighting, notably portable, battery-powered strobes.
Electrical engineering student Sam Zeloof recently created something really cool. Using his ample do-it-yourself skills and engineering knowledge, he retrofitted an old Polaroid camera with a Raspberri Pi and thermal printer, turning it into an instant digital camera that prints photos on receipt paper.
Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut of the Hurlbut Academy recently shared a great DIY tutorial in which he shows you how to build a giant soft box using just some foam core and a few lengths of 1x3-inch wood. The result allows you to create a large, soft light source without breaking the bank.
Waiting while flatbed scanners scan a color negative film is nothing to be excited about. This process and the subsequent color precorrection can take anywhere from an hour to two.
Japanese tinkerer Sanasol has just released a detailed, step-by-step "blueprint" video that shows you exactly how he was able to transform his classic Nikon FM film SLR into a digital camera without harming the film camera at all. If you have a few bucks to spend and a 3D printer handy, you can even follow along.
Last month, VSCO achieved a years-old dream of releasing a preset/filter that was based on Kodak's iconic "Kodachrome" film stock. But creating the KC25 preset was anything but easy. In fact, it involved custom chemicals, custom hardware, and two years of experimentation to get this one right.
A Japanese tinkerer who goes by the name Sanasol has created something pretty cool. Using a homebrew sensor cartridge, he's converted his classic Nikon FM SLR into a functional digital camera without having to alter the 35mm film camera at all.
A couple of days ago a user on r/Gameboy asked the community if there was any way to turn his Game Boy Camera into a functioning webcam so that (in his words) "I can be an a** to people I don't respect." Well, someone came through and showed that it is actually possible to do this.
Here's one of the more unique cameras you'll ever see: designer Adrian Hanft took 28,248 coffee stirrer straws and turned them into a one-of-a-kind camera -- the images show up as 28,248 points of light.
If you're looking for a fun and educational project to try this weekend, Israeli DIY-er Elad Orbach has come up with the cheapest, most simple Schlieren photography setup we've ever seen. Unlike more expensive setups, his creation will let you photograph heat and sound waves using just a smartphone, a mirror, and a selfie stick.
Sam McKenzie from the YouTube channel 3D Printor recently embarked on a fun project. Using a 3D printed adapter he found on Thingiverse, he modded a classic Game Boy Camera, shot portraits using a 70-200mm lens (approximately 3000mm equivalent), and printed one of those portraits on canvas.
I wanted a device that can throw light patterns onto a wall or a model. There are some commercially available but they are quite expensive and I this was only for occasional use. I thought that this is something that can be 3D printed.
Photographer and YouTuber Duncan Dimanche has posted a quick tutorial that'll show you how to create your own DIY wall charging station on the cheap. Depending on your needs this setup can cost as little as $60, and the results look almost as good and functional as some of the more serious builds we've featured.
The Verge Video Director Becca Farsace recently set out to build her very own custom camera by merging a point-and-shoot film camera with the new Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera module and a Raspberry Pi 4 computer. Just one problem... she has zero coding knowledge. Cue a very frustrating week.
Creator Kasper from the YouTube channel MAKESOME recently set himself a challenge. After a request from his friend and photographer Mick Friis, he decided to try and create a cable cam on the cheap—basically turning an RC car into something like a Wiral LITE, or a smaller version of the Syrp slingshot.
Matt Huber over at YouTube channel The Garage Learning has put together a fun and creative walkthrough that takes a different approach to splash photography. Instead of manually throwing water onto his subject, he designed a simple 'DIY catapult' that does the job much better than he can.
Photographer and YouTuber Mathieu Stern has been getting into at-home photo printing lately. But after experimenting with cyanotypes, he decided to simplify even further by trying to print photos using beetroot juice, and nothing else. Dwight Schrute would be proud.
Landscape photographer Lewis Carlyle was recently trying to figure out a photo project to do at home, when he came up with a totally unique, never-before-tried idea: close-up photos of flowers. Okay, fine, it's not exactly revolutionary, but he did manage to put an interesting twist on the concept and create some beautiful images in the process.
The folks over at COOPH have released a "Best of DIY Smartphone Rigs" video that covers some truly wacky ideas. From a DIY 'gimbal' to a scary looking spinning rig, there are at least a few ideas here you definitely haven't tried yet.