Jollylook: a folding instant camera made almost entirely from cardboard

A new interesting project has been launched on Kickstarter, and vintage camera fans might like it. Meet Jollylook: a simple folding instant camera made entirely from recycled paper and cardboard. When you fold it, it takes no more room than a smartphone box. It’s a mechanical camera with no electronic components whatsoever. Just cardboard, paper, a pair of lenses and a plastic cartridge for instant mini photos. It’s more environmentally friendly than the packaging of a regular camera, as it uses less material and it’s all recyclable or recycled. And it gives you instant results using Instax mini film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6WKOzSlp9E

It all started when Oleg Khalip, the author of the idea, wanted to show his son how the classic camera works. That’s when he started developing the Jollylook. It captures the moment on paper just like vintage cameras once did, and it gives instant results.

Jollylook uses a meniscus lens with a focal length of 110 mm (4.33 in). It allows you to set four modes: portrait, landscape, group or macro. It can also be moved up to shoot through the pinhole. It features a switchable diaphragm with manual adjustment for the seven aperture values: f / 8, f / 11, f / 16, f / 22; f / 32; f / 45; f / 64 + pinhole.

It has a Fresnel lens as a viewfinder, and two shutter modes – automatic and manual. Automatic allows with the shutter speed of 1/250 or 1/160, and manual mode enables you to control the exposure time manually. After struggling with finding the best method for removing the photo from the camera, the team solved the problem by adding a rotating handle.

Jollylook provides 10 shots per one Instax mini cartridge, but you can change the cartridge as many times as you like.

All of this is a pretty impressive range of features for a camera made out of cardboard. Also, it even looks really nice. However, it has one major and very obvious flaw – it’s not waterproof. If you get caught in a rain with this camera, you can probably forget about it. And it’s also flammable, but I suppose you wouldn’t consciously get too close to a fire with any camera.

As I mentioned, the team behind Jollylook ran a Kickstarter campaign. It has already well exceeded the necessary funds, so I suppose it will enter the production stage soon. You can get yours for $35, together with one Instax mini film cartridge; and the shipment is expected to begin in June. Hopefully, they will launch a rain protection, too.

[New innovations Jollylook is the First Cardboard Folding Instant Film Camera via DigitalRev]