fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

Slidee is probably the cheapeast non-motorised automatic DIY camera slider you can make yourself

by Leave a Comment

This is a pretty novel idea for a camera slider, called Slidee from maker Shivam Dehinwal. It has no motors, no Bluetooth, no electronics at all and no batteries. It’s built around a regular retractable tape measure. Well, ok, a not-quite-regular retractable tape measure. It’s built specifically around the Komelon Touch Lock measuring tape because it has built-in speed control – which is important when you want to control how quickly your camera moves.

It’s very cool, using a simple 3D printed housing with some bearing wheels and a simple mechanism to hold the retraction button at different positions to adjust the retraction speed. Essentially, the button acts like a variable speed control. The harder you push it, the quicker it retracts. You will, of course, need a 3D printer – or a friend willing to make the printed components – but this is about as simple as it gets.

[Read More…]

The “Pi Cam” is a 12-megapixel, 3D printed, Raspberry Pi-powered camera you can control from anywhere

by Leave a Comment

I knew we’d see a smaller interchangeable lens Raspberry Pi-powered camera than the Paparazzo at some point. This one’s a little different, though. Instead of walking around and shooting pictures like a regular camera, this one requires a little external tech to access it. But you can access it from anywhere in the world, whether it be right next to you on your desk or literally on the opposite side of the planet – as long as it’s connected to the Internet.

Designed by Mukesh Sankhlaa, the Pi Cam is a “Remote Raspberry Pi Desktop/Camera/Server”. It’s sort of like an IP camera, except it runs Linux and opens up the door for all kinds of potential uses from simple remote access to automated features like timelapse. And all of the STL files and code are available for you to download. The build requires a handful of off-the-shelf components as well as some 3D-printed parts. But once you’ve got all the parts printed and gathered, assembly is pretty quick.

[Read More…]

This 3D printed 163mm f/2.5 lens with built-in aperture and focus adjustments can be made for less than $15

by 3 Comments

When it comes to 3D printed lenses, they usually suffer from some limitations that manufactured lenses do not. Two of those limitations specifically are the lack of a variable aperture that can be stopped down and focus adjustment. Some 3D printed lenses get around the focus issue by using a commercially available helicoid lens adapter. And to solve the aperture problem, they may have swappable inserts.

Well, this 163mm f/2.5 3D printed telephoto lens from Felix Steel at Pixels and Prisms features both a fully adjustable 12-blade diaphragm aperture (a first for full-frame 3D printed lenses) as well as a manual focusing mechanism that can lock in the fully extended or fully retracted positions. Aside from the glass, it’s 100% 3D printed and can be built for less than $15. It’s also open source.

[Read More…]

This DIY e-paper display plays movies in ultra slow motion and would take years to play one back completely

by 1 Comment

There seems to be a weird obsession with super slow movie players lately. I’ve seen a few of them come scroll up my screen lately, but this one’s… Well, it kinda takes the cake, with a new frame being rendered about every half an hour. And it uses virtually no power in order to be able to do it, too. It’s based off an ESP32 in “Deep Sleep” mode and draws about 12uA (that’s 0.000012 Amps!). It’s projected that its 2,000mAh battery should last… oh, about 1.2 years.

It’s an interesting way to have a kind of constantly changing photo frame, that progresses one frame through a video sequence at a time in extremely slow fashion. One frame every 30 minutes would means that a movie like The Matrix (just the first one, not the whole trilogy) would take just over eleven years to watch in its entirety. In real-time, the duration of The Matrix is about 2 hours and 16 minutes.

[Read More…]

The “Edelclone” is a 4-axis DIY camera slider that used to be a 3D printer and you can make one, too

by Leave a Comment

Some of you might remember DSLR DIY CNC from last year’s post about those neat 3D printed custom lens caps. This have been pretty quiet from the since, but now they’re back and sticking to the “CNC” part of their name with a new motorised 4-axis camera slider. Four axes because one runs along the slider, two are the pan and tilt with the fourth being focus control, so you can track subjects during your move.

While there isn’t yet a complete YouTube video to go along with the build, dslrdiy (as he’s known on Instructables) has posted a teaser. He’s also posted written instructions, along with downloads for all of the code, Marlin configuration files, STL files, and instructions on how to build and customise it to your liking on Instructables.

[Read More…]

Make this simple DIY lens from an old disposable camera

by 4 Comments

Raise your hand if you still have that old 35mm film point-and-shoot somewhere around the house. If you’d like to give it a new life, Mathieu Stern has a great DIY idea for you. In a few simple steps and with minimum investment, you can use this old plastic camera and make a new lens for your DLSR or mirrorless.

[Read More…]

The View-Remaster is a digitising scanner for old View-Master reels to watch them on modern tech

by Leave a Comment

I’ve spoken about the View-Master here on DIYP before. In fact, as recently as the Kandao QooCam EGO review I posted a few weeks ago. It’s something that many of my generation and older look back on with fondness and wonder. While positively primitive by today’s standards, being able to see images in 3D was amazing to us as kids back then and it still fascinates me today.

Well, one person, Jason Altice of the YouTube channel CodeMakesItGo has turned it into an obsession. So much so that he designed and built his own scanner to capture those old View-Master reels digitally so that he could put them online for the whole world to enjoy. He also released all of the plans and code so you can have a go at building your own, too.

[Read More…]

The Paparazzo is a DIY interchangeable lens digital camera based off the Raspberry Pi and PI HQ Camera module

I knew we’d eventually start to see some custom “portable” cameras being made based off the Raspberry Pi HQ camera after they announced it in early 2020. Have to be honest, didn’t think it’d take this long but here we are. Created by Billy O’Sullivan, the Paparazzo C/CS is a 12-megapixel C/CS mount interchangeable lens camera based around exactly that camera module and the Raspberry Pi 4.

As mentioned, it offers a 12-megapixel resolution – because that’s the resolution of the Pi HQ camera – with all of the features you typically get with the Pi HQ camera on the Raspberry Pi 4, although it’s essentially just a point-and-shoot based on the software. It sports a big LCD on the back, with a menu-driven interface and minimal button layout.

[Read More…]

How to modify the Plustek 8100 35mm film scanner to scan medium format roll film

Film’s resurgence in the last few years has left many analogue photographers with something of a problem, particularly if they want to shoot medium format film. That’s the lack of scanners on the market capable of scanning film compared to 20 or even 10 years ago. Sure, there are some out there that can do medium and even large format but they’re often prohibitively expensive.

So, photographer Christian Chapman decided to have a go at modifying his Plustek 8100 – a scanner designed for 35mm film – to make it scan medium format 120 roll film. As well as modifying the scanner and designing up some 3D printed replacement parts, he also had to modify the driver to make it scan further than it usually would for 35mm film. And he’s made it all available to download so you can do it yourself.

[Read More…]

This $20 DIY ring light isn’t the kind of ring light you think it is – it’s for light painting

When we hear the term “ring light” in photography, one thing immediately springs to mind and it offers a very distinctive look. But there is also another type, which isn’t meant to wrap around your lens to create that “shadowless” (which isn’t really) beam of fill light coming directly from your camera, and that’s what Pye Jirsa shows us how to make in this video.

It’s an interesting idea, basically wrapping a string of lights around a ring to create a unique look. And sure, while you could potentially try to use it like a traditional ring light, it won’t do much good, as those little LEDs aren’t going to light a subject very well from any kind of distance. But for light painting? Well, that’s where it really shines.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts