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The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

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October 9, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 6 Comments

Over the years we have featured quite a few DIY cameras. Some were quite simple pinholes, while others were more elaborated or complex. But I believe that this is the first time we are featuring a fully functional SLR completely machined from scratch.

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

France maker Denis MO built and documented the DM-Flex in early 2010. He estimates it took him about 500 hours to complete – design, build and fine-tune a third each (probably making it one of the more expensive SLRs ever made – even at a babysitter hourly rate). While the actual project took place around 2010, Denis has dreamed about making it for 25 years. but only at 2010 he had enough know-how and tool to undertake this project.

The challenge was not to copy an existing camera but to understand the mechanisms involved and design a camera from the ground up. Here are the initial schematics for the camera:

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

As you can see, the design deals with spooling the film and keeping it tight.

The drum (as well as all the other parts) were machined using standard bought metal.

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

Mirror design:

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

Camera semi assembled

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

The camera body was machined from bulk aluminum

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

And finally assembled into one piece

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

It features a hip level view finder

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

Here are two videos that show how the camera operates:


Appareil réflex Maison, homemade SLR camere by didou-bike


Fonctionnement de l’obturateur du DMflex by didou-bike

and here are some sample images

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

The DM-Flex Is A DIYed SLR You Wish You Had

For the full build process and more sample photographs visit the original thread at collection-appareils.

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Filed Under: DIY, Tutorials

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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  • Anil

    That’s Beautiful… 🙂

  • Khwaja Faraz

    how many megapixel?
    jk 😛

    • catfish

      It’s a film camera

      • Zord

        “Whoosh” is the sound that joke made as it flew far over your head.

  • laptopforphotography

    Not too shabby! 😀

  • Billy

    How about the shutter? :p

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