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How to 3D print your own DIY motorised tracking 2-axis camera slider

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I’ve been getting into 3D printing quite a bit this year. Mostly with regard to how it can help me with my own photography and video challenges. One of the first things I did was to motorise my camera slider. Now, my own efforts in this realm are still quite basic, but while researching how others have overcome certain issues in this area, I came across this tutorial recently posted to Instructables by jjRobots.

It’s a tracking 2-axis motorised, mostly 3D printed camera slider. This means that it doesn’t just move the camera from one end of the slider to the other, but it also turns the camera. This way, your camera can move while remaining fixed on a specific target. And it’s all controlled from your smartphone – that app’s available for free, too.

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This is the world’s first Sony E-Mount 35mm film camera – and it’s open source

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Well, this is an interesting turn up for the books. It turns out that while many photographers are trying to adapt their old film cameras to their shiny new Sony cameras, one photographer, Alexander Gee, was doing the opposite. He wanted a film camera that would work with his modern Sony E-Mount lenses.

LEX, as the camera is called, is a one-man operation, and it seems to have come quite far already. Gee plans to make LEX fully open source, once complete, with much of the camera being easily 3D printable and easy to modify. Don’t have Sony lenses? No problem, just modify it for another camera mount and print that out instead.

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This guy made a whole bunch of 3D printed cameras and put the plans online for free

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Regular DIYP readers will know that I’ve been researching 3D printing recently. My goal is to see how one might be able to help me with my photography and video tasks. Primarily  to keep things organised. There’s SD card cases, battery covers, lens cap clips, charging station doohickies and all kinds of goodies on sites like Thingiverse. But I also want to have some fun, too.

One photographic collection over on Thingiverse that’s particularly cool belongs to user Schlem. He’s created a whole bunch 3D printed pinhole cameras. Most of them are medium format but there are one or two large format ones, too. One of them is even stereoscopic. He’s put all the models up so you can download and print your own, and the results coming from some of these cameras are just amazing.

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The Dobot Mooz is a 3D printer, laser engraver and CNC milling machine

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Recently, I’ve been researching 3D printers while considering how one might make my photographic & video life easier. In my search, I discovered that our friends at Dobot were just about to release a new 3D printer, the Dobot Mooz. What intrigued me about it was that it’s not just a 3D printer, but also a laser engraver and CNC milling machine, thanks to interchangeable heads. It’s also modular so you can configure it several different ways.

When I found out that Dobot were going to be attending the BETT Show in London recently and bringing the Mooz with them, I had to go and see it for myself. So, I went to go have a chat with the folks from Dobot, and then tell you guys a bit more about it.

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3D print your photography to make backlit lithophanes

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I have my first 3D printer arriving next month. Ok, technically it’s a robot with a 3D printing head, but this is something I’m absolutely going to have to try. When it comes to regular prints, I just leave it up to my lab. They can produce them far less expensively and far more consistently than I can do at home. But this looks pretty cool. A 3D printed Lithophane.

Essentially, a lithophane a print which uses depth to mark the different brightness levels of your image. When it’s lit from behind, the thinner parts let through more light than the thicker parts. And so, the image comes to life. In this video from Daniel DeArco, we see exactly how it’s done.

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How 3D printed camera equipment can make your life easier

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I think it’s a pretty safe bet that 3D printing is now well and truly here to stay. They’re no longer just the DIY custom built passions of hardcore makers. Now, anybody can get buy a 3D printer, or at least get access to one. They’re mainstream now. There’s entire online communities around their use with tips, advice, reviews and all kinds of other stuff.

But did you know there’s a whole host of photography related equipment and doohickies you can 3D print to make your life easier? No, neither did I. It’s been a while since I last took a tour around Thingiverse, and a lot has been added since then. This video from the guys at The Film Look goes through some of the more useful items they’ve 3D printed.

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How a student created his own 3D printed medium format panoramic camera

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Paul Kohlhaussen, a student from Richmond in London has created a fully functioning 3D printed camera. Paul took the best features from an array of costly high-end cameras and reverse engineered them into the camera of his dreams. Without the funds to afford the camera he needed to get the perfect shot he wanted and no knowledge of CAD, Paul taught himself everything from scratch when designing and building the eight components that make up the camera’s modular design.

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This 60 cent ring can prevent your lens from getting stolen

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Modern cameras allow photographers to remove and change the lens fast, using only one hand. Unfortunately, it also makes it easier for thieves to steal the lenses directly off the camera. This is why photographer Rutger Geerling created Mark’s Lens Safe. It’s an accessory that protects the release button of your camera, making it impossible to remove the lens with one hand. He created it as an open source design for 3D printers, so everyone can download and print it for their camera.

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These images may look like CG renders, but they’re actually photographs

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In a world where many CG artists are aiming for photorealism, one very skilled photographer seems to be going the opposite way. These images look like something straight out of 3DS Max or Blender. They’re not, though. They’re actually very carefully designed photographs, created by Norwegian design duo Lars Marcus Vedeler and Theo Zamudio-Tveterås at their studio, Skrekkøgle.

Looking at the final work is pretty surreal, and if nobody ever told you that they weren’t CG renders, you’d never be able to tell. In a way, it kind of makes you redefine “photorealism”. I mean, these are photos, so if your renders look like this, they’re photorealistic now, right?

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The Dobot M1 is the maker’s best friend

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On my last visit to China I was invited to review quite an interesting product – a robotic arm. This has nothing to do with photography and everything to do with making. If you are here for the photography tips, move along, there is nothing to see. If you wanna see a kickass robot read on.

The arm is called the Dobot M1 and is curently a tad short of 300% funding on kickstarter. I would not necessarily call this a review. Think of it more as a hybrid between first impressions and a peek into the future.

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