35mm still photography is still hanging on out in the wild, with its hardcore fans ensuring it never quite dies out despite the onward march of digital imaging. Slides are an even more obsolete technology, forgotten long ago when the quality of color negative films improved. The related paraphernalia from the era of the photographic slide continues to clutter up attics and garages the world over. [Martin Burlus] was in possession of some retro slide viewers, and found they made an excellent basis for a RetroPie build.
The build relies on stock standard fundamentals – a Pi Zero runs the show, combined with a USB hub and a power supply. [Martin] then chose to build this all inside the case of the slide viewer, combined with a 2.8″ PiTFT display. This neatly slots directly on to the Pi Zero’s 40-pin header, and comes complete with a touch screen. It’s the perfect size to slide into most slide viewers, though some models required removal of the tact buttons.
The slide viewers make for a charming enclosure, and the classic 1970s optics make for pleasant viewing. Throwing a modern display behind a vintage lens is a great way to give a project a more classic look and feel. One thing’s for sure – we’ll be keeping an eye out for a slide viewer of our own next time we’re passing through the local junk shops.
Those viewers seem to have gone rare round here, I was seeing lots of them 5 years ago. Been looking for one ever since the first article on one of these builds a year ago.
Neat. I thought this was going to be an old-school Game Boy accessory before checking the article out.
Cool, looks like one of those ’70s pocket TVs, but it’s actually useful!
Nice project!
But I’d think the proportion of slide vs negative film shot these days is much higher than it used to be. Personally, I’ve not shot print film for 8 years, but I still do the occasional slide film.
Consider that film and prints will be available to your great-great grandchildren.
Digital images? Only if you print them…
There were a bunch of Fallout fanboys snatching them up off of ebay for fallout 3 and fallout 4. I had two friends buy them to 3D Print and make their own “Pipboys”.