A couple of years ago we were excited to read news of an entirely 3D printed camera, right down to the shutter. We wrote it up back then but sadly the required STL files were not yet available. Now after time away with his family, its creator [Mark Hiltz] is back. The medium-format Pioneer Camera can now be downloaded for printing in its entirety under a Creative Commons licence.
Looking at the design, it appears to be a relatively straightforward build. The shutter is extremely simple, as far as we can see, relying on magnets to ensure that the open part of its rotation is at an unstable repulsing point between stable magnetic poles. The images aren’t perfect because he’s using a very simple lens, but this is part of the charm of a camera like this one. We hope that people will take it and produce refinements to the design making for a cheap and good entry to medium format photography.
While you’re printing your own Pioneer, take a look at our original coverage.
Thanks for covering!!
I think the non-commercial clause of the license is a great way to make sure this will remain a very niche product in relative obscurity, as it will disincentivise people from making cameras to sell.
Good.
Why?
Chris, this is a 3D-printed simple box camera with a non-photographic single element lens that uses larger, more expensive 120 film, and due to Chromatic aberration of said singlet, is really best suited for black and white. It has as many parts as Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics as it does from Home Depot. It is a niche product lmao
So then why use such a restrictive license, since everything you already listed already makes it niche?
Why disincentivise people from printing parts for it?
How does this thing even work? I can’t find the USB connector :-)
Thats right…. and where on earth does the sd card go?
… is what the millennial behind the desk in one photo shop said when handed them a 35mm film for processing. Haven’t been back there since!
Millennials are in their mid 30’s-40’s and grew up before digital cameras and USB C old timer.
As a 42 year old millennial I can confirm. I didn’t see me first digital camera until 6th grade in 1994. Good old Apple QuickTake. The school had purchased one for the technology lab.
My high school in 1999-2000 STILL had a developing lab. I can concur that we know what film looks like. xD
i think i saw digital conversion kit for cameras, that you stick in instead of roll of film…
In my younger days I would definitely have built this thing, had it been possible given the lack of FDM printers in the 1970s and 80s. I would probably then taken apart a cheap extension tube set for screw or bayonet mounted SLR lenses and used the hardware to make an interchangeable lens version.
Sadly, my film camera days are over.
I’m tempted to try this build, even now, but my skills at 3D printing are not very high.
More seriously, these days, when someone says “I built a camera”, the first thing I think of is something that plugs into a Raspberry Pi. The idea that it might be a film camera doesn’t come forth immediately. So it probably would have been good to mention “film” in the summary (tags don’t count).
I suggest people check out Dora Goodmans huge selection of very high end fully 3d printed medium format cameras https://doragoodman.com/ the zone is free and open source and actually is pretty much a clone and just as good as buying a mamiya. She has a lot of other designs behind a Patreon as well. I’m a huge fan of hers