camera

587 Articles

Mesh “Lens” Lets Your Camera Make Weird Pixel Art

December 24, 2025 by 6 Comments

We seldom talk about 3D printing lenses because most techniques can’t possibly produce transparent parts of optical quality. However, you can 3D print something like a lens, as [Luke Edwin] demonstrates, and get all kinds of crazy pictures out of it. 

[Luke’s] lens isn’t really a lens, per se. There’s no transparent optical medium being used to bend light, here. Instead, he’s printed a very fine grid in a cylindrical form factor, stuck it on a lens mount, and put that on the front of a camera.

The result is effectively a set of parallel tubes that guide light on to the camera’s image sensor. With the lack of any sort of focus mechanism, you can’t use this “lens” to photograph anything more than a few centimeters away. Get something up close, though, and you can take very simple, very grainy images that are reminiscent of classic pixel art. [Luke] demonstrates this in some fun ways, using it to take photographs of money, a plant, and his own eye. The images look almost like art assets straight out of a 16-bit game. He’s got the STL file up for sale if you want to print your own at home.

We’d love to see this concept explored further, maybe with some supporting optics for more versatile use. In the meantime, you might explore other ways of using 3D printers for photographic gain.

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Disposable Camera Viewfinder Becomes 3D Printed Lens

December 24, 2025 by 6 Comments

Disposable cameras are a fun way to get into classical photography. However, they can also be a valuable source of interesting parts that can be put to other uses. For example, as [Billt] demonstrates, their viewfinders can be repurposed into a rather interesting lens for more serious cameras.

[Billt] was lucky enough to score a grabbag of used disposable cameras from a local film lab, and tore them down for parts. He was particularly interested in the viewfinders, since Kodak equipped its disposable cameras with actual plastic lenses for this very purpose.

[Billt] wanted to see what these lenses would do when thrown on the front of a proper digital camera, and set about designing a mount for that purpose. The 3D printed part was designed to mount one of the viewfinder lens assemblies on the front of any Sony E-mount camera. In a rather nifty trick, [Billt] realized the lens assembly could be installed in the adapter by pausing mid-way through the 3D print to drop it in. The only unfortunate thing? The lenses didn’t really work, and all the camera could see was a haze of unfocused light.

With the aid of some cardboard experiments, [Billt] decided to make some changes. The front element of the viewfinder was dumped, with the rear element being used solo instead. This was fitted to the adapter on a simple slide mechanism so that focus could be reliably adjusted. With these changes, the lens came good, and provided some really interesting shots. It’s quite a cropped lens and it can achieve a very close focus distance, as little as 1 inch in testing. It’s quite sharp in the center of the image, while softly blurring out towards the edges—something that sounds very familiar if you’ve used one of these disposable cameras in the wild.

Sometimes it’s fun to grab a random piece of junk to see if you can turn it into something good. Video after the break.

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Shoot Instax Film In A Polaroid Camera With The Aid Of Tape

December 21, 2025 by 5 Comments

Polaroid cameras have been very popular for a very long time and are especially hot gifts this year. Fresh film is easy to find but relatively expensive. In contrast, Fuji’s Instax line of instant film and cameras aren’t as well established, but the film is easy to find and cheap. You might like to shoot cheap Instax film in your Polaroid camera. Thankfully, [Nick LoPresti] figured out how to do just that.

You can’t just slam an Instax cassette in an old Polaroid camera and expect it to work. The films are completely different sizes, and there’s no way they will feed properly through the camera’s mechanisms at all. Instead, you have to get manual about things. [Nick] starts by explaining the process of removing Instax film sheets from a cassette, which must be done without exposure to light if you want the film to remain useful. Then, if you know what you’re doing, you can tape it in place behind the lens of an old-school Polaroid camera, and expose it as you would any other shot. The chemistry is close enough that you’ll have a fair chance of getting something with passable exposure.

Once exposed, you have to develop the film. Normally, a Polaroid camera achieves this by squeezing the film sheet out through rollers to release the developer and start the process. Without being able to rely on the camera’s autofeed system, you need to find an alternative way to squeeze out the chemicals and get the image to develop. [Nick] recommends a simple kitchen rolling pin, while noting that you might struggle with some uneven chemical spread across the sheet. Ultimately, it’s a fussy hack, but it does work. It might only be worthwhile if you’ve got lots of Instax film kicking around and no other way to shoot it.

Instant cameras can seem a little arcane, but they’re actually quite simple to understand once you know how they’re built. You can even 3D print one from scratch if you’re so inclined. Video after the break.

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Nostalgic Camera Is A Mashup Of Analog Video Gear

December 18, 2025 by 3 Comments

These days, you get a fantastic camera with the purchase of just about any modern smartphone. [Abe] missed some of the charm of earlier, lower-quality digital cameras, though, and wanted to recreate that experience. The way forward was obvious. He built a nostalgic digital video camera from scratch!

[Abe] figured he could build the entire project around analog gear, and then simply find a way to store the video digitally, thus creating the effect he was looking for. To that end, the build is based around a small analog video camera that’s intended for use with FPV drones. It runs on 5 to 20 volts and outputs a simple composite video signal. This makes it easy to display its output on a small LCD screen, originally intended to be used with an automotive reversing camera. These were both paired with a mini video recorder module from RunCam, which can capture composite video and store it on a microSD card in 640 x 480 resolution.

These parts were quickly lashed together, with the camera sending its output to the RunCam video recorder module, which then passed it on to the screen. Everything worked as expected, so [Abe] moved on to implementing an on-screen display using the MAX7456 chip, which is built specifically for this purpose. It overlays text on the video feed to the screen as commanded by an RP2040 microcontroller. Once that was all working, [Abe] just had to provide a battery power supply and wrap everything up in a nice retro-styled case. Then, at the last minute, the separate camera and recorder modules were replaced by a TurboWing module that combined both into one.

The result is a nifty-looking camera that produces grainy, slurry, old-school digital video. If you love 640 x 480 as a resolution, you’ll dig this. It’s got strong 90s camcorder vibes, and that’s a very good thing.

We love a good custom camera around these parts, especially those that offer deliciously high resolution. If you’re building your own, be sure to let us know. Video after the break.

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Tearing Down Walmart’s $12 Keychain Camera

December 15, 2025 by 45 Comments

Keychain cameras are rarely good. However, in the case of Walmart’s current offering, it might be worse than it’s supposed to be. [FoxTailWhipz] bought the Vivitar-branded device and set about investigating its claim that it could deliver high-resolution photos.

The Vivatar Retro Keychain Camera costs $12.88, and wears “FULL HD” and “14MP” branding on the packaging. It’s actually built by Sakar International, a company that manufactures products for other brands to license. Outside of the branding, though, [FoxTailWhipz] figured the resolution claims were likely misleading. Taking photos quickly showed this was the case, as whatever setting was used, the photos would always come out at 640 x 480, or roughly 0.3 megapixels. He thus decided a teardown would be the best way to determine what was going on inside. You can see it all in the video below.

Pulling the device apart was easy, revealing that the screen and battery are simply attached to the PCB with double-sided tape. With the board removed from the case, the sensor and lens module are visible, with the model number printed on the flex cable. The sensor datasheet tells you what you need to know. It’s a 2-megapixel sensor, capable of resolutions up to 1632 x 1212. The camera firmware itself seems to not even use the full resolution, since it only outputs images at 640 x 480.

It’s not that surprising that an ultra-cheap keychain camera doesn’t meet the outrageous specs on the box. At the same time, it’s sad to see major retailers selling products that can’t do what they say on the tin. We see this problem a lot, in everything from network cables to oscilloscopes.

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Hidden Camera Build Proves You Can’t Trust Walnuts

December 12, 2025 by 10 Comments

Typically, if you happened across a walnut lying about, you might consider eating it or throwing it to a friendly squirrel. However, as [Penguin DIY] demonstrates, it’s perfectly possible to turn the humble nut into a clandestine surveillance device. It turns out the walnut worriers were right all along.

The build starts by splitting and hollowing out the walnut. From there, small holes are machined into the mating faces of the walnut, into which [Penguin DIY] glues small neodymium magnets. These allow the walnut to be opened and snapped shut as desired, while remaining indistinguishable from a regular walnut at a distance.

The walnut shell is loaded with nine tiny lithium-polymer cells, for a total of 270 mAh of battery capacity at 3.7 volts. Charging the cells is achieved via a deadbugged TP4056 charge module to save space, with power supplied via a USB C port. Holes are machined in the walnut shell for the USB C port as well as the camera lens, though one imagines the former could have been hidden purely inside for a stealthier look. The camera itself appears to be an all-in-one module with a transmitter built in, with the antenna installed in the top half of the walnut shell and connected via pogo pins. The video signal can be picked up at a distance via a receiver hooked up to a smart phone. No word on longevity, but the included batteries would probably provide an hour or two of transmission over short ranges if you’re lucky.

If you have a walnut tree in your backyard, please do not email us about your conspiracy theories that they are watching you. We get those more than you might think, and they are always upsetting to read. If, however, you’re interested in surveillance devices, we’ve featured projects built for detecting them before with varying levels of success. Video after the break.

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Converting A 1980s Broadcast Camera To HDMI

December 1, 2025 by 14 Comments

Although it might seem like there was a sudden step change from analog to digital sometime in the late 1900s, it was actually a slow, gradual change from things like record players to iPods or from magnetic tape to hard disk drives. Some of these changes happened slowly within the same piece of hardware, too. Take the Sony DXC-3000A, a broadcast camera from the 1980s. Although it outputs an analog signal, this actually has a discrete pixel CCD sensor capturing video. [Colby] decided to finish the digitization of this camera and converted it to output HDMI instead of the analog signal it was built for.

The analog signals it outputs are those that many of us are familiar with, though: composite video. This was an analog standard that only recently vanished from consumer electronics, and has a bit of a bad reputation that [Colby] thinks is mostly undeserved. But since so many semi-modern things had analog video outputs like these, inspiration was taken from a Wii mod chip that converts these consoles to HDMI. Unfortunately his first trials with one of these had confused colors, but it led him to a related chip which more easily outputted the correct colors. With a new PCB in hand with this chip, a Feather RP2040, and an HDMI port the camera is readily outputting digital video that any modern hardware can receive.

Besides being an interesting build, the project highlights a few other things. First of all, this Sony camera has a complete set of schematics, a manual meant for the end user, and almost complete user serviceability built in by design. In our modern world of planned obsolescence, religious devotion to proprietary software and hardware, and general user-unfriendliness this 1980s design is a breath of fresh air, and perhaps one of the reasons that so many people are converting old analog cameras to digital instead of buying modern equipment.