Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I built a camera

This weekend I was without the dog so I decided to take advantage of the time and finish a project that I had been wanting to work on for a long time: Building a pinhole camera that would take 3D pictures. The reason that I waited until I didn't have the dog is because she gets upset when I am not looking at her directly, and there are a lot of small pieces for her to eat.







I designed it myself, though its based very much on the Dirkon design. It's made of basswood (which is like tougher balsa wood, so it's very light) and accepts 35mm film. The pinholes are made in aluminum from a soda can, so the pictures were far sharper than my dirkon, which had the hole in paper. The image is exposed over the entire film, sprocket holes and all, which i felt would look cool, and i also though that more image would be better. It works by sliding the shutter right to expose the film, and left to close the shutter. There is a bubble level on the back to make sure the shots are the same height. The film is wound into an empty canister but it still has to be unloaded in complete darkness. The back and compartment separators are lined in black velvet to reduce risk of scratching the film and to help block any light leaks. It has a tripod nut on the bottom that is flush so it can rest flat on a surface as well. It took three days to complete. The only snag I ran into was the film winder mechanism was really difficult to wind at first for some reason. It was fixed but i'm not sure how. The dot on top lets me know how many turns i've done: 2.5 turns moves the film enough for a new shot. The back is held on with tiny rubber bands, which was a feature I took from another designer's camera.


Here are the results from the first roll that I shot and developed yesterday. The exposures were from 2-4 seconds.






You can view these in 3D using the crosseye method: cross your eyes until the two images overlap perfectly in the middle and let your eyes focus on it. this is easier if you stand back from your monitor a little, so you don't have to cross them so much. I will have regular red/cyan ones up once I get some glasses to test them with: a good excuse to go back to the 3D museum downtown. The daffodils and parking lot ones work better than the sidewalk, since they have foreground.

I apologize for the low contrast images, but yesterday was very grey and rainy, and I underdeveloped the film in my haste to see the results. I also didn't know the exposure times yet, so three images came out. The woody bits on the edges are from the edges of the shutter, so I need to widen those holes a bit. But it works! which is very exciting. I wish that I had made the holes slightly wider than my pupillary distance, because I believe that enhances the depth effect. Something for the next one, I guess.

4 comments:

i am the diva said...

wow, that's awesome!!

i am the diva said...

oh, and i'm totally stumbling this

Unknown said...

sweet!

JimmyB said...

Dude, Chris, this is fucking amazing. You should totally post this on makezine or lifehacker, etc. It's a shooin. You'd be famous!