The Jollylook Pinhole crowdfunding campaign, which kicked off early August, has now been successfully funded and the Instant Film Camera DIY Kits will start shipping to backers near November/December 2022.
Campaigning for the Kickstarter began on August 9, 2022 and ran for thirty days but was well funded within a couple of weeks. In the end, the campaign was $54,000 over funding. Evgeniy Ivanov, the founder of Jollylook, said about the success, ‘This is a very relieving feeling, but there is a lot of work yet to be done.’
If you missed the campaign, you can pre-order the kit from Jollylook’s website.
Evgeniy told me that since the Kickstarter was funded, they were able to invest in laser cutting machines that were necessary for manufacturing which will enable them to ship the cameras sooner to backers.
I noticed in the product details that the materials were very eco-friendly and asked Jollylook about the material design. Evgeniy said, ‘Thinking of it as a product that would be manufactured in thousands, it was important for us to make it from an eco-friendly and pleasant to touch material, and so wood was the perfect match.’ The body of the camera is made from biodegradable laminated wood fiber material.
The team at Jollylook brought this exciting new product kickstarter to the community in the midst of being forced to move from their homes in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. Having moved to safety in Slovakia, they restarted the company there.
Evgeniy Ivanov, the founder of Jollylook, said, ‘Our situation was complicated, but today that’s behind. I had no choice but to try to save the company and my colleagues jobs. Luckily, I can say that today we are doing well.’
The Jollylook Pinhole is a wonderful concept combining the vintage styling of a fold-out camera with the modern design of an instant film camera. The camera is mechanical so there is no need to worry about power or batteries. It uses Instax mini film which is commonly available thanks to the popularity of the Instax mini cameras from Fujifilm.
Being a DIY kit, it is a product that customers can enjoy building the final piece themselves in 1.5 to 3 hours. Evgeniy says, ‘When creating the pinhole kit, which I like to call the “edutainment” camera kit, we wanted to create a camera that is fun to build, usable, and that educates on how the simplest photography works.’
To find more information on Jollylook or to pre-order the Pinhole Instant Camera DIY Kit, see their website, media, and contact links below.
Jollylook Contacts & Media
website: http://jollylook.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jollylookphoto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jollylook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jollylookphoto
Email: [email protected]
I really admire Evgeniy and his team. How they went though difficulties from their first Kickstarter project on (the Carboard camera). There was more than once the moment where you thought OK, they’re done. But The got up and better with every fall. Moving production around from 3rd party in China, to Ukraine and lately in the EU to Slovakia.
Героям слава is all I can say!
Great camera concept. I am shure.
But the mecanical implementation hurts a lot for me.
Wood is a super magic material –
but Jollylook you have to learn carpentry and mechanical engineering first !