Reviews of pinhole, 3D printed and DIY build cameras – if you’re interested in pinhole, 3D printed and homemade cameras, this is where to find them. Pinhole cameras and even more so DIY cameras seem to be becoming increasingly popular. What links all these types of cameras together is that they allow people to experiment in ways more conventional cameras might not.
As with all the content on this website, if you find something of interest, you can find more similar products by clicking on the tags you will find at the bottom of the reviews.
The Cameradactyl OG is a camera I have been meaning to write about since, well, ages ago (sorry Ethan). It’s also my first large format camera review, and indeed the first large format camera review on 35mmc. Though thanks, at least in part to this experience, it won’t be the last!
It was Day 6 of COVID-19 isolation, I was feeling more and more restless. Being one of the lucky ones, I could still work from home, but my mind was distracted by the barrage of sad news. I needed a project, a welcomed point of focus. Luckily for me, Wilco Jensen from Hassyparts posted his latest project on a Facebook group for film camera users. He made a mechanical XPan from a Nikon FE body with a 47mm Schneider lens on a simple helicoid. This project immediately got my gears spinning… didn’t I have a couple of broken FEs sitting in my parts camera bin?
I’m Ethan, I make cameras at Cameradactyl.com. A few months back I finished the initial prototypes for a new camera, the Brancopan, which is a 35mm panoramic camera that takes Mamiya press lenses. For this article, I wanted to put together a bit of a preview, as well as showing some pictures I’ve taken with the camera. I’ve had a working version of the Brancopan since this summer, and I’ve beat it around quite a bit, shot about a hundred rolls over three countries. I only have about 40 rolls scanned so far.
I’ve recently bought myself a Panomicron Oxygen – a panoramic 35mm film camera that’s the same format as the Hasselblad Xpan, but at a fraction of the price. It might not be as technically advanced as the Xpan, but the Panomicron offers me pretty much as much as I could want from such a format of camera, it’s more simple to use, and I’m in no way worried that it might break leaving me with a very expensive door stop – points for the Panomicron, but just how good can a 3D printed camera be?
