Welcome to AdoramaTV.
My name is Marcin Lewandowski
and in this episode of The Viewfinder
we'll step back
from the usual tips and tricks
regarding photography
and look at the very beginning
of photography,
building a camera ourselves:
a Camera Obscura.
Camera obscura is the most
basic photography device.
In fact, it's so basic
that it doesn't even
capture the image,
just displays it.
What's really interesting
about camera obscura
is that practically
every single camera in existence
works on the same principle.
I will try to keep it as simple as possible
and not delve
into too much technicalities
in this episode.
I will demonstrate how to make it work
and show you how easy it is
to build your own.
As an added bonus,
we'll be able
to do something
that inventors of this device
didn't even dream about.
We will use our mobile phones
to capture the image,
simply by sliding it
at the back.
All we need are simple materials
that you might
have around the house:
cardboard,
magnifying glass,
sharp knife,
ruler,
tape,
some tracing paper
and if you don't want to damage your table
I also suggest a cutting mat.
When I said let's not go
into too much technicalities,
it's because there is a lot
of things we can calculate
when building
camera obscura.
You can calculate the focal length
of your lens.
You can use different type of lenses.
You can use a pinhole lens.
You can use actual lens.
To make things easy,
simple and visually strong,
we're just going to use
the simple magnifying glass.
Buy the cheapest ones,
buy the nicest ones, whatever.
Just make sure that you can easily
pop it off.
Before you start doing anything,
think about health and safety.
Your health and safety
and the ones around you
because you'll be using a sharp knife.
So let's be doubly careful
so that you don't cut off your fingers.
So 20cm is the width of our camera obscura.
This is the first wall
of our camera obscura.
Basically, what this will be...
We're going to mount the lens on one side,
the light will fall in
and somewhere here
we're going to have our sensor
in a form of tracing paper
and the images will
magically appear on it.
Let's get on with it.
Okay let's put our pieces together.
So first this is how I do it.
Don't feel like
this is the right way to do it,
or the wrong way to do it.
I just stick them together initially
and then I going to roll them
around with tape just to make sure that
they all fit tightly and they're all snug.
What I also did at home,
you can use it for
if you have any light leaks
black paper inside works,
black paint,
black spray paint.
You don't have to do this
but the less light that falls
in through any little gaps,
the better it is.
This one needs a little bit of work.
This is the body of our camera obscura.
So to tighten it this is what I do,
this is just an initial tightening
to improve the sturdiness.
So this is our camera body.
What we need now is a lens in the front
and a "sensor" at the back.
Okay so let's go to the lens.
Just pop it out.
Not every one will work like this
but some of them are glued inside.
There's another reason
to go for the cheapest one
because there are skimpier
materials used
probably will be no glue
and it is going to pop out like this, boom.
Okay so we need a piece of cardboard
now to mount our lens on.
You could probably just cut out a circle
the size of your magnifying glass
but because we have a square camera
I'm just going to cut a square.
The moment of truth.
So now we need to put
our lens on it.
Because we have a square piece
it's very easy for us
to half the middle of it
just do two lines roughly
there and there.
Look at the middle,
so this will be my, first edge
second edge, third edge
so basically marking the size
of the glass that we have
and going to cut a rectangle box
that's slightly smaller
than the size of our glass.
So this is roughly the biggest aperture
we can get.
It's like with any camera and any lens
the smaller the window you will cut
for your magnifying glass
the slower the aperture will be.
So now mounting of our lens.
Now this is probably the most technical
and hardcore element
of the whole process,
just kidding.
So now with our lens in,
we're almost there.
What's happening inside?
Cool.
See it's focusing on the bottom.
As you can see
our cardboard was really wobbly
so what we want to do
is tighten it a little bit
well not really tighten it,
as in black it out.
So this is what I'm doing now,
getting rid of the light leaks.
Okay let's see,
okay it's pretty dark
Coolio.
This is our focusing mechanism.
This is what we need right?
We want one piece to go into the other.
They are way too long and I can already see that
but the main thing is that they fit
so they can move
and they do.
So that's one thing accomplished.
The next thing we will do
is Mount the lens
on our camera.
It's not a screw in,
it's not an F mount,
it's not an E mount.
It's a CO mount.
A camera obscura mount
basically just tape it to the front
and again if you can avoid any light leaks
that will work in your advantage.
Now that we have the camera body
with the lens
what we need is our sensor.
So the reason
I'm kind of adjusting it a little bit
is because we're going to put this
piece, the frame. onto the front of this
and this box is sliding into the other one,
so we don't want the edges of it
being in the way.
Again just to keep things simple
we're going to use the same tape
as we used to glue our camera body together.
Again very roughly
our full-frame sensor.
Okay.
So initially, I mean with the original design
of camera obscura,
it was used to draw on
and you can do that.
Why not, if you can draw,
I encourage you to do so.
Okay.
Now let's mount our sensor.
Let's put it together
and see if we can see anything?
Alright.
Well I know we will
but for the demonstration
we'll go outside.
Instead of the magnifying glass
in front of your camera obscura
you could use an old lens
or a lens from an old camera
or you could even use a pinhole.
I hope you'll enjoy your handmade camera.
Let's share some images
on instagram with the #Adorama
and see how we all did.
Remember to subscribe to our channel
for more and check out
the Adorama Learning Center
for more tips and tutorials.
This was Marcin Lewandowski
for AdoramaTV.
See you next time