Neat Open Source Pinhole Camera Design Can Be (Mostly) 3D Printed

Neat Open Source Pinhole Camera Design Can Be (Mostly) 3D Printed

We’ve seen pinhole camera builds before, but this new one looks interesting. The Scura is a new open-source design for a pinhole camera that shoots on analog 35 mm film. It is all 3D printable except for a handful of screws, magnets, and the pinhole itself, which is laser cut. The cool and unusual part of the design, though, is the curved film holder, which produces 60 mm by 25 mm (2.3 in by 0.98 in) panoramic images that are sharp to the edges.

Most pinhole cameras produce fuzzy-edged images because the distance from the pinhole varies across the film plane. That throws things out of focus, but the sample images from the Scura look much cleaner and sharper because the curved film holder keeps the film at a constant distance from the pinhole.



The results certainly look promising, and the camera itself doesn’t look too difficult to build, as it is printed in just twelve parts. The only tricky bit is the pinhole itself: this has to be as small as possible, but also as round as possible. That can’t be done on a 3D printer (please feel free to prove me wrong on this), but it can be done with a laser cutter. Goodman Lab, the group behind the design, is offering a kit version for $84 that includes a laser-cut pinhole plate, 3D printed and other parts, and a hardware kit that includes the screws, bolts and pinhole plate for $38.


We’ve seen a few interesting pinhole camera builds, from the beer can model to the pocket wa ..

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