DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Basic DIY camera for educational use

Started Apr 8, 2019 | Discussions thread
ProfHankD
ProfHankD Veteran Member • Posts: 9,147
Re: Basic DIY camera for educational use

bgstcola wrote:

Hello

I'm a physics teacher and I wander if it is possible to build a simple digital camera for teaching. I'm looking for something with a single lens, a sensor (possibly on a pcb) and a cardboard body. Of course the camera would take terrible pictures, but that's not the point. The pictures could be barely recognizable. I just want something low level that illustrates how a camera work with optics, sensors, etc. All I have been able to find are projects with complete camera modules or projects were you just put the camera together like furniture from Ikea.

Does anyone know of such a low level diy camera project?

As a physics experiment, I'd suggest throwing together something using a handful of LEDs as the pixels. My brother, Paul Dietz, wrote a nice little paper about how to use LEDs this way, and with such low resolution, you could even make your own optics (even by 3D printing, with a trick or two).

Alternatively, think about just getting a Canon PowerShot that is supported by CHDK . This gives pretty low-level access to things while still being a cheap consumer packaging. Image quality is also excellent.

 ProfHankD's gear list:ProfHankD's gear list
Canon PowerShot SX530 Olympus TG-860 Sony a7R II Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Sony a6500 +32 more
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow