3D Printed Film Video Camera

Check out my blog post for details:

At $800 per 10 minutes of footage, this is probably the most inefficient movie recording medium! The camera uses 35mm film in photography canisters, and the image captured is about the same size as super 16 film (ie. ~3x the size of super 8). Each 36 exposure roll of film only captures about 15 seconds of footage.

The movie camera is powered by an ESP32 microcontroller, which controls the motor speed, communicates with the Canon lens (using Canon's stupid closed source protocol), and detects film jams using an opto-interrupter sensor. A simple GUI on the ESP32 allows you to change the fps and lens aperture, as well as giving you information on film jams and how many seconds of film are left.

This project is open source. The 3D files and code are on my website and free for anyone to use.

[Metrodragon]

Absolutely fantastic! Love the video, the price to film this is insane but I guess that makes those moments that more special

[thefischdeo]

Seeing this in my recommended videos and thinking, “no way did someone actually do that”, followed by being proven wrong so gloriously, haha. I read your blog post, too, and just… wow! What an amazing project. Thank you for sharing your process and the results!

[studioavenir]

This is hands down one of the best DIY projects I've seen in video/photography/filmmaking ever. Congrats dude!

[tanichiro]

i always tell people there's something that film captures and you can't replicate it in digital post no matter how hard you try.. this is an awesome example of that! hopefully you can put this camera into production :D

[cougomdd]

this is one of the most beautiful and melancholy videos i have seen in my life

[HunterW.Photography]

this is one of the coolest things i’ve ever watched, always thought about doing something like this but you took it above and beyond, so impractical but so magical.

[cowsareawesomex]

Such a human emotion expressed through film, made me cry. Thank you for sharing this Joshua.

[uniworkhorse]

Bro... just skimming over the blogpost showed so much - I love how you made film significantly more economical by halving the exposures and using another camera to digitize the negatives! Also, I had totally forgotten that film movie cameras needed an angled shutter wheel, so that was so cool to see implemented practically here. Props again!

[BracaPhoto]

That F1 shot was amazing - such nostalgia embedded in the things we can't measure -
Keep innovating

[Pietje_Piraat]

This is one of the best 3d printed movie based gear projects I have seen all year. Love the idea!!!

[uniworkhorse]

A project like this must really make one appreciate the tech we've got nowadays... but man that bloom is so pretty at 1:17 and such. 3D printed camera tech is too cool man, well done!

[ykcwimh]

Can’t believe it’s shot in my country, and you even went to Shatin!

[jaychas]

Just read the article on how you did this on PetaPixel so had to come back to acknowledge the hard work and craftsmanship. Insane work and congrats. This video definitely deserves 1M+ views!

[AnthonyCastrio]

Came here straight from the drone video, your projects are so cool.

[WaybackRewind]

Awesome example of good filmmaking regardless of the media

[Mr_Meeks]

this is absolutely incredible. So impressive that you built the thing and the footage you captured is gorgeous. good stuff

[GregoryRCosta]

Stunning work. Your blog has made it apparent how much work went into this. You should be proud because this is some good stuff.

[yutaikeya]

Cooool! Glad to find someone who builds similar thing! I still need to develop my second prototype, but looking forward to your further progress;)

[AimShootDevelop]

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while! I love seeing people push the format even further!

[jacksonmutispaugh]

This deserves a lot more attention. Absolutely stunning.