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Black Masking Tape
Small Piece of Neoprene
Thin Sheet of Plastic
A Broken Film SLR Camera and Lens for Parts (The camera is optional but you'll need a lens and way to mount it.)
Empty Film Roll (Courtesy of any Photo Lab that processes film)
I chose 1/2" birch plywood that was left over from another project to build my box with. I got the sheet of plastic out of the bottom of one of those reusable shopping bags, and the small piece of neoprene was cut out of one of those pads you put in front of your keyboard to rest your wrists on while you type. The only things used in the making of this camera that I didn't fabricate, are the tripod mount, which I took off a broken film SLR camera, the lens mount, which I could have used off the same broken camera, but I happened to have a lens adapter that I was able to take the threaded (M42) sleeve out of, which I only preferred over the one from the broken camera because I have a better selection of lenses for it. You guessed it, zero investment so far, and it's a pleasure to get some use out of my old Pentax lenses again.
Powered Miter Box
Fine Tooth Hand Saw
Drill and Counter Sink Bit
If you don't own or know how to use all of these tools, it's OK, I'm certain you could do this using only hand tools. If you wanted to tackle this with a hand miter saw and a sharp chisel, I'm sure you could, it will just take a lot longer.
Step 2: Design Elements 1 of 2
Image 1: Outside view of the side panel. Both side panels are identical, from the outside you can see the film slot where the film enters and exits the camera. The film slot was cut by hand with a hacksaw blade broken in half with a masking tape handle (see materials photo).
Image 2: Inside view of the side panel where you can see the film slot and the shutter curtain groove. Note how close the shutter is to the rear of the camera (film plane). This will all make a lot more sense in a minute. The groove was hand cut with a regular, fine tooth hand saw.
Image 3: The front and rear panels measure 3" x 3" square and the finished outside dimensions of the camera are roughly 4 x 4 x 2.25 inches. The lens hole was cut by hand with coping saw, I drilled a small hole to slip the blade through and then attached the handle to cut out the hole. The recess cut for the lens mount ring was made with a router. If you made your box the correct depth, you would be able to avoid the recess cut altogether. I didn't get it right because I failed to take into consideration that I was going to recess the film into the rear panel, so I had to make up the distance by recessing the lens the same amount. I will explain this at length later, but the short version is the lens has to be an exact distance from the film plan so that three things will happen, the lens will be able to focus close up, the lens will be able to focus to infinity, and the distance meter on the lens will be accurate.
Image 4: The rear panel, which also serves as the film plane. If you look close you can see that the thin plastic sheet, which protects the unexposed film and creates a 35mm window frame, is flush with the wood. I did this just to make sure the shutter wouldn't run into it and get hung up. I used a router to make this cut but I suppose you could do it with a sharp chisel. There is another cut behind the plastic that is very shallow that creates a track for the film to slide behind the plastic sheet. See the next image for a close up.
Image 5: Close up of the rear panel showing a piece of leader film sliding under the recessed piece of plastic.
Image 6: Shutter Curtain/View Finder, which is made from the same thin plastic used on the film plane. The thin piece of wood glued (epoxy) on at the bottom serves two purposes, most importantly it prevents me from pulling the shutter curtain right out of the camera when I take a shot, and it also stops the shutter in the open position as soon as the film window is uncovered to prevent any unnecessary travel. This is important because in some cases you'll want to open and close the shutter as fast as possible. I put a little paraf