Do It Yourself

Sometimes, the best products are the ones you make yourself. PetaPixel is your guide to custom lenses, handmade camera rigs, custom-coded artificial intelligence cameras, and the 3D-printed parts that makes photography truly personal.

How I Made a 3D-Printed Film Movie Camera

A couple of years ago I have been occasionally shooting 35mm films with point-and-shoot still cameras while also having the desire to shoot motion picture films.

Shooting Color and Black and White Film… At the Same Time

There are a lot of crazy ideas out there when it comes to experimental photography. Multiple exposures. Film Soups. Shooting your rolls backward. But have you ever heard of anybody loading two rolls of film into a camera at the same time? Me neither, and that’s exactly why I’m going to do it!

How I Repaired a Broken Mamiya RB67 Medium Format Camera

I had the Mamiya RB67 and Pentax 67 on my medium-format wanted list for many years now, but I simply could not justify the price tag or bear the unfortunate realization that either camera would sit lonely and unused on a shelf. That all changed in December 2022 when I decided to grab a non-working RB67 as a Christmas Present for my eldest brother.

Malcolm Wilson analog to digital conversion

Photographer Converts Broken Film Camera into a Working Digital One

Photographer Malcolm Wilson recently converted a Yashica Electro 35mm film camera into a digital camera using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and Raspberry Pi HQ camera module. It's a fun twist on analog to digital conversions, and Wilson says his converted camera is one of his favorite cameras to use.

How to Build a DIY Camera Trap for Amazing Wildlife Photography

As a wildlife photographer, I'm always looking for ways to capture stunning images of animals in their natural habitats. One technique I've found to be incredibly effective is using a custom-made, DIY, DSLR camera trap, which is a camera setup that is triggered by the movement of an animal.

Yunus Zenichowski scanner camera

Photographer Builds a 489-Megapixel, $160 DIY Scanner Camera

Last year, PetaPixel wrote about photographer Ryan Kojima who built a DIY medium format camera using the CCD sensor from an Epson flatbed scanner. The DIY scanner camera captures massive, detailed 514-megapixel photos. Kojima built his first scanner camera a decade ago, although he recently upgraded it to deliver even better performance.

Photographer Builds Hybrid Viewfinder with Digital Overlay for Smartphones

Since the advancements made with mirrorless camera systems and their digital viewfinders, cameras with optical viewfinders have become somewhat rare, with hybrid viewfinders being even harder to find. This is why Getschmann decided to dive into his physics and engineering background to build one from scratch for his smartphone camera.