Building a Large Format Digital Scanner Camera Obscura!

Camera Obscuras are a fun and easy basic photography tool to build and experiment with, but what if you used a portable document scanner to digitize the images created with one? In this video, Sean shows you how he built a camera obscura with a cardboard box, a magnifying glass and some frosted plastic, and how he uses an iScan portable document scanner to create lo-fi large format digital images with it.
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[@SteveWB]

They sell frosted plexiglass at home depot. Very cool tutorial and think I will try it!

[@FotodioxInc]

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out!

[@bashkillszombies]

For ten times more than a $1 redundant piece of tech I bet.

[@Veptis]

I have seen a giant camera obscura in Portugal. Which had a large round table that got an image projected from a periscope contraption at the roof. You were able to focus the projection by changing the table height via rotation. I love how your simple box and magnifying lens gives very respectful results. Better than the wooden box pinhole camera I have laying around

[@FotodioxInc]

Thanks!

[@jasminemerryblackmoore]

Please never stop making videos like this!

[@FotodioxInc]

We have some new vids like this in the works :)

[@jasminemerryblackmoore]

@@FotodioxInc amazing I will keep an eye out, what are the dimensions of the cardboard box? thank you

[@jalakanen]

Overhead projector lens would be nice on this kind of experiment. Those will need bigger box. Mine is about 450mm.

[@FotodioxInc]

A real photo/projector lens will definitely create a sharper, better rendered image. Sean used a magnifying glass because of how light it was, and how weird the images look :)

[@joecal2360]

Gorgeous!

[@FotodioxInc]

Thanks!

[@robinschaeffer6252]

Cool! it might breath some new life into my 8X10 camera

[@jetsonjoe]

you are one clever person...love this...thanks....so much potential

[@FotodioxInc]

Thanks! If you try out something like this, send us your results! We'd love to see what you come up with.

[@Mhmood2010]

Gonna try it myself 👏

[@miam1074]

Love this

[@jamesfquinn]

Thanks a lot for this! I’d suggest investing in a can of flat black paint to spray on the inside of the boxes before adding the lens and ground glass or plastic. I’m guessing there might be some stray light bouncing off the frosted panel that would reduce contrast a bit.

[@FotodioxInc]

Definitely a good idea--would most likely give the images better contrast.

[@bashkillszombies]

@@FotodioxInc Better still give your camera a bit of respect. You could make a lovely box to contain it, or even a fast glued together biscuit edged box, but something solid - you can even have your secondary apertures slot in by gluing a thin piece of wood in a U shape with another over it slightly more inwards allowing you to slide / drop it in place holding it snugly (cut the aperture holes in the same size piece of wood for a good fit) and add a curtain to it. It'd be a one hour project to make a non-shit version of this. It saddens me that we are such a disgustingly consumeristic society that a nasty cardboard box with duct tape is acceptable. You, and other people, looked at this and thought "This is good enough."

[@petemc5070]

@@bashkillszombies It saddens me that you saw fit to berate this amazing individual.

[@michaelh.gerloff3659]

Started watching your video, got excited, and thought: Wow, I could possibly do something like this with my Doxie Flip. And along you came :) I don't know why I like these photos as we are living in a time of 40 mega pixels and more, but why should I think about it :)

[@jcjensenllc]

you don't need the ground glass during exposure, you only need the ground glass for focusing. Without glass, the image will be a lot less grainy. The sensor is monochrome. It builds color images by doing three exposures in rapid sequence per scan line. One exposure per red Green and Blue (RGB). Without that RGB bar, the sensor only sees white light. In your camera is receiving direct light from your scene, instead of reflected light from the LED bar. Therefore you get monochrome image. Ideally, you should disable the LED light bar.

[@FotodioxInc]

Okay, we're no electricians here, so disabling the RGB bar might be a bit above what we're capable of, but thanks for the tip! If you do a build like this and disable the RGB, let us know! We'd love to see the results!

[@peterrenn6341]

@@FotodioxInc Simply Human is correct. The way these things work (I've experience with the Canon LIDE scanners) is to shine red, green and blue light in rapid succession for each line. The mono sensor reads the relative reflectances and the software combines it to make each line of RGB colour. You can make a colour image by doing three separate scans with a red, green and a blue filter over the lens in turn. - Combine the images in post production. Disabling the light source may work, but on the LIDEs it causes an error response as the system self-checks on a reference white panel. try covering it with black tape as a non-destructive test.

[@FotodioxInc]

@@peterrenn6341 Oh yeah, for sure!

[@bob5945]

Why is it so imperative that the plastic or glass be frosted? Is there a functional purpose, or is it just aesthetic?

[@FotodioxInc]

If it's not frosted/textured it won't pick up the image circle of the lens very well.

[@RogerHyam]

Have you tried to disable the light in the scanner? It must be struggling to get a signal because it is shining a light at the glass as the same time as trying to read it.

[@FotodioxInc]

No, but def a try in the future

[@neonissart8084]

Nice video I will try with baking paper on the back .

[@FotodioxInc]

Oh yeah, paper or film will get you a much nicer image than a document scanner will :)

[@neonissart8084]

@@FotodioxInc I have tried with document scanner and this "frosted" paper and a holga Lens but the paper doesn't work.I will try another thing.

[@FotodioxInc]

@@neonissart8084 Hmm, okay, maybe the paper isn't translucent enough, but your main issue is most likely the Holga lens, because you need a fairly wide aperture to let in a lot of light to scan. If the image is too dark on the "ground glass" material, the scanner will have a hard time picking it up.

[@neonissart8084]

@@FotodioxInc okay I will try to find a big glass for the project.

[@FotodioxInc]

@@neonissart8084 You're specifically going to need frosted glass or frosted plastic.

[@WVgrl59]

❤

[@FotodioxInc]

Thanks!

[@SeanPMcAll]

Questions 1. How deep is the box and where to find a box that is one fits inside the as snugly 2. what is the diameter of the lens I am fascinated with possabilities of this technique. I wish to try it. May i get some help.

[@FotodioxInc]

Sorry for the delayed response! I used a 12x10x8 box. I cut the box in two, and folded the flaps of one half inward to slide it into the other. I had to remove a couple of inches from the middle of the box to get the lens close enough to the focusing screen. The lens is about 3 inches wide. It was decorative magnifying glass from Target.

[@petemc5070]

You should be running the space program.

[@FotodioxInc]

:)

[@bigmike3189]

Basically a large format camera

[@FotodioxInc]

Pretty much, but with way less resolution :)

[@gotja]

Check out diy perks lens video!

[@FotodioxInc]

Oh yeah, we've seen that! Pretty cool!

[@peterorzechowski8300]

Shouldn't inside of camera be painted black matt ? or just use black paper and glue it ?

[@SeanAndersonMedia]

Yeah, I should have done that. It works okay without it, but would probably work better with a darker interior.

[@tomlaf1882]

Where can I find a magnifying glass like the one you used?

[@FotodioxInc]

The one I used was a decorative magnifying glass from Target, but pretty much any large magnifying glass will get you a similar look.

[@tomlaf1882]

@@FotodioxInc thank you

[@bashkillszombies]

Your document scanner is probably black and white only. :P

[@FotodioxInc]

No, we tested it on flat documents and it does capture full color. We think it has something to do with being designed to shine light on an unlit surface and bounce it back to scan color. When you instead point it at a light source, like a back-lit ground glass, somehow the sensor is unable to capture the color and just sees in mono.

[@riner0631]

Can I do this with a 35mm analog camera?

[@FotodioxInc]

Yes, but the scanned image will be tiny. Possibly with a smaller portable scanner? Basically, you'd take the back off a 35mm camera, mount frosted plastic or glass where the 35mm film would usually go, and then just scan that.

[@riner0631]

@@FotodioxInc okay, thanks👍😀

[@bashkillszombies]

It saddens me that he'd disrespect such an experiment with cardboard and duct tape instead of making a lovely wood casing for it.

[@FotodioxInc]

This was our first build of this camera and done quickly to test the concept. If we make a mark II it will be with nice, durable material.

[@JulesMarz]

That's a matter of aesthetics, the concept is there

[@greysuit17]

What if we use a higher end scanner some how attached to a camera obscura? A lot larger format!!!

[@FotodioxInc]

Definitely! It will just be way heavier. Sean actually made something like this last year. Here's the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZOxiGd_fc6Lrrc

[@greysuit17]

@@FotodioxInc awesome thanks for the link!!!

[@greysuit17]

@@FotodioxInc This was an awesome video, I’m just wondering on like a really nice high end scanner....would the image quality be awesome??? It would be super heavy.

[@FotodioxInc]

@@greysuit17 Uh, it's never going to be as nice as digital or film, because even with high resolution, if you're capturing the image off a ground glass, you're going to be picking up that texture, kind of like extra film grain. Here's an example of a high end scanner camera: www.flickr.com/photos/projectese/sets/72157623187612134

[@greysuit17]

@@FotodioxInc those images look pretty nice though!

[@cowie313]

Im in a bit of a dilemma. I need to scan and object in order to get a digital copy for reproduction. The technology is everywhere but the device itself isnt. I need a scanner that travels on a track to follow a specific shape at legths up to 4 feet

[@FotodioxInc]

If you're using the iScanner mini, I suppose you could create some sort of DIY track to guide it.

[@ivankiefer3886]

Most Camera sensors do not scan the sensor all at once so pretty much is just like it any sensor out there.

[@FotodioxInc]

I suppose a better explanation is this is much slower than a digital sensor.

[@FrankAndPhotoTutorials]

How are these so simple? It's so weird

[@FotodioxInc]

The science of light and optics isn't that complicated. You can always add more glass to improve the quality of the image, and that's where things get more complex.

[@FrankAndPhotoTutorials]

I have made 4 obscura's since then. Soon to be 5