Game Boy Camera: Can I Make It Take A Colour Photo?

My Game Boy Camera from 1998 takes black & white photos. I've found a way to take colour photos with it!
Matt Gray | mattg.co.uk | @MattGrayYes
I made both music tracks, you can download them here:
MattGrayYes.ba...
ChipGlitch is made entirely with a Teenage Engineering PO-20 Arcade: amzn.to/2PVorwG
I came across Andrew and Jen taking photos photo by the blue house and took their portrait with the game boy!
/ andrew.parcero
/ hijennyhy
How I download images off the Game Boy Camera
mattg.co.uk/wor...
My Game Boy Camera photos on Flickr: www.flickr.com...
I bought these filters to take the photos with: amzn.to/2QHgxfz
Sergeĭ Prokudin-Gorskiĭ - Emir Bukharskii. Bukhara
www.loc.gov/it...
Other things to note:
The camera doesn't seem to have an infrared filter. Colours may come out better if you use one too.
My RGB filters were cheap and not exactly the right shades of each colour, so I would have had slightly better results with proper filters too.
I have a Game Boy Printer but haven't used it in a while
I realise there are other ways of getting the data off the Game Boy Camera, including multiple boards that plug into the game link port and pretend to be a printer.
Find me elsewhere on the internet:
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/ mattgrayyes
/ mattgrayyes
/ mattgrayyes
~Kit I Use Regularly~
Sony RX100M2: amzn.to/2JcxQxt
Snapchat Spectacles: amzn.to/2GQ6AXc
GoPro Hero 4/5: amzn.to/2uEfySO
DJI Osmo Camera: amzn.to/2JcHP64
Tascam DR-10x Audio Recorder: amzn.to/2pXQZun
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All Amazon links are affiliate links which give me a small percentage of what you pay them as a tip for sending you their way. It doesn't cost you more.

[@MattGrayYES]

I've got a Game Boy Printer too, but I haven't used it in a while! There are more details about what I discovered, and how to download my music in the description!

[@sachingiyer]

Make a video with the printer too

[@FloydBunsen]

Can it print in rgb? If not, is it a thermal printer or does it use ink?

[@OtobongJaya]

@@FloydBunsen Thermal printer, and the print outs are pretty tiny and quite faint. The paper is quite hard to come by due to the small size but some blank receipt papers work.

[@floris3239]

Perhaps you can turn the game boy printer into a colour printer with some sort of multi layer printing technique :)

[@princesschoochoo]

I think you might also be getting some interference from some kind of dithering/halftone algorithm the Gameboy Camera is applying.

[@hypergrip]

And this kids is how Matt Grey became Matt Colour

[@reecewright5138]

I personally prefer gloss gray to Matt gray

[@CJT3X]

🤦🏼‍♀️

[@magic_cfw]

Matt RGB

[@BatataKarambas]

*Gray there really is no preference here, it's his name, so get it right

[@pacomatic9833]

* claps *

[@JBLewis]

Don't tease us with park bench photos!

[@ncc74656m]

Right???

[@BoterBug]

My thoughts too! Park Bench Reloaded in 2019!

[@12799MaDeuce]

Everything's getting rebooted lately...maybe JJ Abrams will help them bring it back in 2019

[@MAlanThomasII]

The Park Bench: The 8-bit Years

[@aleemjohnson3416]

All the feels!

[@mistaecco]

I'm more impressed by the fact that you made all the chip tunes, too. Awesome stuff, Matt!

[@made-of-amelium]

Yeah, the music was awesome

[@pluto8404]

Polaroid cameras are too main stream for Matt. He is on a whole nother hipster plane.

[@philedwards5703]

It's impressive that you've spent so much time with Tom, working with him on his videos and haven't subconsciously absorbed his style. Rather, you've come up with a format and style that is both fantastic and, as far as I can tell, uniquely yours. Keep up the good work because we dig it!

[@DaffyDaffyDaffy33322]

"Or even your camera if it has a black and white mode" You realize you're suggesting we take our color cameras, convert it to black and white, take R, G, and B pictures with it, and turn it back to color right? Sounds fun, honestly.

[@asronome]

I actually threw together a really precarious windows script that used the screen to illuminate a subject in red, green and blue, took photos with the webcam, and then combined them to produce a pretty dark and washed out color picture (mostly the webcam's fault) a few years ago

[@lewisfilby2394]

2 years later I just posted a question comment before reading this comment. My question was: Do the color filters not completely negate the need for a b/w filter? Wouldn't the result be the exactly the same? I'm probably being dumb

[@DaffyDaffyDaffy33322]

@@lewisfilby2394 actually yeah you probably wouldn't need to do the black and white filter, though it's all in fun anyway. Its too see if we can take three grey images and get color out of them. We're starting with a color camera after all

[@FENomadtrooper]

By using these 3 filters, we can turn Matt Gray into Matt Colour.

[@frankhan8993]

I can imagine 100 years ago the photographer shouted to the guy on picture "JUST DON'T MOVE WHILE I AM CHANGING THE FILTER"

[@Knight_Astolfo]

neat! I had a gameboy camera... there were some really strange things you could do with it... My mom was upset that I had a digital camera before anyone else in the family (I come from a family of photonerds.) She made me take a family photo with it when I got it, and went out and bought me the printer when she realized that there was no way to get the picture off the camera. Good times, Mister Gray!

[@jpe1]

Wait... are you suggesting that I take my phone, which captures perfectly good color images, and put the phone in b&w mode to capture 3 (better 4, add an intensity channel) b&w images through r, g, and b filters, and then laboriously recombine them in Photoshop to form a color image? What a ridiculously pointless thing to do. I LOVE it! Will have to try as soon as there is something better than a grey winter day to photograph.

[@aliciamcdermott5094]

This is so cool! ❤️💙💚

[@ashleygchannel]

I love this! Very creative. Also, park bench at the end.. RIP

[@xizar0rg]

That photo of the bukhara dude is incredible. Thanks for linking to it.

[@ronnybergmann]

From just the first few sounds I recognized the PO20 - how lovely to have that as background for such an 8-bit-ish topic :)

[@Yuri_the_Dragon]

same

[@jasperiscool]

That is so cool. I knew the technique but with a gameboy camera? Glorious!

[@mockturtlesuppe]

I think that little snippet at the end was an awfully cruel tease to your loyal viewers. No Tom! No banter! Nevermore!

[@javierbg1995]

Oh, the 8bit guy did a video about the gameboy camera and another about this same technique, but he never tried the two together. I really wished he did, but now I see you did it instead. Great job!!

[@jacobhayes9992]

And this is fantastic, honestly the Tom Scott, Matt Grey, Tech Diff rabbit holes is one of the best I ever fell down.

[@GRyall]

Many spacecraft have used a similar method to create colour images. One of the Voyager cameras has a wheel which allows one of 8 different filters to be selected for each image.

[@icanfast]

The end is rather sad and touching really.

[@ncc74656m]

Yup. The Park Bench tease was bittersweet.

[@ATee-vx6dm]

How so?

[@manas7372]

Matt.. that horse tornado pic was mazing 😂

[@TheSneezingAnouki]

I still cannot comprehend how three different black and white photos combine to make a colour one. Yes, you explained it, and in theory i get it but in practice my brain just kind of breaks

[@AbsolXGuardian]

I'm most impressed by the fact that the Gameboy photos come out looking like nice pieces pixel art

[@jeffreylauwereys7855]

This is a lot more "youtuber-y" then a lot of your stuff. I like the production and voice to the camera. keep at it!

[@TheFerdi265]

Really liked this video, and especially the music is really great! ChipGlitch sounds absolutely gorgeous!

[@Fiyaaaahh]

This idea deserves so much more views/credit than what it'll probably end up receiving. Amazing!

[@qtluna7917]

Always great to see a Gameboy Camera still in use. Now I have the urge of getting my old Gameboy stuff back in use.

[@HarriRobins]

You need a Hot Mirror filter to block infared light and get allow only visible light to get to the camera for proper colour images.

[@BThings]

I've watched this video before, and I've watched numerous other ones like it. They never get old. I just really love seeing DIY color photography stuff! ❤️💚💙

[@taylorhancock5834]

That's amazing, but your chiptune music sounds like something out of Mega Man or Shovel Knight, and I'm honestly more impressed with it than with the photography, and I'd love to hear more. Great video and great music Matt, and that Park Bench tease was just evil...can't wait to see more from your channel, I love whenever you upload.

[@Individuo80]

In 2001 David Friedman found out that the camera's sensor chip is sensible to infrared rays, so he shot the pics with an infrared filter to get proper color separation. I suppose you used one too.

[@lastnameavailable326]

Brilliant! This is the sort of thing that makes me glad there’s an internet- somebody doing something silly but clever just for the fun of it, and sharing it with the world.

[@cosmicreciever]

Here's me thinking 'sweet, a new photography video from matt day... wait no its matt GRAY!!' I'd love to see you do more videos about photography!

[@erentar2002]

This was impressive, with the theme tune and production quality! It looks awesome! pls more

[@PinderProductions]

That is a really clever way of taking a colour photo with a black and white camera.

[@festivite]

Some of these are actually hard to believe. Great job!

[@plapbandit]

These were awesome. Amazing music too, but some of those built in pictures were terrifying!

[@vedi0boy]

Liked and subbed. Why haven't I seen your videos in my YT feed until today, this is exactly what I like watching...

[@pargeterw]

When you said paste onto the RGB layers, you meant to say Channels!

[@agepbiz]

This is so cool!

[@alfie6098]

I'm loving the new videos Matt. Keep up the good work!

[@kevsthabest]

Really enjoying these new videos Matt! And love the music!

[@DerekLipkin]

Dude. This is so great. Well done!

[@Regular6782]

I just love that litt6le laugh at the end, lets us all know that you are really doi9ng what you love and enjoying life. Nothing makes me happi9er than seeing people happy.

[@Zichqec]

Aaaa I love this kind of music and was really interested to find out what it was, thanks so much for making it available!

[@MrAlFuture]

So cool, Matt! Would love to see more of your experiments!

[@hughjass2024]

I love the way you structured the video

[@camofelix]

Really liked this Matt!

[@matthew.datcher]

I didn't realize Mat was also a musician. So much talent in one person.

[@cemerson]

This is how most astrophotography is done - several exposures with different coloured filters (usually several videos and then the frames for each stacked before combining)

[@windhelmguard5295]

yea but those have much better filters and better cameras as well as MUCH longer exposure times

[@salmoneye7245]

That was awesome, I like how "simple" it was to get color photos from a Gameboy camera. I wish I had a gameboy camera for my old Gameboy.

[@tomchaney6085]

This made me incredibly happy. Thank you

[@daviddieffenderfer]

I didn't know you wrote music! Sounds great!

[@ThreeLetters3]

* somehow does a very pixelated low frame rate livestream on a game boy*

[@RachelWolfe]

Awesome Matt! I love this video style!

[@RoadkillbunnyUK]

Fab Matt, always love the wacky yet informative and scientifically interesting videos you do. My only complaint? I wish there were more but do appreciate you have both a proper job with salary to do and Tom Scott to manage 😉

[@CraftsyPenguin]

I had no idea such a thing existed and it brought a smile to my face. Thanks!!

[@enemdisk6628]

Cool editing and music!

[@zim_the_vixen]

PO-20

[@sarat6488]

You've evolved from Matt Gray to Matt Color

[@Boredman567]

2:43 You can see how the GB Camera also captures infrared light here. They're both wearing dark red shirts, but they show up as pink in the image. I assume their dark red clothes also reflect infrared light, which presumably isn't blocked by any of the color filters.

[@amorembalming]

Matt. You're very talented mate. Bravo.

[@Viewbob_True]

Of course being Christmas time, quality street wrappers make for great filters too!

[@magic_cfw]

I like how videos by like Matt, Tom... other Matt from the Queen's Land are like quality actually thought-out and wel structured stuff with introduction, body and conclusion which I can expect to see on actual TV... meanwhile in the USA its a bunch of people yeeting content onto the internet and screaming an outro.

[@asailijhijr]

I think this is my first time a Matt Gray appeared in my recommended.

[@reverseturingtest]

Wow, that's great! Definitely want to try this, but with slightly different filters to see what cool effects I can do.

[@TheSuckerOfTheWorld]

I just jumbled upon this through an imgur-post about pictures from a gameboy camera and instantly recognised you as the guy with the soft serve machine! :-D

[@Nixitur]

Holy crap, this is so cool! Also, I am extremely digging these tunes, good stuff!

[@jonnyboris]

Great video! Merry Christmas Matt.

[@vaalrus]

I had a friend do this back the early 80s… he took a black and white video camera, hooked it up to a primitive video capture device, and would take frames with filters. Then he wrote his own software to combine the images...

[@Morenob1]

Better then most UFO videos today.

[@yourboyremme9503]

Just amazing

[@Northfan42]

This looks like a great, if convoluted way to produce patterns for cross stitch or other needlework.

[@MrHack4never]

This is actually how some space vessels take images

[@Regolith86]

This is also how a lot of astrophotography is done. B&W sensors are a lot cheaper and usually have less noise than color sensors with similar MP ratings, so a lot of astrophotographers use filters to generate their color images.

[@TrollDecker]

I had a feeling it would be RGB filter sheets after the 8-Bit Guy demonstrated a similar technique with a black-and-white webcam months ago. XD

[@craigsmith3436]

Amazing content again. Your channel really needs more attention this is amazing....

[@nicksteffensmeier5776]

This was awesome. Insane they made made a camera for this though

[@aj76257]

I didn’t know you made music, Matt. It’s pretty good!

[@fuzzidelic]

That moment when you go to look for the music credits and it's Matt himself! wow

[@KenKopin]

This reminds me of the NewTek DigiView rig I had back in the 90's for the Amiga. It used a Cheap (for the time) B&W Video camera, and a motorized color wheel to take really nice color scans.

[@brandonmartin-moore5302]

Quite a few people on KZbin have tried this, but none have got results as good as this.

[@brantwedel]

Missed opportunity! For that last picture on the park bench, a wild Tom should have appeared only in the gameboy version, like a ghost!

[@maandalen]

Fun video! There seems to be quite a bit of IR contamination in the photos, so if you wanted more colour fidelity you could use a UV/IR cut filter but that might be a bit beyond the ambition of this project.

[@marioandtyler]

Wow, that is wicked cool! I've always been interested in the Game Boy Camera, even though I've never owned one.

[@MAlanThomasII]

Nice music composition!

[@acabbie]

I recognise that park! My parents ran the cafe there for 30 years before the council decided to do the dirty on them in 2012. Interesting vid, had no idea that digital cameras captured images in 3 colours then combined them.

[@alfiecurnow7429]

We want more like this please

[@MrRobinhalligan]

Back in the day i had this Digi-View Commodore Amiga 4096 Color Digitizer for my Amiga 2000 that basically did the same thing you pointed a video camera at an image and then rotated a wheel with the rgb filters over the lens.

[@Hacker_lyx]

That's actually pretty friggin cool.

[@marclikespigeons8240]

This is really cool! I want to see more videos like this on KZbin...

[@ikt32]

The chiptune is really catchy!

[@tsdarc]

love the pocket operator soundtrack

[@MicroBlogganism]

Really liking the stuff you have started putting out lately :D

[@danielcoleman6685]

That one of the graffiti is pretty awesome.

[@OkiDingo]

I actually bought one of these a month or two ago for ¥300 at a local used game store. Brought back memories of when I had one and a printer.

[@lawrenceplays]

I swear the 8-bit guy discovered this before

[@AnimilesYT]

This is so Awesome!

[@tburnip]

This is brilliant