This series focuses on those who take the making of pictures a step or two further, creating their own photographic tools.

Sean Hodgins

Interested in how digital technology renders imagery, Sean Hodgins set out to construct his own digital camera. He discovered many online tutorials for building a film camera, but build-your-own digital camera instructions proved harder to come by. He discovered several companies sold off-the-shelf image sensors, but after more research decided to build his own senor, breaking the machine down to its most basic parts.

Hodgins calls his project the DigitObscura—a working 1-kilopixel sensor for a 3D printed camera. The image sensor circuit board that he started with has a matrix of 32 x 32 photo cells and over 1,000 pixels—a much smaller sensor than found in modern digital cameras or phones. He spent two-and-a-half hours hand-soldering the components on the circuit board. The original design was to be a pinhole camera, but the tiny aperture did not allow enough light to hit the sensor and the design was modified for the front element of an old Canon zoom lens. Hodgins admits the ambitious project was neither cheap nor easy. Compared to our modern-day sensors, the images produced by the DigiObscura are lo-fi. However, Hodgins’ experiment was an education in how camera sensors function. To share what he learned with the photography community, he made the step-by-step instructions available online as an open source project.

View more of Hodgins’ work on his website.

Have you made or modified your own photographic equipment? Let us know at info@donttakepictures.com