Love vintage bellows cameras? Love pinhole photography? Love instant film? Then you're going to love this: the Jollylook Pinhole, an instant film camera DIY kit that has just launched its crowdfunding campaign.
The brilliant-looking Jollylook Pinhole combines the technology of the best instant cameras with the design of the best retro cameras to deliver a stunning, vintage-styled body that is unlike anything else on the market.
Well, except for the Jollylook Auto – the fully automatic version of this camera, which was launched in 2020. This new version, though, eschews the steampunk-styled lenses, filters, flash and automatic exposure in favor of the time-honored (and very much back in fashion) art of pinhole photography.
Coming as a DIY kit, the Jollylook Pinhole is comprised of 65 eco-friendly parts (mainly consisting of recyclable, biodegradable, natural-fiber wood) that can be assembled – entirely without glue – in between 1.5 and 3 hours.
Once put together, you have a fully functioning bellows camera (complete with graphic distance scale) that enables you to capture an exposure, then crank the Develop lever to produce your photograph on standard Instax Mini film.
Watch video: See the Jollylook Pinhole in action
Unlike other instant cameras, though, this requires no batteries or power supply – its film development is performed using a completely manual mechanism.
When folded away, the camera is about the size of an iPhone box, so it's not too cumbersome to take on an outing with you. The back of the body features a very cool geared exposure calculator, and there is a tripod mount on the bottom so that you can put the Jollylook on sticks – perfect for creating long exposures and even shooting minutes or hours for night photography.
The Jollylook Pinhole is available in Standard (dark stained, natural wood pieces) or Customizable (lighter wood that can be colored with markers) options, and is priced at $69 (around £57 / AU$99). For more information and to back the project, visit the Kickstarter campaign page.
Please note: As with all crowdfunded projects, there is no certainty that the final product will ultimately be released or even resemble the initial depictions. DCW makes no endorsements or guarantees about this or any other crowdfunded product.
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