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Modifying a film camera to display images

Photography Asked on January 6, 2021

My dad passed recently and I would like a way to memorialise him and his photos.

He was an avid photographer and never left home without his camera. The one I remember from growing up was an Asahi Pentax SP1000

My idea is to have some of his iconic and favourite photos loaded onto an SD card and to be able to look through them much like an old viewmaster toy except digital.

My thoughts are that I could put a display at the front or back of an empty or fake lense housing. e.g.
enter image description here

Either point A or point B

I could hide the arduino, and battery either in the lense or camera body and run wires to the lense

The issue I am having is focusing, with the lense removed all I can see through the view finder is a blur of colour. So I am wondering the best way to solve this? Would a pinhole lense at point A work to view a screen at B? Or is there something within the housing which is introducing the blur that I could remove?

I’m not worried about stopping the camera from taking photos but I’d like to keep it as intact as possible.

2 Answers

If you set an lcd screen in the place of the translucent viewfinder screen, this should do the trick. The lens itself is not needed. You already have the images in the desired size and sharpness.

You could test this by placing an old negative onto the translucent screen and see if that appears sharp if you shine some light through the lens.

If that works, you know what size LCD you need. If that is backlighted, you might be done already for the display component.

Correct answer by Kai Mattern on January 6, 2021

I'd like to keep [the camera] as intact as possible.

Looks like you've already accepted Kai Mattern's answer. I don't know the camera in question or, whether it's focusing screen was intended to be user replaceable. (With some high-end SLRs you can swap different screens in and out, while with others, you're stuck with whatever screen was built-in.)

But anyway, Here's an alternative idea. Find a slide copying attachment that fits the camera. A slide copier basically is a macro lens that has a slide holder fixed at the plane where the lens focuses on it. If you could rig a small, back-lit LCD screen in the slide holder or, in place of the slide holder, then problem solved...

Maybe you could find a suitable-sized display that would work with a Raspberry Pi...

Answered by Solomon Slow on January 6, 2021

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