
On Wired’s How-to Wiki, they decided to try their hand at building Mike Golembewski’s Scanner Camera project, featured in MAKE Volume 14 and in the Sept 19th episode of Make: Weekend Project (see both below). Charlie Sorrel, author of the piece, did what looks like a nice job with the build, but the results look like something from a questionable episode of Ghost Hunters (if that’s not redundant).
We asked Kip Kay of Weekend Projects for any tips he can offer Charlie:
Here is what I discovered about focusing. You have to really play with the
focusing elements and the distance to the object. I got some pretty good
results as seen in the video from about 4 feet away. But the results were
nothing like what the original author, Mike Golembewski achieved. I think he
had an actual lens on his rather than a magnifying glass for the pictures in
the article. (He did mention he had built a better one)Before taping the camera to the scanner, you should tape on a piece of
tracing paper over the back which allows you to see the image and get it
focused properly.
Wired’s How-To Wiki: Make a Scanner Camera
More:
Weekend Project: Scanner Camera
Weekend Project: Scanner Camera (PDF)
Mod a flatbed scanner to take photos that decontruct time and motion with wild results!
Thanks go to Mike Golembewski for the original article in Make Volume 14
View the PDF
Scanner cam portraits at American Maker
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