3D Print Your Own Medium Format Digital Camera

Medium format digital cameras are rare and expensive, but they’re also very desirable. A medium format sensor has about twice as much area as a full frame sensor, which results in a better picture when all else is equal. But because most people can’t justify the cost of a medium format digital camera, James Warner of the Snappiness YouTube channel designed a 3D-printable camera body.

This isn’t as wild as it sounds, because medium format digital cameras are very often modular systems. Unlike most other digital cameras, the lens, body, and sensor are all separate modules (viewfinders are often their own modules, too). Warner only needed to design and 3D-print a body that joins a commercially produced sensor back and lens.

In this case, that sensor back is a Phase One P45+ that Warner bought for around $500. That’s a CCD sensor that was released way back in 2007, but is still plenty useful today. The lens is a Mamiya model with its own shutter, which is another quirk of medium format cameras.

Warner used TinkerCAD to design the body, then 3D-printed that. It isn’t perfect and Warner still has some kinks to work out for the second version, but it works under the right conditions.

If you like the idea of shooting medium format on a budget, this is a project to keep an eye on.