Give Your Game Boy Camera a Canon Lens Mount for Amazing Low-Quality Photos

Nintendo released a lot of odd devices in the ’90s that were pretty questionable; the most famous of those was probably the Virtual Boy, but it certainly wasn’t the only one. The Game Boy Camera was a cartridge that was compatible with a handful of Game Boy models, and had a small camera attached that you could use to take very low-quality photos. Even by late ’90s digital photo standards, they had an absurdly low resolution and a grayscale palette of just four shades. But, that doesn’t mean improvements can’t be made, and Ekeler’s Canon EF lens mount will maximize the Game Boy Camera’s potential.

The Game Boy Camera had a 128x128 pixel CMOS sensor, and the actual stored images were cropped to 128x112 pixels. With so few pixels, it’s simply not possible to take a high-resolution photo, but that doesn’t mean the overall quality can’t be improved with a good lens. Like any other camera, the Game Boy Camera can benefit from nice glass. Ekeler’s adapter takes that to the extreme by giving you the ability to attach Canon EF Mount lenses to the Game Boy Camera.

Ekeler designed the adapter in Rhinoceros 3D, and printed it in PLA on a Monoprice Select Mini v2 3D printer. He used that to mount a Canon EF 70–200mm f/4L telephoto lens — glass that costs more than most entry-level DSLRs, much less an old Game Boy Color. With that setup, Ekeler was able to take a series of photos that are almost certainly the nicest ever shot with a Game Boy Camera. He was even able to get a very nice photo of the moon that fills almost the entire frame — impressive considering the absence of a viewfinder, the low refresh rate, and the lack of cropping tools.

If you have a Game Boy Camera and a Canon EF lens, Ekeler might make the 3D file available on Thingiverse if there is enough interest, so tell him there is on Twitter at !