Malcolm Wilson Gives the First Electronically-Controlled Camera a Raspberry Pi Upgrade

Photographer Malcolm Wilson has turned an old Yashica 35mm film camera into an infrared digital camera, by replacing its innards with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 NoIR — and plans to follow it up with a more compact scratch-built version in a 3D-printed housing.

"I built a camera using a Yashica Electro 35 film body, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and the NoIR [Raspberry] Pi Camera [Module] 3," Wilson writes of the project. "The result? A compact infrared point-and-shoot with no screen — just optical composition and digital capture. This was one of the most fun builds I've done, and it's even more fun to shoot with."

The camera build started with an existing camera, designed for 35mm film: a Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder camera, first manufactured in the mid 1960s — and, fittingly for a device that received a major electronic upgrade, was the world's first electronically-controlled camera with "auto" aperture priority mode, though Wilson's example is the later Yashica Electro 35 GT from 1969.

Where Yshica's original design had a film back, though, Wilson's version hides a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 NoIR — a 12-megapixel image sensor with its infrared filter removed and a built-in autofocus lens — connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W single-board computer running a custom Python script. Unlike most film-to-digital conversion projects, there's no LCD for framing the shot; instead, the user peers through the original optical viewfinder, which handily matches the focal length of the Raspberry Pi camera, and presses the shutter button. A tiny OLED panel shows the status of a DNG RAW-format capture, as well as current shutter count.

"Out-of-camera, the black-and-white infrared images already have a ton of character," Wilson says of the snapper's output. "But with a bit of editing, the contrast and surreal tones really come to life. I love the stark, otherworldly vibe this setup creates."

More information is available on Wilson's blog, along with sample images; the photographer has also begun making a successor design that drops the original 35mm film camera body in favor of a scratch-designed 3D-printable housing.