About the camera kit

The Digital Solargraphy camera is the indirect result of a very unreliable scanner and an incredible amount of frustation with 4x5 negatives. Eventually culminating in the sale of half a dozen analogue cameras and a journey of several years of looking for a way to achieve long exposures with a bit of computation and a digital camera. After I wrote about my project enough people nagged me about how they can build their own camera to convince me to redesign the hardware and software in a way that other people can assemble it themselves and do something interesting with it.

If you want to get in touch with me, write me a mail at solargraphy@volzo.de

Frequently (and infrequently) Asked Questions:

Can I manufacture it completely by myself?

Yes! All necessary information including the source-files for software and hardware is on github. However, you will need to source the fasteners, the PCB and components and the ND-filter (links are in the Bill of Materials).

If you did build your own, I always appreciate if you get in touch with me and show me your results!

Can I just print the printable parts myself?

Yes, just let me know and I’ll prepare a kit without printed parts, containing only electronics and fasteners (that’s less expensive and maybe even easier when it comes to shipping internationally).

Can you assemble it for me?

No. Putting it together by yourself is part of the fun and the only way to really achieve a sense of ownership (and fix things if someting is loose). Additionally I am just really lazy.

I have a very specific need and require a bespoke solution…

That’s not actually a question but get in touch with me and I’ll see what’s reasonable and possible. However, please keep your expectations low.

Can I get the same results with my DSLR?

Well, depends. You need to take a normally-exposed image and an extremly underexposed image at least every 60s automatically. There may be intelligent camera triggers which theoretically could do that (Arsenal, View, Sony CCB-WD1), however, I am not aware of any that actually offer these features). Another important thing is that the camera trigger needs to be able to turn your camera off in between shots/overnight and this is a rarely found feature in any timelapse controller.