Welcome to photobuilds, a site dedicated to making and modifying stuff that can be used for photography.
Note: this site has been migrated to photobuilds.com. This is because many of our visitors now come from outside the UK, so it makes sense for the site to be hosted on a .com domain. The new site contains full versions of all of the posts listed here, plus loads of new projects completed since mid-2022.
Microcontrollers
Microcontrollers: they’re small, cheap and powerful, and if you know what you’re doing with them they can be the basis of many photograpy projects. Arduinos are my microcontrollers of choice and have been the basis of sevral projects so far, with a lot more to come.
Electronics
Not every project needs an electronic brain behind it: sometimes a bit of good old fashioned electronics does the trick. This section is for builds based on discrete electronics.
Equipment Hacking
Sometimes most of what you need is already there, you just have to be brave (or stupid) enough to take it apart to make it fit your particular purpose. Generally the starting point for these hacks is either old or cheap, or both, so the cost of failure is low …
Other Stuff
It’s not all about clever electronics: it’s possible to make useful photography related equipment form all sorts of materials. In this section there are projects made out of plastic, cardboard, concrete, neoprene … You name it!