Kit "Camera Obscura" AstroMedia

Kit AstroMedia for building the "Camera Obscura".

Pre-cut cardboard kit for the mother of all cameras with SLR optics for image alignment and drawing patterns in the correct perspective.

The first camera

Our cameras, films and video cameras all have a common ancestor: the camera obscura. Aristotle (384-332 B.C.) was the first to study it scientifically, and Leonardo da Vinci discovered that it is an optical principle found in the eyes. In 1686, Johann Zahn first built a camera obscura, which made it easy to trace patterns with the help of a mirror. Around 1750, painters such as the Venetian Canaletto used the camera obscura to sketch the perspectives of his famous city views. Then, in 1836, when Frenchman Nicéphore Nièpce first directed an image onto a light-sensitive plate, the camera was invented.

Here's how it works

Light from the outside world falls through a small hole in the opposite wall of a room, creating an upside-down image. This is projected by a mirror onto a frosted glass screen where it can be viewed and copied. The included lens makes the image especially bright and sharp.

Product details:

• pre-cut and printed construction board
• for assembly
• 8 x DIN A4
• with detailed assembly instructions
• complete accessories: objective lens (Ø 60 mm, focal length 275 mm), mirror, transparent window and paper
• transparent
• dimensions of finished model: 28 x 19 x 19 cm (W/H)
• Construction time is about 6 hours.