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CAP, a Functional Recycled Paper Camera

joanna | Electronics, Gadgets
22 Aug 2009

These days, it is very evident that manufacturers of cameras compete by making more hip and hi-tech models of digital cameras. It seems that the more metallic the camera looks, the better. An entry at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University “PolyU” Design Annual Show tends to go against this flow as it bears no sleek metallic design, but of recycled plastic and paper.

At the PolyU Annual Design Show, Amos Woo and Sharon Ng showcased CAP, a pinhole camera that is made completely out of recycled material. The camera’s skeleton and body is built from recycled paper.

To further put emphasis on the matter of recycling, Amos and Sharon also designed a tripod made of plastic bottle.

With its appearance and design, CAP looks like a toy camera for children. But it is a completely functional pinhole camera. A pinhole camera is a camera that works with a very simple mechanism. It has no lens, just a single small aperture. Through this very small point, light from a scene passes through and an inverted image is projected on the opposite side of the box.

The concept used in pinhole cameras is the same with the mechanism of the human eye in bright light. Because of the lengthy exposure times which range from 5 seconds to hours and days, a pinhole camera’s shutter is manually operated. It also comes with a light-proof material to cover and uncover the pinhole.

The image from a pinhole camera may be projected onto a translucent screen. This is commonly used for real-time viewing such as in observing solar eclipses. The image can also be placed in an expose film or a charged couple device (CCD). Because they are fairly difficult to detect, pinhole cameras are often used in surveillance.

Though CAP may not have the edge in technology like most of the marketed cameras today, this pinhole camera definitely receives high mark in terms of environmentalism.

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