As I have mentioned, I recently got a 3D printer. I have already made a 35mm pinhole camera, but I decided to make a 120 example. Then I read my friend’s blog, where he talked about the Scura 120. I was sure he had printed it himself from downloaded files. So off I trot to the Dora Goodman site and downloaded the same files. They have open-source 3D files for some of their cameras. I have already tried their 35mm Scura as I was kindly given one by Hamish from 35MMC, so the 120 would be great to try too.

At this point, I had only had the printer for less than two weeks, and this was the most complicated thing I had printed. It didn’t go well. Things just weren’t sticking to the bed plate and were therefore failing partway through the print. Before you ask, I had cleaned the plate with soap and isopropanol, used glue, changed the temperature, everything, but all I could successfully print, without issues, were ghosts! Ghost toys, ghost fidgets, anything ghost-based. It was bizarre. My printer was haunted.

That being the case, it took a long time to print all the parts and get them ready for assembly. I was so annoyed by the end that I didn’t take any photos of the process. If I were to do it again, and I probably won’t, I would have to remember to put the bolts in the right places before I glue the whole thing shut and add a cover. Oh, did I swear when I realised that. I went back and read the review again and realised my friend didn’t actually print the parts but bought them to assemble, but he remembered to put the bolts in before fully assembling.

Well, after a lot of naughty words and reprints, I had a fully assembled Scura 120 with a 0.15 Mia pinhole attached.

As you might notice, I added a bit of old foam for a light seal before the final assembly. Then I loaded it with Kentmere 100 and headed to Skye. I just managed to get it all finished before I headed away for a week of camping; otherwise I might have tried it at home first.

I did not think the camera would be light-tight, and I just knew the winder would break or come apart at some point. I was wrong on the former and right on the latter. I took the 12 shots at the beginning of the holiday due to the awful weather. It rained and was windy almost throughout the trip. It was so bad that a pole on my tent split, and I had to use duct tape to complete the last two days of camping…barely.

Here are some of the places I set the camera for the shots.

As you can see, I used a tripod. I didn’t have time to put in a tripod mount before I left, so I took one with me. It was metal, so I heated it on the camping stove and sank it into the bottom. It worked perfectly.

On the final shot, the winder came loose so I taped the camera together in order to keep it light-tight before I could develop it.

If I do use it again, which I might not, I will loosen the feeding film before winding. That should stop the spool tab coming out of the winder, which is what happened.

And here are 11 of the 12 shots…I wound past one shot by mistake.

At two of the locations, there were a few people milling around. They were worried about being in my shot. I said it was ok, but just keep moving, and the long exposure should make them into ghosts, which is kind of fitting for this camera.

Oh, and you see that tall stone? As I was taking that shot, a golden eagle flew over my head!!! I was so excited I almost knocked the camera over.

Despite the rain, it was an awesome holiday; I will mention it more in the coming posts. As for this camera, it worked much better than I ever expected it to. I will keep it. What you can’t see is a stray filament that I had to Photoshop out of the results. I can’t get into it to sand it away, so I don’t want to give this camera away with that fault. I have learnt a lot about 3D printing through this project. I can only get better 🙂