Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • - Dudes, I own so many old cameras

  • (lighthearted funky music)

  • and most of them don't even work,

  • but I just love the look, and the feel,

  • and the history that every single one of them holds.

  • And it's always been a dream of mine

  • to repurpose them and get them working!

  • So in the height of quarantine,

  • when Raspberry Pi released what's in this box,

  • whoo, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

  • I don't know if y'all are ready for this.

  • To be frank, I don't know if I'm ready.

  • Who's Frank?

  • That's such a bad joke.

  • Ah, every time I just makin' bad jokes, open the box, Becca!

  • (lighthearted funky music)

  • You see friends, the word code, command, Python,

  • are all terms I really had no interest in knowing more about

  • until I saw that Raspberry Pi put out this new camera mod.

  • It supports interchangeable lenses,

  • and natively, it supports C and CS mount lenses

  • that my 16 millimeter Bolex uses.

  • Hold on, I got one more.

  • They're literally the cutest little lenses.

  • Aren't these so adorable?

  • Dudes, thousands of camera systems exist.

  • So I'm gonna take some old parts and some new parts,

  • and I'm gonna finally learn how to code,

  • and I'm gonna build a camera that's completely my own.

  • We're building the Becca cam, buckle up.

  • (drums thumping)

  • This is a Raspberry Pi 4, it's a super tiny computer

  • that is highly programmable.

  • And folks have used these

  • to program everything from smart mirrors,

  • the portable arcades, to COVID case counters,

  • and even the hella smart, super techie greenhouses.

  • I mean, these are tiny boxes

  • that if you know how to code, can do pretty much anything,

  • and this is Raspberry Pi's HQ Camera mod

  • that connects right to the Raspberry Pi.

  • So, so far, so good, until

  • (sighs) hello from the floor on day one.

  • This is what it's come to.

  • Dot get, not found.

  • At its most basic level,

  • to take a photo with the Raspberry Pi cam,

  • you have to type code into a terminal.

  • What?

  • See, the Raspberry Pi cam

  • uses a coding language called Python.

  • And honestly, wait, it's not even about the coding language.

  • It's about the fact that I don't know any coding languages.

  • Oh my God. (screams)

  • The (camera clicks) does too many arguments mean?

  • That means nothing to me, that literally means nothing.

  • Stay calm, Becca.

  • I mean, there's no camera interface here.

  • There's no easy way to just click a button

  • and bring up the camera preview.

  • Literally on every single step, there is a problem.

  • So I was able to take a couple photos today,

  • which is hella exciting,

  • but tomorrow's gonna be all about finding a program

  • that I can run so that I don't have to type a code

  • into the terminal every time I wanna take a photo.

  • Basically, I don't wanna have to carry a keyboard around

  • when I'm using this camera.

  • And I have this 3.5 inch touch screen

  • that I'd really like to be using instead.

  • So day two, baby day two.

  • Oh God, I need help.

  • So we're reaching out to the IG buds

  • because shout out to all my IG buds,

  • you know I frigging love you guys.

  • Hopefully someone comes through.

  • (energetic drumming)

  • (sighs) Okay, while we wait for the buds

  • to get back to us on what code I should be writing

  • into my Pi, I wanna get the button set up

  • that's gonna become our shutter button.

  • So a little bit of hardware, thank God, let's do it.

  • (lighthearted funky music)

  • You gotta love a good button.

  • Mm, just like I knew you would,

  • the IG buds came through for your girl.

  • Basically, you were like, Becca,

  • you should've read the manual, like three more chapters.

  • This is the official Raspberry Pi camera guide.

  • I love her.

  • I love her so much.

  • Y'all were like, there's a code in there

  • for programming a selfie stick,

  • and I'm not making a selfie stick,

  • but I am making a camera that uses a button to take photos,

  • which is what a selfie stick does.

  • The only problem with this code

  • is that every time I was pushing the button,

  • it was freezing the preview.

  • So I called a friend, who called a friend,

  • who wrote me a line in the code

  • that basically cuts the program after it takes a photo.

  • And then I created a desktop shortcut that opens the program

  • and runs it every time I wanna take a photo.

  • It's not quite as perfect as I would have liked,

  • but I will take what I can get at this point,

  • and it gets my camera working,

  • which means I can move on to hardware.

  • I woke up this morning and I thought,

  • finally, it's hardware day.

  • Ah, let's go!

  • (energetic drumming and snapping)

  • (joyful jazzy music)

  • Okay, buds, today we say goodbye to the nk-700

  • and hello to Becca cam.

  • (joyful jazzy music)

  • (torch hisses)

  • Buds, it's the moment of truth.

  • And I'm really nervous, and I'm really freaking excited.

  • We're gonna plug this camera in,

  • and we're gonna see if it powers up.

  • We're gonna see if it takes a photo.

  • We're gonna pop one of those old vintage lenses on

  • from my Bolex.

  • (sighs) I'm just like taking a moment

  • to soak in the happiness,

  • just in case everything comes crumbling down.

  • (gentle electronic music)

  • All right, dudes, here we go.

  • (Becca sighs)

  • It worked, it worked, it worked!

  • I just built a freaking camera.

  • Tomorrow, we shoot.

  • (camera shutter clicking)

  • (relaxing music)

  • To take a photo on the Becca cam, you need to open Thonny,

  • which runs Python scripts.

  • There, I've already preloaded the script

  • for the selfie stick.

  • You run that program, it opens up a preview

  • of what the camera's seeing,

  • where you can focus and frame up

  • before hitting the shutter button to take a photo.

  • It then quits the program and saves the photo.

  • (camera shutter clicking)

  • And then, every time you want to take another photo,

  • you have to run that script again.

  • (camera shutter clicking)

  • (camera shutter clicking)

  • (sighs) Okay, buds,

  • so there's a little bit of movie magic

  • in that last sequence, because when I first came back

  • from shooting with the Becca cam for the first time,

  • the photos actually looked like this.

  • I truly don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point.

  • But what I do know is that when I just use the terminal

  • and type a simple command into the camera,

  • it takes higher-res photos.

  • So I got my keyboard and

  • just a totally normal day out shooting with my computer.

  • I'm gonna link all of the parts that I used

  • to make this below, and if you get those parts

  • or if you already have all of this and you had some code,

  • put it down below,

  • or shoot me a message on Instagram,

  • I'd love to see what you guys are coming up with.

  • And hopefully you're having better luck than I am.

  • So the Becca cam, would I send those to anybody to review?

  • No.

  • Is it as first gen as they come?

  • Yeah, absolutely, it is.

  • Do I know what I'm doing?

  • No, I still have absolutely no clue what I'm doing,

  • but this was actually a really fun challenge,

  • now that I'm done with it.

  • In the heat of it, not so much.

  • But now we're good.

  • But outside of the software hellscape

  • I have been truly living in for the last week,

  • the sensor's actually really cool

  • and super capable for the $50 it'll run yet.

  • And I mean, that's not even the point.

  • The point is I jumped into this project

  • with a large amount of knowledge of camera hardware,

  • and zero knowledge of camera software.

  • And I did come out of it with a semi-working camera,

  • but I now appreciate all other already built cameras

  • so much more.

  • And I can not wait to use a camera

  • that doesn't require a keyboard.

  • Oh yeah, and buds, welcome to Full-Frame.

  • This is a place

  • for us to talk anything and everything cameras,

  • from the tech that surrounds them

  • to the new lenses that are coming out,

  • to, I don't know, maybe building something again soon.

  • What fascinates you about the camera world?

  • What do you want to know more about?

  • What do you want me to build next?

  • I really appreciate you being here,

  • and I hope that you and everyone that surrounds you is well.

  • And (sighs) we'll be seeing you again real soon.

  • Be well buds.

- Dudes, I own so many old cameras

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it