Morgan Bennett's Camera Obscura: Building the Camera and Using it On Location

Part 1: Building it!

The outer shell is a 2-liter coke bottle. I cut the neck off to get it out of the way, then carefully placed, measured, and carved holes for the four corners of the lens to sit in. Liberal use of duct tape secured the lens in place.

                                         

                                    Sizing the screen to fit inside the bottle properly

The groove cut along the length of the bottle was to allow for screen adjustment from the outside via a control handle. Covering the bottle inside and out in duct tape ensured that all light was blocked out.

Part 2: Does it work?

Doune Castle. It was rather cloudy outside, so the picture quality isn't as clear as it could be.

The National Wallace Monument, from the university grounds by Airthrey Loch.  The grounds were fairly clear, but the distance made it difficult to get a good shot of the monument.

Design and Testing Difficulties:
The main problems encountered focused around the screen. Because the plastic bottle is so flexible, it was difficult to ensure that the screen was the correct shape (it turned out more triangle-ovalish than circular) for the bottle and ensuring it would slide properly. The ridges on the inside of the bottle had to be covered in duct tape to keep them from interfering with the sliding of the screen, but the duct tape itself prevents the screen from sliding easily. Reinforcing the outer circular-ness of the bottle with cotton swab sticks was effective for keeping the bottle the correct shape and diameter, but the edges of the screen still catch on the sides of the bottle because of the duct tape, making it difficult to place the screen for proper viewing. The guide groove from the control handle let in a small amount of light, but not enough to disrupt the image projected on the screen. It was easily remedied by holding the camera obscura from that point to cover the hole with your hand. The image on the screen was consistently clear and vivid throughout testing, but actually taking the pictures of the image proved neither consistent nor clear, as my camera could not focus on a projected image.