Bigshot DIY Camera Kit Lets You Build Your Own Camera

Sometimes the best way to learn things is to roll up your sleeves and get some hands-on experience. That’s the idea behind the Bigshot DIY digital camera kit. The Bigshot was developed by a computer science professor with the help of Google and the US Department of Defense. The device comes in pieces and must be assembled with the help of an online tutorial. The end result — if all goes to plan — is a compact 3MP camera in a sporty red case. It's shipped as a self-build kit that includes a 3 megapixel image sensor, 1.4 inch LCD and a wheel with three built in lens options – standard, panoramic and stereo for 3D images (all are fixed focal length) to make a fully working camera, by following step-by-step online instructions.

The Bigshot kit includes these components

Early prototypes were created and tested with the help of students from the Computer Vision Laboratory, who also played a part in building the first version of the website. Children from New York, Bangalore (India), Vung Tai (Vietnam), and Tokyo (Japan) aged between 8 and 14 years received the first few hundred pre-production cameras for evaluation, with the makers using feedback to tweak and refine future iterations.

With Bigshot, users are given the opportunity to gain some knowledge of the science of modern photography, while also learning about optics, electronics, and image processing. The website is home to picture-based, walk-through build instructions, supplementary information on each component and process, lesson ideas for educators, tips for taking snaps, and even the odd quiz or two.

At the end of the build project, users will have a fully-functional, 129 x 72 x 40 mm (5 x 2.8 x 1.6 in) point-and-shoot camera. This features a 3-megapixel sensor, enough internal storage for about 120 photos in the JPEG image format, a built-in LED flash module, and a small (1.4-inch) LCD display that shows information about the setup, and caters for playback of snaps.

The Bigshot camera features a 3-megapixel sensor, enough internal storage for about 120 photos in the JPEG image format, a built-in LED flash module, and a 1.4-inch LCD display

The three-megapixel camera features a rotatable wheel with different lenses allowing snappers to choose between regular, panoramic, and 3D images. The Bigshot is supplied with a Li-Pol battery that's charged via USB, and has a hand crank to the side that provides the battery with enough juice for one photo, in about seven rotations.

The Bigshot camera

The lens wheel out front offers three image capture choices, allowing users to explore panoramics, stereoscopic images and wide-angle shots. There's a mode dial on top for control of camera settings and operation, or to use the included timer function, and users can frame up a shot by looking through the viewfinder, or by sizing up the image on the display.

There are kid-friendly cameras from other companies with better specs and more solid construction, but the Bigshot’s creator, Prof Shree Nayar, hopes it will gain a following by offering a different experience.

Prof. Shree K Nayar with his Bigshot camera

The kit has been licensed to Hong Kong-based manufacturer EduScience, which will be selling the Bigshot camera kit for $89 (£58). The first challenge after launch is to find a way to bring the price down.

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Bigshot DIY Camera Kit Lets You Build Your Own Camera