3D Printed Full-Featured SLR Camera Hits Crowdfunding Site KissKissBankBank

Amateur and professional photographers rejoice! If you’ve been wanting to upgrade your camera to  a camera that was more multi-featured, Leo Marius has come up with a solution for you— OpenReflex.

OpenReflex is a full-featured 3D-printed SLR camera. It has everything that a classic reflex camera has, including a sport view finder and a mechanical shutter. The camera takes all types of film, from 35-millimeter film and medium format to Polaroid.  It features custom back covers that you can switch depending on the type of film you’re using. OpenReflex users also can use a variety of lenses, thanks to the camera’s adjustable rings.

The technology for OpenReflex is open source, so that means once you download the files for the project, you can print one camera or a bunch of cameras. Marius, a designer and self-proclaimed “mechanic hobbyist,” said that he thinks the ideal OpenReflex user is a photographer, 3D printing addict and OpenSource lover.

“The ideal person is a mix of two or three of those profiles. FabLabs are also a good “target” and could propose to theirs users some OpenReflex kits to print and build in the Lab.”

Though instructions for building OpenReflex cameras already exist online as an Instructable, Marius has a more advanced version in the works. This project is exclusively available via Kiss Kiss Bank Bank, a French crowdfunding platform.

A pledge of 80 Euros (about $108) gets you a complete OpenReflex camera kit (lenses not included). If you can spare a little more cash, you can get a fully assembled, customized OpenReflex camera for 250 Euros (about $340).

Marius said that the crowdfunding support he receives will allow him to refine OpenReflex, to make it a better open source camera with better documentation.

“The campaign will allow me to make a finished reliable and easy to use OpenReflex,” he said. “For now it’s still as a prototype, you can already build it, take pictures with, but it’s still very tricky to take picture with, and  some problems need to be corrected.  Big work will also be done on the documentation. The first Instructables were made very fast, and they are not that easy to follow. I think for the second version, I’ll keep in mind the first OpenReflex Instructable, but I’ll start from nothing again to make clear and simple blueprints with real images.”

The camera offered through Marius’ campaign is strictly film-based, but he said that thanks to the wonders of 3D printing, it is possible to make it digital.

“One of the strengths of the OpenReflex is you can adapt and fix any kind of lens and back,” he said. “Some digital backs  already exist for some professional medium format cameras, and nothing will stop you from using them with the OpenReflex to have your own DSLR. It’s professional hardware, however, and you will pay twice the price of a normal DSLR just for the back. The project that you create will be much better though.”

To learn more about OpenReflex and to support the KKBB campaign, visit http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/openreflex.  Will you be backing it?  Have you downloaded the designs?  Discuss this camera in the OpenReflex forum thread on 3DPB.com