3D Printed Camera Accessories
One of the most overlooked function of 3D printing, is the fact that you can make certain aspects of your life easier by quickly printing some small accessory. Since one of our colleagues here at the Magigoo offices isan avid photographer, this blog post will focus on a number of 3D Printed Camera Accessories. These accessories have been printed for the sole purpose of convenience, as well as to add some added function to the photography experience.
3D Printed Camera Accessories are not new to this office however, and you can read one of our older blog posts to learn about how a set of lens zoom rings were designed and printed.
Bokeh Shapers
Photo of Bokeh Shaper
Bokeh Shapers are essentially lens caps with a small shape cut out of them. This small shape produces an out of focus blur effect which replicates the cutout shape into multiple, seemingly illuminated, blurred images in the photo. A version of this can be seen in the image below, where the cutout is that of a star.
For our case, the bokeh shaper template was downloaded from Thingiverse, and can be found here. This was then inserted into Fusion 360 and the Magigoo Logo was cutout from the center of it, allowing the following images to be taken.
Umbrella Holder
This accessory has two primary functions; shielding from rain or wind, and shielding from the sun. While shielding from the rain may be an obvious function that one would expect from an umbrella, shielding from the sun may be overlooked at times. The difference between having the sun shining on the camera, and having the sun shielded and the camera in the shade may cause the resulting photo to change drastically.
This model that we have printed was found on Thingiverse, and can be found here. The model was printed using Ultimaker PC on our Ultimaker S3, and was assembled as per the instructions.
Backdrop Holder
The backdrop holder accessory was requested and designed in house, to be used as a Green Screen or White Screen curtain holder for photoshoots. This design includes the main head which allows the tripod head to get inserted in, as well as a long shaft to be inserted into a curtain rod. With two of these printed, and two extendable tripods, the curtain rod can be held up by both ends, at a height of 2 meters or higher.
Film Slide Scanner
Another design that was done in house, was that of the Film Slide Scanner. This little device allows one to use a macro lens on a camera to practically ‘scan’ the images on film slides. This design features a glass plate at the bottom, that forces the film slide to flatten before the photo is taken. The back plate, which hosts a bore to allow for the camera to be mounted on can slide in and out of the back side of the film box. This is done in order to allow the user to manually set the distance between the camera and the box, to fine tune the camera’s focus.
Since the photos and ‘scans’ taken will show the negative colours of the true image, these will have to be easily fixed by negating the colours through an editing software.
Flash Mount
The next accessory that has been used around the Magigoo Offices is the Flash Mount. This particular design can be found on Thingiverse, and in our case, was 3D printed using PA-CF filament.
While the print achieved it’s functionality and could hold the flash up well, it was not very suitable to be mounted on tripods or stands. For this reason, a threaded insert was installed into the bottom side of this print. This was done by heating the threaded insert, and sliding it into the slot at the bottom. This makes the print material slightly softer and ends up being partially fused with the threaded insert. Having this addition in place allows it to be screwed onto any suitable threaded mount, with added stability and security. For more information on threaded inserts, watch this video by CNC Kitchen.
Sling Strap Bottom plate
When a small part gets lost or misplaced, it’s much easier and cheaper to print a replacement than to buy a new one. This is what we did when our colleague lost the plate that attaches his camera to his sling strap. We got hold of a spare plate, and redesigned it for 3D printing.
The sling strap plate was 3D Printed using Polymaker PolyMax PC, while the rubber section was printed using the flexible filament DSN Arnitel 2045. This allowed our colleague to rapidly produce a couple of extra ones to store just in case he ever misplaces the strap plate again!
Whether creating 3D Printed Camera Accessories or a small design to be used to improve your photography experience 3D Printing is an easy and quick way to solve most of the issues you may come across.