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Pinhole camera selfies are way cooler than whatever the hell you're doing
Sure, you can do a regular digital selfie, add an old-timey Instagram filter and call it a day. But photographer Ignas Kutavicius was having none of that, and decided to create a head-mountable pinhole camera -- where a small opening acts as a lens to create an inverted image. He told PetaPixel that he fabricated it from an old energy drink can, with the images captured on on black & white photo paper. The long exposure (typically several seconds) results in a blurred background, while the fixed head perspective keeps the subject's face sharp. Kutavicius said the images present "a fun reflection on what selfies could have looked like" during the early days of photography. Though according to the actual first known selfie, not really.
Viddy is an adorable pinhole camera made of reclaimed parts and cardboard
Pinhole cameras might already be the domain of photography mavens and earnest summer vacation school projects, but does it look like this? The Viddy is a charming 35mm and medium format pinhole camera that has a glue-free construction and even promises to take less than half an hour to make. Better still, it takes design cues from the rolleiflex. It's currently on Kickstarter raising funds, and at the moment, the UK-based project is a quarter of the way to reaching its £18,000 funding goal. Pledging £30 or more will net you a VIDDY kit and includes UK domestic shipping. (You'll have to add £12 more to get your pinhole thrills elsewhere.) The camera even uses reclaimed spool for the camera itself, split pins to keep it all together, as well as a sticker sheet for customizing your hand-made camera. And if you don't like stickers, you're a monster.
Keepin' it real fake: Likea Leica, only not
Of all the KIRFs in all the world, this might be one of the laziest. Sure, aesthetically it does a fine job of aping the Leica rangefinder it takes as its "inspiration," but the Likea camera goes downhill very quickly when you move in a little closer. The first thing you'll notice is that, instead of the finely engineered Leica body, this thing is made out of, well, cardboard. Then you find out that the pinhole element isn't provided in the box and you're faced with the impossible judgment of deciding whether the need for a pinhole element or its omission is the worse offense. Ah well, what do you expect for 20 bucks? Just go buy some film and let your imagination fill the (vast) gap between the Likea and the real stuff.
