Czech designer Jaroslav Juřica has designed a paper pinhole camera that can be printed and assembled at home.
Called Rubikon Pinhole Rebel, the design is published in PDF format under a Creative Commons license, meaning anyone can adapt and use the design.
The pinhole camera is a simplified development of a paper camera obscura that Juřica designed for ABC magazine in 2005 (below).
Download your own Pinhole Rebel camera here.
More about Jaroslav Juřica on Dezeen:
Drawerment storage system for Dutch design house Demakersvan (June 2008)
Here's some more information from Jaroslav Juřica and some photos taken using the device:
Nowadays, photography is such an abundantly used medium that its functional principles are being slightly forgotten. If we take a picture by mobile phone or a reflex camera, the main principle has not changed since the first one was taken by Nicéphore Niépce in 1820, it is still based on the same principle drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in Codex Atlaticus or even far before (about 4th century B.C.) described by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti.
Nowadays, when our world is broadly digitalized and cameras are common parts of mobile devices, experimentation with classical photography has become paradoxically even more expensive than it used to be.
Therefore, by introducing Rubikon, I would like to mediate these principles in a funny and easy-to-use way. Nevertheless I would also like to offer mass photographers an alternative way not to take just gigabytes of pictures but also some shots with unique atmosphere and specific creative approach.
Rubikon is a paper cut-out, which becomes a functioning camera (camera obscura) after gluing together.
In 1979 the ABC magazine published a jigsaw called Dirkon, which paraphrased the single-lensed reflex cameras, which used to be very popular at that time. The cut-out Rubikon was first published in 2005 in the 8. issue of the ABC magazine, 25 years after introducing Dirkon. Since that time it has been also published in foreign media dealing with photography. Rubikon is also used as a teaching aid at some schools of photography and elementary schools. The second version of Rubikon, The Pinhole Rebel is even more user friendly and easy to build.
Technical description
The cut-out is distributed free of charge in PDF format and its further utilization and propagation is subjected to Creative Commons licence - some rights reserved. Before putting it together, read the manual carefully, please! I will be very grateful for any feedback, comment or idea for improvement.
Rubikon 2 „Pinhole Rebel“ – camera obscura
author Jaroslav Juřica
year 2010
material paper
dimensions 98 x 70 x 68 mm