Samtastic

Making Fun Things

Pipe robot with a vintage camera head sitting on a wooden box

Photo Roboto

Thermal paper photo bot booth

Electronics

I built a photo-taking-robot for my wedding, because every wedding needs a robot photographer. This one was done around an old rangefinder with a Raspberry Pi strapped to the back, a lens removed and a camera module placed inside. Push the button, and a bash script flashes a built-in light, takes a photo, saves a copy, and prints it out on thermal paper. The whole thing packs up inside the base for easy transport. And unlike printer ink, one roll of paper lasts longer than I’ve ever needed. 

Pi camera seen through graphex aperature
Pi camera is taped inside the Grafex camera. The shutter is held open in bulb mode – no destructive modifications were used.
Raspberry Pi mounted to vintage camera head
Raspberry-Pi is magnet-mounted to the rangefinder back