A trio of designers have just launched a new 35mm simple camera with a transparent housing.
The new camera – called To Be Continued – uses part from existing simple camera designs with a transparent camera body the trio have designed themselves.
They introduced the new camera on various Facebook photography groups this month and are poised to start selling a limited batch of the cameras.
One of the designers, Croatian Joshua Cirjak, spoke to Kosmo Foto about the trio’s reasons for launching the new camera. He has designed it along with partners Shraeyas Massey (from Canada) and Ferj David (from United Arab Emirates).
“As a photographer myself, I wanted to create something that had the feel and look of a disposable camera, but that could be reusable,” Cirjak said. “We came up with the idea of TBC. This camera re-imagines the disposable camera, except there is no limit to how many photos can be taken. A camera without an end. A camera To Be Continued (TBC). This camera is a look into the future of memory making.
“This 35mm film camera features a custom translucent PETG body that snugly hugs the internals, creating a compact form factor. The mechanisms of the camera are free to be seen because of the transparent shell, closing the gap between the dreamer and the tool.”
He said the new camera is a mix of existing parts and their own modifications.
“We started off by taking the internals of disposable film camera, and designing a new shell. However, when we started looking at a way to manufacture more durable cameras, we realised we couldn’t use the disposable internals anymore. It is extremely complicated and complex to design all the components inside a camera (just think of injection moulding the inside of a camera), so we decided to find a film camera as close as to the one we wanted to create, we purchased just the internals and redesigned the shell completely.
“Some other modification we did were change the colour of the shutter and film spool knob (and shape), changed the colour of the wiring inside, the colour of the flash LED, and added a carabiner attachment to the side of the camera.”
Cirjak, Massey and David began working on the project in 2020, when they were studying at university. “Initially, the goal was to create a 3D-printed camera but we soon came to realise that it would be impossible to manufacture a larger number of cameras, and also, the cameras weren’t as durable as we would have liked them to be. We spent countless hours in school designing the cam, then spending hours after school 3D-printing in my garage etc.
“We took the internals from a disposable camera, and 3D-printed a shell and backing. Each component would take about seven hours to print and it would be extremely frustrating when it would get messed up towards the end.
“One of our first versions of the camera, was a disposable 3D_printed camera that had a front shell, and backing, and was held together by four rubber bands. I still think it looked pretty cool!”
The new camera’s specs are as follows:
- Film format: 24x36mm, ISO 200/400
- Optical lens: 28mm/F8
- Shutter speed: 1/120s
- Flash: 1-2m flash range
- Size: 115mm x 65mm x 35mm
- Focus range: 1m to infinity
It will officially launch on 30 October and cost €69 plus shipping.
“We have been posting the camera in different analogue camera Facebook groups and the feedback as been insane! We already have many retailers reaching out to us from the UK, South Korea, Hungary, and we haven’t even launched!
“We only have 400 pieces and we are expecting to sell out very fast! If you want to follow our journey, you can check us out on Instagram at @iutdstudio,” Cirjak said.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
