Zazaziza

As part of the Somethingscopes series, the Zazaziza optical department has been sketching and testing a concept for a motorised forensic camera that takes instant film snapshots of computer screens.

How it works - so far

The Polaroid sheet camera uses the basic principle of light polarisation to mimic the behaviour of a camera diaphragm and shutter. LCD screens emit polarised light which allows a Polaroid sheet in the camera to take on the diaphragm behaviour.

By changing the rotation of the Polaroid sheet, the amount of light that passes through can change from almost nothing (diaphragm closed) to nearly the full intensity that is being beamed by the source (diaphragm fully open.) In this way the “Polaroid diaphragm” adjusts the amount of light reaching a photosensitive material–a single sheet of instant film*–that will become the final picture.

A stepper motor controls the rotation of the camera body, from the light blocking position to the fully open position (90 degrees), in which the instant film is exposed for a predetermined amount of time before the whole camera body is rotated back to the blocking position.

After being exposed, the instant film sheet is taken out of the camera body (in a dark room) and developed normally by making it pass through a roller mechanism. Hopefully, all this explanation will make more sense after watching the video of the camera in action:

As of now, Zazaziza has no idea what problem this camera is the answer to, nevertheless we hope it can be seen as a small homage to the genius of Edwin Land, one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century.

Zazaziza has no affiliation whatsoever with the Polaroid Corporation or the FujiFilm Corporation, we’re just instant film groupies.

*Instant film FujiFilm FP-100c was used, although other references of Fuji or Polaroid should also work fine.