Pictures disguising my camera as something else. (77 pictures)

Previous versions of the setup are described in:

• http://www.steampunkmike.org/
• http://www.the-meissners.org/albums/camera-hacks/index.html#hidecamera
• http://www.the-meissners.org/2010-small-albums/2010-pimp-my-ep2/index.html#hidecamera

The copyright owner on these pictures is Michael Meissner. Please direct any comments about this web page to mrmweb@the-meissners.org.

Michael Meissner's home page is at http://www.the-meissners.org, his Renaissance Faire/SF convention links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/ren.html, his digital camera links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/camera.html, his calendar links are at http://www.the-meissners.org/calendar.html, and the head of these photo albums is at http://www.the-meissners.org/photo.html.

Clicking on the thumb file link will show you the thumbnail picture that has been reduced to at most 500x375 or 375x500 pixels depending on the picture orientation.

Clicking on the small file link will show you the picture that has been reduced to at most 1023x750 or 773x1000 pixels depending on the picture orientation.

Fullsize pictures are not stored in this web site due to file size limiations. Please contact Michael Meissner if you desire a full size picture, particularly for printing.

This page lists pictures without thumbnails. If you want to view the pictures with thumbnails, classified by grouping like subjects together, click here. If you want to view the pictures with thumbnails arranged from newest to oldest, click here.

Picture sublinks

• Pictures disguising my camera as something else (4 pictures)
• Pictures of tools (4 pictures)
• Pictures of disguising my camera for the Great New England Steampunk Exhibition in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (36 pictures)
• Pictures unsuccessful build attempts at disguising my camera #1 (23 pictures)
• Pictures of disguising my camera as a Halloween pumpkin (10 pictures)
• Detailed statistics

Design considerations

The following are some things that I did differently in this design from previous generations of the box.

Building the box from scratch

The previous design used a pine shadow box that I bought from the Michaels craft store. This box, I am building myself, starting with 6"x1/2"x2' oak boards that I bought at Home Depot or Lowes. I primarily wanted to build the box myself, but I also wanted to switch to a harder wood.

With this generation of box, I am using 45 degree beveled cuts for each of the sides of the box that I cut with my table saw. At some point, I want to craft finger joints or tongue and groove joins, but that right now is above mys skill level.

Grooves for the front and back pieces

In the previous generation, I added the front and back pieces after the fact. In this generation, I am cutting grooves in the wood as I build it so I can slide in the front and back pieces without having to attach them to the front and back. In particular, my attempts at attaching hinges never seemed to go on straight.

Use of the HLD-4 battery grip

In previous generations of the box, I had to change batteries every so often. This is because I'm running the camera in live view, which has a higher power consumption than using the optical viewfinder. I bought the HLD-4 portrait grip for my E-3, so that I can use two batteries at the same time, and double the amount of time before I change batteries. I prefer to shoot my E-3 hand-held without the grip, but when I have the camera in the box, it doesn't matter. The HLD-4 does add about 1 3/4" to the height of the camera.

In addition, it will be much easier to change the battery, since the grip has battery doors that open to the back instead of the bottom, to allow changing batteries when the camera is on a tripod. With the previous version of the box, I had an opening cut underneath the battery slot, and I would have to tip the camera to the side to get the battery out, which can be disruptive to squirrels and other things on top of the camera.

In order to accomidate the HLD-4, I did need to cut a depression in the base, so the battery door can swing down.

Slide in camera

In the previous generation of the box, I attached the camera via the tripod screw to the box via a screw that went through the box. It usually took several minutes to line up the camera to the screw hole and attach the screw. Usually I would need to tip the box over on its side to line things up properly. This generation features a wooden base that the camera is mounted on that has a recessed screw to attach the camera to the base. This way, I will be able to attach the camera to the base, and just slide it in.

With 8GB memory cards, I don't need to change memory cards all that often, but with the slide in camera, I will be able to slide the camera out to change memory. In the previous version of the box, I cut a hole along the slide and put a hinged lid on it to change the memory card, and it just didn't look that good.

Flat top and hole cut for flashes

Originally, I was going use 45 degree bevel cuts for each of the four sides. However, in this generation, I've had problems getting all four corners exactly level, so for now, I just sliced off the angle joints and will mount the top as a flat piece of wood. In order to remove the front panel, you need to remove the top, but I made the back panel separate, so that you can slide up the back panel to remove the camera or change batteries. You can slide up the panel just a bit to get access to the HLD-4to change batteries.

I still haven't decided on the ultimate way to connect the flash, so right now, I have a compromise approach. I have enough of the top cut out to support the pop-up flash, a flash cable (Olympus FL-CB05) or a FL-36 flash. My larger Metz 48 AF-1 flash won't fit in the openning, and I anticipate eventually having a different top for each flash option.

Pictures disguising my camera as something else (4 pictures)

Pictures of tools (4 pictures)

Pictures of disguising my camera for the Great New England Steampunk Exhibition in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (36 pictures)

Pictures unsuccessful build attempts at disguising my camera #1 (23 pictures)

Pictures of disguising my camera as a Halloween pumpkin (10 pictures)

The Charles River Museum of Industry and Inovation had a Halloween event to celebrate the opening of their new exhibit, Steampunk Form and Fashion-II, so I deciced to make a new disguised camera.

I started with a drug store plastic pumpkin, and used an xacto-knife to cut an opening for my E-P2's 14-150mm lens to stick through where the nose used to be. I then took one pane out of a candle lantern I got from a Hallmark store so I could thread the flash cable through, and put in my FL-36 flash, which barely fit. The latern fit on top of the pumpkin, almost as if was made for it.

Picture #1: First step in my Halloweek pumpkin camera Thumb: 500x375, 26,072 bytes (26K) Small: 1000x773, 56,547 bytes (56K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/80 sec, 37.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 74.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 08:49:05 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00	Picture #2: Hole for monopod support Thumb: 500x375, 25,703 bytes (26K) Small: 1000x773, 53,673 bytes (53K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/80 sec, 40.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 80.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 23:20:14 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00
Picture #3: Lantern with one pane of glass removed Thumb: 375x500, 35,642 bytes (35K) Small: 750x1023, 87,825 bytes (86K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/100 sec, 47.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 94.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 23:21:29 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00	Picture #4: FL-36 inside the lantern Thumb: 375x500, 38,826 bytes (38K) Small: 750x1023, 94,989 bytes (93K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/80 sec, 41.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 82.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, gimp, rotate Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 23:23:09 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00
Picture #5: Pumpkin camera Thumb: 400x300, 24,299 bytes (24K) Small: 800x623, 50,000 bytes (49K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/11.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 14.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 28.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, gimp Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 23:36:34 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00 This picture is one of my favorites.	Picture #6: Inside of the pumpkin camera Thumb: 500x375, 34,605 bytes (34K) Small: 1000x773, 83,601 bytes (82K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/11.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 14.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, spot metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 28.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, gimp Taken by Michael Meissner on October 26, 2011 23:36:54 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 19:00
Picture #7: Pumpkin camera with Yongnuo viewer and shutter release Thumb: 500x375, 33,490 bytes (33K) Small: 1000x773, 94,451 bytes (93K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 23.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, matrix metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 46.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 27, 2011 09:46:26 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 18:52	Picture #8: Pumpkin camera with Yongnuo viewer and shutter release #2 Thumb: 500x375, 36,786 bytes (36K) Small: 1000x773, 100,309 bytes (98K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 23.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, matrix metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 46.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 27, 2011 10:06:33 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 18:52
Picture #9: Pumpkin camera with flash and remote control Thumb: 450x338, 30,796 bytes (31K) Small: 900x698, 76,798 bytes (75K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 14.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, matrix metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 28.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, gimp, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 27, 2011 10:09:12 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 18:52	Picture #10: Pumpkin camera with flash and remote control #2 Thumb: 375x500, 38,212 bytes (38K) Small: 750x1023, 100,305 bytes (98K), (html file) Olympus E-5 camera with Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens f/8.0, ISO 200, Metz 48 flash, 1/60 sec, 22.0mm, aperture priority, vivid color, matrix metering, image stabilization 35mm equivalent focal length 44.0mm Extra equipment used: Metz 48 flash Programs used: adjusttime, raw therapee Taken by Michael Meissner on October 27, 2011 10:09:44 Last modified on November 06, 2011 at 18:52 This picture is one of my favorites.

Picture sublinks

• Pictures disguising my camera as something else (4 pictures)
• Pictures of tools (4 pictures)
• Pictures of disguising my camera for the Great New England Steampunk Exhibition in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (36 pictures)
• Pictures unsuccessful build attempts at disguising my camera #1 (23 pictures)
• Pictures of disguising my camera as a Halloween pumpkin (10 pictures)
• Detailed statistics