Yuta Ikeya designed and 3D-printed his own 35mm movie camera. The motor is Arduino-powered and it uses spliced photographic film for economy's sake.
In an interview with Super8.tv, Ikeya said that the project took him about 18 months. Coincidentally, Ikeya's camera works at 18 frames per second, as he was motivated by David Hennen's 18 fps LomoKino footage. In fact, Ikeya first tried to build a motorized version of a Lomography LomoKino with a viewfinder, reflex system and lens mount. However, these modifications were difficult, so Ikeya decided to start from scratch. Following his experience building his 18 fps 35mm analog movie camera, Ikeya now wants to work on a 24 fps – or faster – camera with stabilization, an improved viewfinder and a more compact form factor. When asked about his choice to use 35mm film, Ikeya replied, 'The biggest reason is that I can use widely available photographic film stock. Back in Japan where I started this project, the lab to process ECN-2 is not common, so the choice was limited first of all. 16 mm seemed difficult for its availability of film stock as well. Also, it looked like so much hassle for me to achieve a high quality scan from Super 8. If it is 35mm film, the bigger image area can compensate for some imperfection of the result.'
