What is it with people making cameras (real or pretend) out of Legos? Turns out there is an entire sub-culture making almost anything out of the little plastic toy blocks. So, why not cameras? There are dozens of working and non-working cameras made entirely or partially out of Legos; here are five we really like.
Legotron Mark I 4×5 Camera
Photographer Cary Norton dreamed of making a working 4×5 film camera out of Lego bricks. He started by trying the Lego builder App, but says “my mind wouldn’t work like that” and instead, built it the old-fashioned way. A year later, he was shooting black-and-white portraits with it. See them here.
DIY Lego iPhone Camera
This Instructables project walks you through the steps to create a colorful camera-like housing for your iPhone; while this design is for the iPhone 4, it can be modified for larger, more recent models. The whole project should take 35-45 minutes, according to the directions. Learn how here.
This Even Has a Flash
This toy camera system was designed by flickr user RGB900 to look like a full DSLR system, complete with lens and removable flash, as well as a nice neckstrap. We kinda wish this one actually worked. See the full setup.
LSLR (Lego Single-Lens Reflex)
Lego Suzuki’s Lego Camera looks an awful lot like a Nikon F…or maybe a good old Pentax. He’s done a lot of interesting Lego projects, which you can see on his flickr feed.
Kinda Like a Leica
Denmark-based designer/Photographer Milan Madge built a huge replica of the Leica III rangefinder made entirely of Legos. An owner of several Leica IIIs, he made the giant camera as part of an ongoing project making giant Lego models of everyday objects, including Speed-Graphic view camera. You can see more of the camera and his work here.