Make a Camera

 The type of camera we are making is known as a camera obscura, and is a precursor to the modern camera. It works in a similar way to a pinhole camera but instead uses a lens. These objects have been used for hundreds of years with examples dating back to the 17th Century.

The first thing that we are going to do is take our square cardboard tissue box and on the side opposite the hole, we are going to draw around our kitchen roll tube. We are then going to cut out this circle that you have drawn. 

The next thing that we are going to do is tape your magnifying glass to one end of the kitchen roll tube. You will want to make sure that you use lots of tape to make sure that it stays in place 

We are now going to draw around the box, onto our sheet of tissue paper, and cut out this out. This piece of tissue paper is going to go over the hole in the top of the tissue box. Make sure that you tape it down tightly over the hole in the box and that the tissue paper is not wrinkled.  

You can now push the kitchen roll tube through the hole in the bottom of the box. Your camera is now ready to test. Point your camera at a place where there is a lot of light and you should start to see an image appearing on the tissue paper, but it will appear upside down. You can move the kitchen roll tube in and out to help focus the image 

The way this camera works is that light passes through the kitchen roll tube and into the camera and focuses on the tissue paper. Light travels in a straight line which is why the image will appear upside down. The lens (the magnifying glass) has a fixed focal length, so by moving the kitchen roll tube you can help focus the image. 

The video tutorial for this activity is available to watch on the Surrey Libraries Facebook Page or the Surrey Libraries YouTube Channel