This is probably the most obsolete article in this archive. Afterall, no one uses film any more, right!?

However, when I designed this baby I had a slew of free camera from Super Snaps rolling around in a box under my work-bench. Super-snaps (a high-street photographer in the UK) gave you a plasticy little camera with a terrible lens every time you got a film developed.

I thought it would be a kewl idea to use these cameras as free security cameras. What I did was use a PIR to trigger the camera to take a picture.

Naturally the circuit became a little elaborate. Not only do you have to release the shutter, you also have to wind on once the picture is taken. All got very complex.

I think this design is best known for taking pictures of people outside my bedroom window then the whole mechanical contraption would explode with springs, cogs and bits of camera flying everywhere. Back in the 90's my skills with metal and wood left a lot to be desired ... not like today eh!

Automatic Camera (pdf ~600k)

OCR'ed version (doc)

The article was submitted to a couple of electronics mags ... but didn't get published.