When it was released 20 years ago, it didn’t matter that the Game Boy Camera took terrible, low-res, black and white images. It was a digital camera kids could buy for just $50, and the fun factor far outweighed the device’s technical limitations. Even today there’s still a rabid fanbase for it, including designer Bastiaan Ekeler, who managed to hack together a Canon EF lens mount adapter for the toy.
The 1.4x adapter/extender Ekeler designed and 3D-printed for his Game Boy Camera required a bit of finessing (read: trimming and filing) to get it to properly attach to the disassembled GBC, which you can see above with its 3.6-millimeter sensor exposed. But eventually he got it all assembled with minimal light leaking in, and the results are surprisingly great—as far as the Game Boy Camera goes.
Not only was Ekeler able to get a shot of the moon with a Canon 70-200 f4 lens attached to his Frankenstein creation, he was also able to snap some seagull photos with beautifully defocused backgrounds. The 128x112-pixel images the Game Boy Camera snaps have never looked better than they do here, and I’m tempted to scour eBay for all the parts needed to build one of these for myself.
[Ekeler Design via Reddit]