Film Photography Metadata Storage Device
This film camera add-on tracks ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, as well as detects lighting.
While many of us are content to take (rather good) pictures with our cell phones, others prefer dedicated digital cameras, and a select few use actual physical film. Although film photography certainly still has its proponents, one obvious disadvantage is that the format doesn't automatically store your ISO, aperture, and shutter speed for later review.
At least that’s normally the case. As outlined in this GitHub repository, Alessandro Genova created a tracking unit based around the Adafruit ItsyBitsy ATmega32u4 dev board, which records this rudimentary metadata. The device mounts to a camera’s hot shoe – such as the film-based Pentax camera shown – and allows the user to input the film brand and ISO for a roll, then set the individual aperture setting and shutter speed for each shot via a pair of pushbutton encoders.
The device also features a light metering circuit made using a phototransistor. While not super-accurate without calibration, it can be used instead of a mechanical camera’s (potentially dead) onboard meter in a pinch.
Once set up, taking a picture with the the camera it saves the frame data automatically, thus producing digital notes for later review on its 128x64 OLED screen. It looks like quite a useful device, preserving the essence of film photography, while automating (often neglected) note taking tasks. Build info and code is available via the project writeup if you’d like to construct your own!