And I Said: I Need a Light! And I Made One.

I have, squirreled away in various locations in my work area, a number of old, antique cameras. Some of them are very, very nice. A couple of them are just very old, and so beat up that all they really retain is their original shape. They are in such bad shape that I did not mind having the idea to begin to drill holes in them.

I actually built this last December - two of them, in fact - and sent one off as a Christmas gift. If you look closely at the Brownie (the camera), you'll see that the strap is broken, the latch is broken, and it is otherwise in a serious state of disrepair. Perfect for a light!

And how did I do this, you might ask? Well, I started by first of all getting over the dread I faced about drilling a hole in any camera, working or not. It originally seemed like sacrilege, but.. well.. sometimes a sacrifice needs to be made. The second step was to buy the light assembly from a hardware store.

I do not yet have access to Power Over Air (and if anyone does, please let me know how you do it), so I need to resort to the tried and true method of Power Over Cable. And to do this, I needed to drill a hole in the top of the camera. Ultimately this would be where the light fixture will sit, so measuring the correct diameter is important! Crucial! Remember, kids, measure twice, cut once.

This is the diameter the hole needs to be.

And before we attach the fixture, we need to run the wire through it.

Threading the wire through is important to be able to easily connect it to the fixture. A serious word of warning at this point:

• Obviously, the wires were not plugged in. Regardless, they need to be attached to the fixture correctly. If you wish to try this at home, know what you are doing. If you are uncomfortable attaching electricity-sharing components, find someone who is comfortable for help.

Ultimately, after threading the wire into the fixture and attaching the fixture to the camera, it'll need to be screwed back together and look like this from the inside:

And finally, after putting the entire camera back together, we have a fully functional light. After putting the base back on it even looks good! And here it is, sitting on my old-WW2-beat-up end table (which I really need to refinish) in the front room. It'll be perfect for reading comic books with.

(As a quick aside, that table has some great history behind it. It was built by a German WWII officer for an American WWII officer as part of war reparations, and gifted to me by the American officer before he finally passed away a few years back. I really need to refinish it and take care of it).

(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe

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