rendering, look and feel

So, this could be the beginning of something big. I wanted to create my own digital lomography camera. Using walnut, hand polished aluminum frame and all the guts of a craptastic 5 megapixel vivitar vivicam. For lenses, I will use Olympus OM series interchangeable lenses, like the new breed of compact digital cameras. I created this rendering to have an idea of the final concept, the materials and proportions. Hopefully the final camera will end looking just like that.
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drawings and sketches

I did a couple of drawings to check lens' dimensions and body thickness, along with what the market was offering in the compact camera department.
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materials of choice

The materials used are black walnut, hand rubbed aluminum, real SLR lens and adaptor. This build is based on craftmanship first and functionality later... kind of like a working concept. I wish more industrial designer did this, instead of sitting pretty on top on just renderings!
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perfect proportions

This is what I used for the proportions I wanted. obviously I can't get that thin!
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sacrificial lamb

craptastic Vivitar Vivicam 5025 to be gutted and used as the core electronics for the project. A lot of plastic to remove!
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cutting pieces and assembly of the shell

Cutting aluminum with hand tools is not fun! I screwed it twice and had to re-do the top panel. All in raw form ready for test fitting.
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polishing and polishing

Aluminum is fairly soft but hand rubbing is a pain! Lot's of blood is going into this project
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playing with the internals

Got the shell to work how I want it, now it's a matter of making the internals fit. I have like 1.5mm clearance on each side. The LCD will go outside to make room but it was part of the (now) original design.
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shell with internals

Well, this is as close as it gets. The battery still needs to be wired (used only for test) but everything sits tidy on the inside.
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