A camera obscura box with mirror, with an upright projected image at the top. A camera obscura consists of a box, tent, or room with a small hole in one side or the top.

Camera obscura (meaning “dark room” or “dark chamber” in Latin) is a box-shaped device used as an aid for drawing or entertainment. Similar to a pinhole camera, it lets light in through a small opening on one side and projects a reversed and inverted image on the other.

You can make a camera obscura with (or without) almost any materials, so it lends itself to a remote learning project. There are many Instructables with designs for camera obscura that range from simple to complex. These instructions use a cereal box, although I also give other examples.

With this instructable we'll be creating a small dark room out of cardboard, cereal box, masking tape and a cheap plastic hand lens. You can use this little contraption to view the world upside down, turn it into a pinhole camera, or use it as a cell phone projector!

I will show you how you can easily make a cardboard camera obscura from tissue boxes, wax paper, and tape. Our camera obscura will consist of an empty box with a translucent screen in the middle and two holes on either end. The diagram illustrates a cutout view of the device.

A camera obscura (also known as a pinhole camera) is a tool used to view the optical phenomenon known as the “pinhole effect”: light traveling through a small opening in a dark room or a box will project an image on the surface across from it.

With a camera obscura, an artist could project an image of a scene onto a piece of paper and trace over the projection to create a realistic, detailed drawing. A simple camera obscura can be made with a box that contains an opening on one side where light can pass through.

Camera obscura (from Latin, meaning “darkened room”) is a device in a shape of a box or a room that lets the light through a small opening on one side and projects it on the other. In this simple variant, the image outside the box is projected upside-down.

Making a Camera Obscura Box is a great way to explore the fundamentals of photography and to learn a bit about optics. The following steps will guide you through the process of creating your own Camera Obscura Box.

A camera obscura, or a pinhole camera, is a simple device that is often thought of as a precursor to the modern camera. The camera obscura, Latin for “dark chamber”, consists of a dark chamber or box with a small hole in one of the four walls (or the ceiling).