A DIY retro digital camera project - Blog #4 Prototype photo test and development update

It’s been two months since my last blog update — and wow, what a whirlwind it’s been. A brief (and slightly chaotic) summary of what I’ve been up to:

1.Back to China for ODM wrestling

I packed my bags and flew back to China to wrestle with my camera ODM manufacturing partner. Imagine speed dating, but instead of “What’s your favorite movie?” it’s “Do you want a Sony IMX258 or a 415, and how much SoC processing power do we need for this retro digital camera?” Super romantic.

Then we plunged into case material debates and argued over industrial/structural tweaks so the camera could someday wear accessories like a SEAL team soldier. And then came the cost negotiations. Nothing humbles you faster than realizing you’ve spent three hours haggling over 17 cents like it’s the GDP of a small nation.

 

2.Whipping my coder friend constantly on filter app development

So here’s the deal: the camera’s got this film simulation mode. It’s not your run-of-the-mill Instagram filter nonsense — it actually makes photos look film-like, closer to Portra 400 or Gold 200 film stock. But here’s the catch: all that magic has to flow through WiFi into the companion app, a.k.a. the digital darkroom. Which means the app has to work. Reliably. Every time. Otherwise, it just stays as… your phone.

Naturally, the MVP list exploded. Because that’s what MVP lists do. (Hint: “minimum” is a lie. It always ends up meaning “Maximum Visionary Product.”) And of course, I, being the “technical” product manager — which basically means I know horse-jack about actual tech — kept adding shiny new ideas. Cue the ancient battle: PM vs. coder. A hard love story.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. It’s 2 a.m., and we’re still at it. I’m doing the storming, my coder friend is doing the braining. Finally, he just slams his laptop shut and says:

“Man, if we keep this up, we’re basically rebuilding Lightroom. And I’m going to be the first recorded case of caffeine poisoning homicide.”

Now, if I were just some faceless technical PM in a giant org, I wouldn’t care. Which cup of coffee did him in? Doesn’t matter. Replace the coder, ship the feature. Done. But unfortunately, I’m not just a PM anymore. I’m the CEO/Founder of Rewindpix. Which means keeping my coder alive is actually part of the job description.

We lock eyes across the room. Two innies staring into the abyss. Finally, I sigh and say, “Okay, fine. Let’s stick to the original MVP… but we could probably squeeze in just this, this, and this—”

He’s good at math. In half a second, I can see him calculating caffeine intake volume versus coding workload. And then… he nods.

Alright. The show barely goes on.

3. Logo Design: From Reddit Bloodbath to Trademark Win

I have to admit, from the start of this year until now, I’ve basically been a full-time product manager, a part-time strategy analyst, and a zero-time designer. At one point I used an AI tool to crank out a logo, and I was ridiculously proud of it. Why? Because it came from someone who actually failed art class in elementary school. (Yeah, that was me. The kid who couldn’t even shade a cube.) So you can imagine… it’s probably not good at all.

Here it is, mind your eyes:

 

The basic (or let’s be honest, naïve) idea was to cram every possible selling point and feature into the logo. So, in my little alien masterpiece, you’ll find:

• The geared “R” – because obviously, it represents the film winder.

• The orange-red dot on the “i” – that’s my homage to the big, shiny, changeable aluminum shutter button.

• The square “P” – inspired by the Agfa Optima’s big optical viewfinder. (Yes, I nerded out that hard.)

If I weren’t so utterly terrible at Photoshop, I probably would’ve turned the second “i” into a Xenon flash too. Thankfully, my incompetence saved the world from that design crime.

Fast forward: after months buried in hardware and software chaos, I finally found a spare moment to test the logo. I threw it on Reddit, expecting applause. You know, standing ovations, confetti cannons, a couple of marriage proposals. Instead… absolute bloodbath. Turns out Reddit has a “down” button, and boy, did I learn that the hard way. The feedback was so brutal that if any of the commenters had asked me for eye-drop reimbursement, I would’ve mailed them the bottle myself.

So I paid for a logo and super happy about it. (got "up" button clicked by redditors in the same sub this time). 

And here’s the kicker: this geared “R” it accidentally lined up with the actual winding mechanism in a point-and-shoot film camera. Total serendipity. Like tripping over your own shoelaces and discovering buried treasure.

Even better, the trademark agency I hired ran a shape search and came back with the magical words: no close matches. Translation: it’s legally mine. I’ve got my logo!

And this little beauty isn’t just sitting on a shelf. Nope — it’s going on the whole lineup: the camera sling bag, the climbing-rope strap, the cold-shoe LED light, the 43mm black mist filter, even a waist-level viewfinder once the shop goes live. Honestly, I think it’s a pretty unique, easy-to-remember shape. I mean, who doesn’t love a spring-and-gear winder motif? It’s like staring straight into the Industrial Revolution itself. 

Okay, time to wrap this dev update and show you some black magic that crawled out of my prototype V-1 (that’s “negative one,” because even zero felt too generous).

It’s super ugly — no denying it. But hey, it does come with a “most” statement for the marketing department:

Rewindpix V-1: The world’s most eco-friendly camera, featuring a soon-to-be-degraded cardboard case.

That’s right. Forget aluminum or polycarbonate. This thing is basically a juice box or cardboard camera prototype with a lens. Greenpeace would be proud. 

As long as Paper Shoot camera is not making cases out of coconuts or durians, the Rewindpix V-1 proudly holds the title of world’s most organic camera. 

(And honestly, a durian camera would probably clear the room before you could even take the shot.)

So here I present you the first batch of pics from my prototype V-1:

Yeah, felt that coldness? Me too. My heart was about as frozen as Sir Ernest Shackleton when I downloaded the first pic from the cardboard camera. Absolute Antarctic vibes.

What went wrong? Well, pick your poison: maybe it was the bargain-bin lens I slapped on, maybe I completely mangled the ISP settings on the Raspberry Pi, or maybe — just maybe — I went full Hulk on the CMOS sensor while screwing in the lens. Nothing like destroying your own prototype with “enthusiasm.”

Well, it is what it is. I’ve got a prototype. Ugly? Yep. Half-broken? Probably. But the whole point was just to build something — anything — that could test the basic hardware guts and how the camera talks to the companion app. Mission: concept proof. 

Remember my coder friend? the underdevelopment app can save these ice cold photos by applying warm or sun burn filters (created by myself) onto them and result below:

Feel warmer? Yeah, that’s my coder friend working his sorcery — basically slapping on Portra 400-ish, Gold 200-ish, and maybe even a Wes Anderson preset or two. Suddenly these photos finally looks like where I took them = the sunny state.

Anyway, this blog is already long enough, and I’m literally packing my bag again for another trip back to the factory in China.

Next up on the chaos menu: ISP tuning on the chosen chip and lens, printing the first PCB, and 3D-printing a real case instead of my juice-box special.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned.