Lmst

Achtung Achtung! #SaveTheDate das nächate Schalt Kreis Symposium findet vom 22.05.26 – 25.05.26 statt!

Mit viel Glück müssen wir dieses Jahr nicht in ein Zelt sondern haben insgesamt 270m² Halle zur Verfügung 🥳

A #short #experimental #film i made.
https://vimeo.com/820055599
Feedback is welcome :)
I generated video sequences by #circuitbending then i cut them.
1st: Naiko 6004 electronic clock
2nd: Lexibook video game console
#artwork #videoart #art #circuitbend #pixelart #chance #chaos #unpredictable #glitch

Lens-Artists Challenge #383: Looking Back To Challenge #174 – Shapes and Designs

This week it’s Tina’s turn to host the Challenge, and her theme is another ‘looking back’ challenge, where the host revisits the subject of a previous Challenge. On her blog, Travels and Trifles, Tina writes: ‘This week we look back to 2021 when our Lens-Artists Challenge #174 focused on Shapes and Designs.’ Back in 2021, Patti, who hosted the Challenge that week, invited us, ‘to share images that feature shapes and designs. Have fun searching for them in nature, in your home, in architecture, in food, in textiles, on the street–and just about everywhere else.’

For pretty much all of January, and forecast for at least the first half of February, Portugal has been battered with rain. So it’s no surprise that I’ve not been out much. That’s not to say I haven’t been busy, my mind is always trying to come up with things to do when the weather improves, and one of those things is circuit bending. This is something I’ve been keen to do for a long time, but what’s always scared me off is the possibility that I might break a camera.

Circuit bending is exactly as it sounds, taking a camera and deliberately introducing changes to the circuitry in the device that corrupts the image that the camera ‘sees’. Sometimes this can be quite extreme, with wires soldered into the circuit board connected to knobs and switches that can create all kinds of variations within an image. This requires a fair bit of skill with electronics, which I definitely don’t have, so I’ve taken what I called the ‘bull in a china shop’ approach and chose the simplest form of circuit bending: jamming metal foil into the ribbon wire connecting the sensor to the main board within the camera.

Because I become far too attached to the digital cameras that I get especially for circuit bending, even those digicams from CEX for a few Euros, I decided to use the G6 Thumb Camera from AliExpress. If you are not aware, the G6 Thumb Camera is a cheap knock off of the hottest camera of the season, the Kodak Charmera. Like the Charmera, the G6 has a resolution of 1—2MP and has few other features than that. It is cheap though, at around 10—15€, and if broken, will not be missed.

So what I did was cut a thin piece of metal foil from a Ferrero Rocher chocolate and insert it alongside the ribbon wire in the G6s main board. When I turn on the camera, the image on the screen and the photographs are beautifully corrupted, with unusual colour shifts and patterns. As the weather has been so awful, I wandered around the house with the circuit bent G6 snapping as many patterns and designs as I could find.

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the following week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here, and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag ‘Lens-Artists’.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.

#Abstract #Challenge #CircuitBending #Digicam #Experimental #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #LensArtists #LoFi #ShapesAndDesigns #ToyCamera #LensArtists

The filament of a lamp taken with the circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera.

The Highs And Lows Of Circuit Bending A G6 Thumb Camera

This year (2026) has not got off to a good start, photographically speaking. For a start, the weather has been atrocious. We’re in the middle of what is being called on the news, a ‘comboio de tempestades’ (train of storms, with Ingrid on her way out and Storm Josef following quickly behind. Now storm Kristin is upon us, with 140km/h winds, and destruction across much of Portugal, and storm Leopoldo is due any day now. I suppose I could be going out in the gaps between the rainstorms, but it’s been quite miserable and unpredictable, and if there’s anything worse than me getting wet, it’s my precious cameras getting wet.

The second thing is a slight loss of ‘mojo’, which I’ve mentioned before. I bought a few Kodak Charmeras to play with, including one to make full-spectrum. That didn’t go well, and I ended up bricking one, which affected me more than I would have thought. I’m determined to get myself out of this ‘funk’, though, and I have a plan that I hope might help. For ages now, I’ve been talking about circuit bending a digital camera. I keep getting cheap cameras from CEX, but I always end up becoming too attached to them to tear one up. Then Kodak released the Charmera and I got one of those to circuit bend, but it still seemed a little too much, especially after bricking the full-spectrum one. And then AliExpress came to my rescue. They released a Charmera clone, the G6 Thumb Camera.

For about 14€, I can get a camera that looks like the Kodak Charmera but at less than half the price. Indeed, I can get two G6s for less than the price of one Charmera. So I did. I’m not going to go too much into the details of the G6, there are plenty of reviews available, except to say that the G6 is inferior to the Charmera, yet at the same time better. For example, it powers up quickly and goes straight to the picture taking menu, instead of having to select the photo option first. The G6 claims to have up to 12MP resolution, but I reckon that most of that is interpolation. From what I gather, the best resolution can be obtained at 1—2MP resolution, so the G6 probably has the same resolution of the Kodak Charmera, or 1.6MP.

A very muddy image from the G6 Thumb Camera. That it was a dull day, didn’t help.

Like the Charmera, the G6 Thumb Camera is easy to open up. The advantage of the G6 is that when you peel off the front cover, the lens assembly and sensor is directly in front of you, instead of having to unscrew and remove the main board within the camera, like on the Charmera. There’s a short ribbon wire connecting the sensor to the main board, and unclipping that the whole lens assembly just pops out. It’s time to start circuit bending. The simplest way to circuit bend a camera is to short out the contacts on the ribbon wire connecting the sensor to the main board of the camera.

There are many ways to go about this, but the simplest is to insert a small wire, or in my case a piece of tin foil, between the connectors on the ribbon wire. It’s at this point that I should come clean. My first attempt, with the red G6, did not go well. I removed the front cover and popped out the lens assembly quite easily, but when I tried to reinsert the ribbon wire with the tin foil behind it I encountered all sorts of difficulties. I succeeded in getting a nice circuit bent result for a few seconds, and then the camera just turned off. When I tried to turn it on again, the ‘Welcome’ screen loaded and the camera just froze. It’s at this point that I nearly gave up.

The ‘circuit bent’ G8 Thumb Camera. The camera is stuck on the Welcome screen.The ‘circuit bent’ G6 camera. It’s stuck.

I put everything away for the evening and looked on AliExpress for a replacement G6. I still had one remaining, but I wanted to keep that intact for messing around with. But then I realised that I already have the Charmera, and the quality of the G6 photos outside of the line tool filter is quite abysmal compared to the Charmera so I’m hardly likely to use it much. So why not try and circuit bend the other one, too? I’d also realised that my failure with the first G6 was that I’d probably created a short with the main board with the foil flapping around inside the camera (this might have been incorrect, but I wasn’t too know that at the time), so what I could do was to tape the foil to the bottom of the lens assembly, so that when I replaced the ribbon wire into its connector the foil was securely held in place.

The next day I prepared all of the bits and pieces alongside the black G6 Thumb Camera. Before I started, I removed the microSD card, just in case this might cause an issue. I then peeled the front off of the camera to reveal the lens assembly and sensor, and took off the tape covering the connector. I kept this to replace later. I undid the ribbon connector and pulled out the lens assembly. I cut a small piece of metal foil from the wrapping of the Ferrero Rocher (my better half ate the chocolate as I don’t touch the stuff) and fixed it to a small piece of electrical tape. I then fixed the tape to the bottom of the lens assembly. It was a bit fiddly, but I reinserted the lens assembly to the camera and turned it on. Up popped the ‘Welcome’ screen, and then the camera froze again. Just like the first one. I was crushed.

The ribbon connector of the G6 Thumb Camera. Note the two little things just above the connector.

I unplugged and removed the lens assembly and tried to turn the G6 off. This time it powered down with its cheery ‘Goodbye’ message, which was encouraging. I looked around for anything that might have caused this to happen and noticed two little pins just above the ribbon wire connector protruding through the board. I wondered if this might be the problem, so cut a very fine piece of foil and fixed it to the ribbon wire so that the foil did not come into contact with the pins. Again, it was a bit fiddly to get the ribbon wire into position, but eventually it was in and fixed into place. I reinstalled the microSD card, powered the G6 on, the ‘Welcome’ screen appeared and then the LCD displayed the most wonderful glitched image. I snapped a couple of glitchy images, then powered off the G6. I replaced the tape covering the ribbon connector and clicked the front cover back into place.

My first glitchy image wit the G6 Thumb Camera. It’s the floot.

Filled with excitement, I was so happy that this time the circuit bending had worked, I took the G6 across the road for some images of my favourite tree and well. In addition to ‘normal’ colour images, which were now wonderfully psychedelic, I cycled through the different filters. A lot of the monochrome filters looked just like black and white, but it will be interested to see how they appear when making trichromes or checking the infrared response, but the weather will have to improve tremendously for that. The line effect filter looked the same as before the circuit bending, although I think the colour scheme is different.

All in all, I was delighted with my first real attempt at circuit bending. Well, second if you include my failure the day before. In fact, although I thought I had lost that camera, I thought it might be worth seeing if I could get it going again. The battery was completely run down, so I removed the lens assembly, charged it up again and powered it on and off. It worked. I reconnected the lens assembly, put the front of the camera back on, and powered up the G6. The ‘Welcome’ screen came on, and it froze. This time, I wondered if pressing the reset button might do the trick. And it did! I powered on the G6, and the next thing I had an image on the LCD screen. I took a couple of random images, them powered down the G6. ‘Goodbye’, it said. I had a fully functional G6 again. I was so happy.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.

#CharmeraClone #CircuitBending #Digicam #Experimental #G6 #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #LoFi #Retro #ToyCamera

An image of my favourite trees and well taken with a circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera.

After yesterday's disappointment trying to circuit bend a G6 Thumb Camera, I had another go. This time it was much more successful, and I'm delighted to have circuit bent my first camera.
#CharmeraClone, #G6, #LoFi, #CircuitBending, #ToyCamera,

A photograph of my favourite tree and well taken with the G6 Thumb Camera. The camera has been circuit bent with a bit of metal foil shorting some of the connectors in the sensor to corrupt the image with these lovely colours.

Noise Meetup: Radio Bending Workshop

Stadtwerkstatt Linz, Sunday, February 15 at 02:00 PM GMT+1

Would you like to hack a radio to make it a synthesizer?

NOISE TRANSMISSION DEVICE : Radio bending workshop with Francesco Zedde @fra.zedde

In this workshop, each participant will have the opportunity to create a basic “circuit bending” project.

https://frazedde.eu/teaching

We will provide radio kits which we will then hack to create surprising sounds. In the process, you will learn skills of upcycling an old radio and some old audio electronics and turn them into a music instrument.

If you have your own radio you’d like to hack, bring it along!

We will provide all necessary tools and parts.

Workshop fee: 30 EUR
When: 15.2. 2pm-7pm
Where: STWST / servus.at Klubraum
Kirchengasse 4, 4040 Linz

Please register: noiselab.linz@gmail.com

https://kulturkarte.servus.at/event/noise-meetup-radio-bending-workshop

Getting Back In The Groove: The Freedom Enterprises Circuit Bent Toy Camera

I’ve been in a bit of a funk since bricking that Kodak Charmera a couple of weeks ago. It doesn’t help that the weather has been dismal for much of January, and looking at the forecast it looks like this will continue for a couple of weeks to come. Yes, I went out and ‘tested’ a new (to me) Olympus Pen E-PL3, but the combination of factors has left me a bit dispirited. That’s not to say I haven’t got things planned, On Blogger, I keep a ‘running tally’ of projects that I have in mind and there are about 16 items on this list already.

Anyhow, I was chatting with some people on BlueSky about what makes a shitty camera, and I happened to mention that what I’m after is a circuit bent Shitty-compliant camera. I’m always on about circuit bending, and getting ‘generic’ cameras from CEX to circuit bend, but I always end up not being able to bring myself to potentially ruin a perfectly good camera. I did it once with an old Canon Powershot that I tried to make full spectrum, and most recently with the Charmera, and it does leave a psychological mark.

But I do have a circuit bent camera. A couple of years ago, I picked up a circuit bent toy camera from Freedom Enterprises. This camera contains one of the simplest forms of circuit bending, where connections in the camera sensor have been soldered together. There’s only one type of result from the toy camera, but it’s a fun glitch and the filters in the camera give it a lot of variety. So I charged up the glitched camera and took it out on a short walk when it wasn’t raining. I’ve also ordered a couple of G6 thumb cameras (the Kodak Charmera clone), and I hope to circuit bend at least one of those.

#CircuitBending #Digicam #Experimental #FreedomEnterprise #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #LoFi #Retro #ToyCamera

Abstract produced with the circuit bent toy camera.

Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026

About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.

https://flic.kr/p/2rscu7a

The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.

A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.

I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.

The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.

I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.

A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.

#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera

A data bent image of the woods behind our house.

Filling The Gaps: The ’72MP, 4K Ultra HD’ Digital Scamera

This always happens to me: I had this urge (again) to try some circuit bending. This involves getting a cheap digital camera, taking it apart and poking some wires into the connectors on the sensor, which if done right can produce some lovely glitchy images, but if done wrong can wreck the camera, so it has to be a device that you don’t mind possibly losing.

The second-hand electrical discount store CEX (Computer Exchange) is an excellent source for cheap digicams. In addition to specific models, quite often they offer ‘generic’ digital cameras for just a few Euros, and whenever one of these appears on the website I am tempted to get it. The thing is, you don’t know what you’re going to get. It might be a no-name brand camera fit for the bin, or sometimes an absolute classic, like the mint condition Canon Powershot G5 that arrived for just 3€. The point being, although I always intend to get one of these cameras for circuit bending I always end up ‘falling in love’ with it, and not having the nerve to potentially destroy it.

Anyhow. Last weekend a 12MP ‘generic’ digital camera appeared on the CEX website for 10€. Normally, I would be reluctant to pay so much for a digicam, but this time I wanted some decent resolution and this seemed to fit the bill. When the package arrived, it was quite heavy, and I wondered if it might be a decent camera again, like something from the Canon Powershot range. Instead it was something even better; a ’72MP 4K Ultra HD’ Chinese made scamera.

It’s a real vlogging camera. See, it has a rotating screen and a cold shoe for the microphone (no input for it, though).

I first noticed these appearing on reputable websites in Portugal like Worten and Fnac when I was looking for a decent resolution digital camera for myself a couple of years ago. At the time they were priced at well over 100€, although often as not were heavily discounted. It was obvious it was a scamera, though not as blatant as those 35mm ‘Cannon’ cameras that were around a while ago, cheap plastic fixed lens ‘SLRs’ with a lead weight in the bottom that made them heavier.

Advertised as a, ‘4K Digital Camera for Photography, 72MP Autofocus Vlogging Cameras for YouTube with 64GB SD Card and Battery, 18X Digital Zoom 2.8″ 270° Flip Screen Compact Travel Camera for Teens’, they would pop up in the ‘marketplace’ of these websites. When I can, I generally avoid the marketplace, since they’re often Chinese sites offloading tat at vastly inflated prices. And this was no different. It’s a terrible sounding description. That entry was from Amazon, where it’s on sale for $36, but I’m certainly not going to provide a link for it. No one deserves that.

That toggle switch does nothing apart from reduce the resolution even further.

In the hand the ’72M MEGA PIXELS’ scamera feels ‘plasticky’ and looks nothing like a quality camera should look. The camera can be turned on just by flipping the back open or, if the LCD screen is revealed, with an on/off button on the top. Incidentally, the red circled button is not the power button, that’s to record video. The shutter button is the big button on the top front, with the ‘zoom’ toggle. That does nothing, apart from digitally zoom the image. The ‘welcome’ screen is the tackiest opening screen I’ve ever seen, and the switch off screen is the same (‘bye bye’). The scamera beeps and chirps with a cheap-sounding tune, and the shutter sound is hopelessly synthetic.

Look at the built-in flash. It’s not got one flash symbol, but three. That flash must have the power of a thousand suns.Unfortunately, this 72MP camera doesn’t have interchangeable lenses. Or nearly any lens at all.

The lens is amazing, and not in a good way. Described as, ‘5-axis stabilizer, 5K ultra HD, 3.95mm f1.8’, this lens looks like it’s a simple lens that projects straight onto a small sensor, like you’d get on a toy camera. Which I’m pretty sure it is. Although it says 5K on the lens, on the body the video resolution is described as 4K. I’ve not tested the video, or the sound quality, but I’m sure that it’s not either, at least not without a whole package of electronic jiggery-pokery. Which brings me to the claim of 72MP resolution. Is it? I suspect not.

Photograph of a garden globe light at the highest resolution of 72MP.

If you take a typical 72MP image, the file size is 9856×7,392, or 72,855,552 pixels. But when you zoom in to that image it’s full of artifacts, so there’s certainly something going on there. I took a full frame image at 72MP, and a second at the lowest resolution offered by the scamera of 8MP. I zoomed each image to roughly the same size, and compared them. At 8MP, the zoomed image is ‘sharp-ish’, with details in the plaster and glass pieces in the globe. It’s still full of ‘rubbish’, mind you. At 72MP, which from a true 72MP you would expect to be filled with detail, it’s a mess. I suspect there’s been a lot of ‘upsampling’ going on here, where the software in the scamera interpolates and creates new pixels based on existing ones. This adds more pixels to make a much larger image but does not add any further resolution. So by my rough reckoning, this is at best an 8MP sensor. Truly, a scamera.

Photograph of the globe at 8MP resolution. The image was enlarged to show detail. This image is quite sharp.When the 72MP image is enlarged to the same magnification, clearly there is the loss of a lot of information.

I took the scamera out and about during a trip to Oiã on a lovely sunny day, and here are the results. The images here have been resized to 1366 pixels at the longest edge, so there’s no 72MP here (not that there ever was, anyhow). The colours came out quite delightfully, actually, and I really liked how it appeared. I was very confused with the one image of the water tower, mind. This was taken in daytime but it looks like night. I did actually try to check out the infrared response of the scamera, and there was a horrible ‘hot spot’ in the middle of the image, so this may well be light reflecting in the lens.

An image of my favourite trees and well. Taken at 72MP resolution with a 720nm infrared filter.

In conclusion, I finally got my hands on the 72MP digital scamera, a device I had been interested in learning about for a while. At 10€, it was still overpriced, and the scamera is truly a horrendous beast with absolutely zero appeal. Will I use it for circuit bending? Well, actually, although I was reluctant at first to do this, now I’m thinking that it might be a worthy contender. One of these days, I’m going to open it up, just to see what it’s like inside, and we’ll go from there.

#cameraslscams #circuitbending #digicam #experimental #glitch #infrared #lofi2 #retro #scamera #toycamera #trashcam #upsampling

A digital aerochrome of my favourite trees and well taken with a supposedly 72MP resolution digital camera.

#ListeningTo
"LA PHOENIX EP"
by #IgorAmokian / #Solypsis
https://archive.org/details/23DSK05
Publication date: #2025-11-12
Usage: #AttributionNonCommercialFourPointOInternational #CreativeCommons #Licensebync i.e. #CCMusic!
Topics: #Electronics #Experimental #CircuitBending #Industrial #Noise #LoFi #DiY #Electro
Item Size: 19.6M
#ThanksPeople!

#ListeningTo
"[23DSK02] Devoker lobit"
by #Plasst
https://23diskettes.bandcamp.com/album/23dsk02-devoker-lobit
via #23Diskette
#SemiCCMusic
Released October 5, #2025
#DIY #Experimental #CircuitBending #Glitch #Industrial #Noise #Turin
#GrazieGente!

Hey fellow diy techies ! Has anyone had this problem before ? heh i left leaking batteries on it too often for too long and the corrosion ate the pocket operators battery compartment. Im pretty used to it at the gigs as an instant (smallest in the world?) drum machine core on my "no guitar" thing (still in plans to film a video about it by a wish of the audience).
Basically i researched a bit (and dont wanna ask AI ) but so far not sure what is a good fix is. Soldering any other external two AAA battery compartment doesnt seem to work or i dont get how to wire + and - to pocket operator system as its battery placement are ++ and -- (not as it is usually on for example bike lights (+- and +-). And it has to be small and portable. Maybe someone has a good trick to show please? Maybe there is a super simple solution outthere? Or is there a usb powered device possible? #pocketoperator #drummachine #battery #technical #difficulties #electronics #diyelectronics #circuitbending #noisemaker #leakedbatteries #AAA #batterypowered #soundtech #hardware #techproblem #solution

Solía practicar el #CircuitBending hace muchos años, pero por fin estoy retomando mis estudios (básicos) de la electrónica y circuitos. Porque quiero entender como funciona la electricidad carajo!