Dirkon ... What?!?

So just what is a Dirkon?  Well, its a pinhole camera made completely out of paper.  It is photography at its most basic.

History

Where did the Dirkon originate?  It was first printed in Magazines.

"During the 1970s, magazines published in Communist Czechoslovakia were controlled by the state, like the majority of other enterprises. Very few good magazines were available and were difficult to get hold of, so people would borrow and exchange them when given the opportunity. This also applied to magazines aimed at young people, which was probably one of the reasons why almost everyone from my generation, when we get on to the subject of pinhole cameras, has fond memories of the cut-out paper camera known as Dirkon, published in 1979 in the magazine ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců [An ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists].

Its creators, Martin Pilný, Mirek Kolář, and Richard Vyškovský, came up with a functional pinhole camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera. It may not be the most practical of devices, but it works!"  ~ Pinhole.cz

So where can you get your hands on one of these great pinhole cameras?  Well, you have to build it you can download everything you need from this website pinhole.cz.  However, if you are not up to creating a paper camera then you can be lazy and buy the plastic version from Photojojo by clicking here.  So go build or buy your pinhole camera and go give film a try!