How to get something manufactured
- Started
- Last post
- 17 Responses
- readyok
Hey, so, long story short, I have been shopping for a super basic point and shoot digital camera. Something to have in my pocket to snap photos while I am out and about. In looking around, I realized that there is a real hole in the market for very basic cameras. This got me thinking "How hard is it to get a digital camera manufactured?" I was thinking it might be an interesting adventure to design a digital camera, get some company to manufacture it, and maybe set up a little site to sell these things.
Does anyone have experience, or know how to get in contact with electronics manufacturers? Someone that would operate on the scale I am talking about? Just thought I would ask.
- mg330
- gung_hoek0
Assuming you don´t have huge amounts of monies at your disposal: talk to firm who produces promotion products, b/c they´re the ones to goto for cheap product (they will already have digicams for under 10 bucks in their catalogs). if you want to custom-design a cam, they´d like to get the cash for the 1st edition upfront (expect to pay upfront for a couple of hundred (maybe thousand) pieces; depends on the difficulty of your design). and good luck.
- BonSeff0
what fucking market are you looking at?
there are a shit load of pocket-sized, point and click digi's
- lowimpakt0
let me guess. you are a graphic designer?
- Let me guess your a bag of douche.orangecrunch
- a two-shot injection moulded ABS douchebag with ultrasonically welded ribs of sadnesslowimpakt
- waterhouse0
None look that great though. Just like cell phones.
- readyok0
I am in fact a graphic designer. The pocket sized point and shoot market sucks ass. Either the cameras are too big, or the smaller cameras are real pieces of shit. All of them look like shit too. I saw this, and thought that it might actually be a possibility:
The idea is design something that you actually want to show off. Most cameras are crap looking.
- how big is that supposed to be?jonatne
- The gold thing on the end is the male end of a USB interface.readyok
- nicewaterhouse
- i would not show this off, and i collect vintage cameras!ethanfink
- http://www.youtube.c…SlashPeckham
- lowimpakt0
sorry, I'm only joking.
I'm just assuming that if you buy off the shelf components the housing will cost you a lot to mould or fabricate if you want any degree of accuracy.
don't blow the idea out of the water - it'll be cool to see it done cost-effectively.
Have you any design concepts on paper/in mind?
- lowimpakt0
this is a really handy/non-technical and accessible introduction to manufacturing techniques for product design. It won't explain the ins and outs of manufacturing something like a camera but will give a brief on moulding techniques.
- readyok0
Thanks man. That helps out.
- monNom0
you could probably build your own with some initiative... or hire an electrical engineer to build one for you. Either way it's going to be a massive PITA, and your camera will likely suck bawls.
have you considered film+scanning? lots of super simple film cameras about.
- SlashPeckham0
i heard about this on the bbc a few years ago - its a collaborative design and production platform for product design - its like 'user generated content' for manufacturing.
Download some free software and just draw your custom parts - you can get them to give you a quote straight away! whoooo!
- SkyPoo0
The thing is most of the budget end cameras on the market are pulled together from off-the-shelf compinents and packaged/badged by each brand, so you could probably shop for whatever lens, processor, battery type and whatever (within reason of compatibility) and design a nice 'box' for them all, but the development costs for this would be immense. Remember, a camera has to be light safe and hold a lens rigidly in place at the exact same distance from the sensor at all time, so you can't just knock out an injection molded piece of shit and think its done... it would cost many hundreds of thousands just to get a succesful prototype and tooling established I reckon.
- sikma0
"there is a real hole in the market for very basic cameras"
you can't be serious. the market is a wash with pocket sized cameras. there are so many that it hurts my head thinking about it.
- cannonball0
WHAT ARE YOU STUPID STICK TO GRAPHIC DESIGN LOOSER WHY DO YO UTHINK SO MUCH YOURE A RETARDO THIS IS STUPID GFY MMK?
jk I think it's an awesome idea. you might need to hook up with an electrical engineer to hash out plausible ID for the hardware that you are looking to use. A lot of the ergonomics of the camera are gonna be driven by the tech stuff.
- uan0
- that camera is sweet!sikma
- Might as well have some candy and dark van...waterhouse
