This Hand-Painted, Gundam-Themed Film Camera is a Nerdy Work of Art

Late last year, a friend of mine shared a link to a small creator on Instagram who was making something that combined two of my hobbies: cameras and Gundam. I was immediately on board.

What is Gundam? Very broadly, Gundam refers to a series of science fiction anime shows and movies centered around a future where conflict is fought with giant robots — or mechs. It is named primarily after the first of the series, Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979. Not all of these mechs are Gundam, though, and typically that term is reserved for a very specific, highly performant variant of mech. Depending on the anime series (of which there are many, and they do not have to be connected in any way other than to feature the general themes of Gundam), there may only be one or a few Gundam mechs.

Gundam is one of the most visible pop culture icons in Japan, and its influence has spanned the globe thanks to the varied and numerous iterations the concept has taken. Those in the United States are probably most familiar with Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, as it was the first Gundam show to air nationally on Cartoon Network’s Toonami back in the year 2000.

Released in extremely small batches by David C W from Taiwan (who operates under the name Little Road Camera), the Gundam camera uses the classic red, blue, green, and gray colors that have been seen on a majority of Gundam anime, specifically on the livery of the protagonists’ giant fighting robots. Whether that be the original RX-78 from Mobile Suit Gundam, the ZGMF-X10A Freedom from Gundam Seed, or the XVX-016 Aerial from The Witch from Mercury, it’s a pretty iconic colorway. David adds additional Gundam goodness through some well-placed water transfer decals, which really brings the whole look together.

The camera is a customized version of the IUTD To Be Continued (TBC) 35mm reusable film camera. It’s a pretty standard affair as far as cameras like this go: a fixed 28mm f/8 lens, fixed 1/120 second shutter speed, fixed focus, and a built-in flash. It is very much a simple point-and-shoot designed to mimic the look of classic disposables, but without the disposing part.

This camera works especially well for the Gundam camera, though, as its blocky elements already lean futuristic and science fiction. It’s a perfect base camera for Gundam-ization.

Curiously, while David has been making this particular custom camera for several months, it has gotten some widespread attention recently via features in Yanko Design and Design Boom.

But unlike those publications, I actually bought this camera and have made it a part of my Gunpla display (“Gunpla” being the colloquial term for “Gundam plastic model,” usually in reference to the Bandai model kits based on the robots from various anime, although the term has expanded in scope in recent years to be more broadly any mech model kit).

The camera looks and feels as great as you would expect from the photos online. It’s also not easy to acquire, as David only makes them in batches of between eight and 15 at a time.

“I made 15 in the first batch, and it almost broke me. 10 in the second batch was still a bit intense,” David says.

This particular camera was part of batch number three, which only had eight. Two were sent to the UK, four were sent to the United States, one was sent to Japan, and one made it to the Philippines.

“I’ve made 58 cameras so far, and I genuinely enjoy every part of this process. With each batch, I make small tweaks to improve the camera. This time, I removed the orange filter from the flash compartment. I shot a full roll with it, and while the orange flash looked cool, it noticeably reduced the flash power and affected photo quality. In the end, I chose performance over aesthetics,” he says.

While David operates a Little Road Camera eBay shop with many other customized cameras, the Gundam camera is special and isn’t listed there. The only way to get one is to message him on Instagram and get on a waiting list.