Photobooth Project

[thefreakhouse]

Of all the cheese-ball ideas I have had for my dream arcade room/home theater one thing seemed to be missing. A photo-booth. At first I thought that having one would be impractical...but then again someone probably said it was impractical to have an upright arcade machine in someones home as well.  Besides, I think it would be nice to have for when friends and family come over. Just adds to the whole home arcade feel.

After doing some research online for the costs of buying a used one (cheapest working one I have seen was almost $5,000 and that's not including supplies) I decided that it would probably be a better idea to keep with the BYOAC mentality and DIY one.

The other day I read a post where someone had added a web-cam to their cabinet to take pics of friends while playing. Where as that's an awesome idea I would like to have something that resembles the photo-booths I remember from the 70's/80's. A big box with a stool, and two awful colored curtains in the back.

I don't believe the system needs to be 100% accurate though. Putting together an authentic photo processing system would be way out of my area of knowledge. So I need to figure a feasible system that would do the job nicely while not distracting from the nostalgic feel of it.

 Being that the people here on BYOAC are a very creative bunch I would like to hear some of your ideas.

[grantspain]

This is not a stupid idea,in my arcade we have a portrait studio that requires a media card/dongle to print pictures-cost of dongle 525 pounds for 2500 prints.Now i am not clever enough with pc's to bypass this or come up with a system that would work without this cost-if someone could develop a pc based system that you could just slot into one of these machines then your on to a money spinner,not sure about the legal side though.

[CoachMcGuirk]

Wow...that is a really awesome idea.  While I have no idea about how to get it done, I would think it should be possible with a digital camera connected to a photo printer.

I hope you get some good ideas and go forward with this idea!

[Wade]

I have seen some of these for sale for basically "give away" prices before, so you might want to just keep looking around.

Wade

[Monkey]

its not that difficult really,

Parts:

one digital camera that can work as a webcam (webcams are not good enough wuality unless you spend over

[USSEnterprise]

What about modding a Polaroid camera? Somehow integrate the flash, lense, and autofocus thingy into the wall, and have the pictures shoot out right below that. At least its somewhat more authentic

[mccoy178]

its not that difficult really,

Parts:

one digital camera that can work as a webcam (webcams are not good enough wuality unless you spend over

[PetitMorte]

You might try one of those $20 "one-use" digital cameras they've been selling in drug-stores.  Evidently they're eminently hackable, and easily convert to other uses.  CVS carries them here in Ohio.