Maybe it’s nostalgia or maybe it’s a vintage design. Whichever way you look at it, the Nintendo Game Boy and its camera accessory have achieved fame among photographers and gamers alike for the exceptional lo-fi digital images it creates. out.
Thousands of enthusiasts have modded the Game Boy, but has anyone ever tricked a camera with a DSLR zoom lens? That’s exactly what an Australian YouTuber just did with spectacular results. 
Conor Merrigan Recently made a splash online when he posted car drift photos on Facebook taken on a Nintendo Game Boy modded with Canon’s EF zoom lens. The post was shared thousands of times and attracted thousands of comments. Many people were shocked to ask if the images were real.
Released in 1998, the Game Boy Camera is an accessory to Nintendo’s hugely successful Game Boy line of consoles that have been around since 1989. The reason behind the Game Boy Camera’s popularity is not must be impressive specs quite the opposite. The camera boasts a 128 x 128 pixel CMOS sensor that produces 128 x 112 pixel images. Each camera’s ink cartridge can hold up to 30 images using only four shades of gray.
Depending on what accessories and cables you have for your Game Boy, images can be edited on the console and even printed with the Game Boy Printer.
So, how did Merrigan achieve these amazing results? His YouTube videos, Stealing Original Gameboy Camera Mod for DSLR Lensdetailed his journey, but I also reached out to him to ask a few questions about the process.
The first step was being able to transfer the images to his computer. Using a link cable, he added the Arduino to his Game Boy setup. This tricks the Game Boy into thinking a printer is attached. With the freely available Github code, the Arduino captures the output of the “print”. You can then copy and paste these lines of numbers into the Arduino Game Boy Printer Emulator and choose from the different grayscale palettes from each Game Boy generation. This creates a digital version of your image for you to save and share.
Next, Merrigan disassembled a Game Boy Camera. Taking something out would make me nervous, so I asked him if he was nervous in this part. “I knew the inside of the camera would be pretty plain given how old it was and they weren’t very expensive, so I wasn’t too worried about taking it off,” he explains.
The next part of the process is to 3D print an adapter to attach the lens to the camera sensor. The file for this is already available for free on Thingiverse. It only took Merrigan two tries to determine the correct distance between the lens and sensor. “If it was a sensor with higher resolution, I think it would have to be more refined, but because of such low resolution you cannot tell if it is correct.” The video ends with a few successful shots using a Game Boy with a home-mounted lens.
Fast-forward to January 2022 for the real magic. I was amazed to see the incredible photos Merrigan has taken at the slide posted on social media. By this stage, he had swapped Tamron lenses for Canon EF-mount lenses. I asked him what led him to this decision.
That’s because the sensor is too small. It’s only about 5mm, so it has a huge crop factor. The Canon lens is the widest I’ve owned that still has manual focus, and even then, it’s greatly magnified.
I bought a Tamron lens for a few dollars, so I use it for experiments like this just to make sure the 3D printed part doesn’t damage the lens. Once it seemed sturdy and nicely attached and removed, I was happy to put the better Canon lenses in.
I’m curious to see what the ad controls look like with this setup:
The focus can be adjusted manually just like when it is attached to a regular camera. Aperture isn’t adjustable, but I’m sure there are lenses with mechanically adjustable apertures if you need them. The Game Boy camera has built-in brightness and contrast controls, and this should be enough for you to get the shot you want.
Ergonomics is an important factor for many photographers as to why they prefer certain brands or models of cameras, so how comfortable is it when using the Game Boy because it looks rather heavy?
It’s pretty awkward! You need to support the lens and Game Boy with each hand. From a structural point of view, it feels fine, but having the lens hang from the camera game cartridge seems snappy enough to cause it to lose connections and glitches. As a right-handed person, it was easiest to place the focus ring with my right hand on an object at a distance where I wanted to get the car while supporting the camera with my left hand. Then I switched my right hand to the Game Boy to press the A and B buttons and supported the lens with my left hand.
You can imagine moving into an encounter with photography with this setup that would attract a lot of attention, but not so much at the track.
A few people commented on it, but it didn’t get much attention. I’m also carrying a full-size VHS camcorder, so I stand out a bit. The most popular era of drift was the 80s and 90s, so a lot of people wanted to capture that feeling in videos and photos. It’s not unusual to see people with film cameras, VHS cameras, and other weird things like Game Boy. On the day I took these pictures, someone there even took a shot of the Super 8. While it’s one of the strangest devices in the photographer’s area, it doesn’t stand out as you’d expect.
Finally, I asked Merrigan about all the comments from people who said they’d like to see these images in NFT or in print.
A lot of people have asked me but there are two problems. Firstly, I don’t know much about NFT casting. The second problem is one I’ve encountered before. Now that the photos have been shared around, people will move on to other things. If I make NFTs or posters, it’s nearly impossible to reach the original audience that liked it in the first place. If you can predict that people will want to buy copies, and you can attach that information to posts before they go viral, you could do well. Once you miss those first 24 hours, you’ve missed 95% of your audience.
All images have been used with permission of Conor Merrigan.
