Sunglasses & Case Camera Idea

loccdor · Mar 27, 2025

Just an idea I've been thinking about for photography without being noticed:

Something that might work for a compact 35mm. You'd cut out the case where the camera lens goes and put one lens of the circular sunglasses in front of it, gluing it there.

Operation by cable release or shutter button cutout. Advance by thumbwheel cutout. Thumbwheels can usually be advanced silently if you go slow. Changing other camera settings would require opening it.

It doesn't look out of place to carry sunglasses along with their case. You'd probably have to remove at least one of the ear hooks, but I doubt that would draw attention. Maybe one of the ear hooks could support the cable release behind it.

Foam or other filler materials inside so your camera stays firmly in the correct spot. Maybe even a tripod mount if you want to get fancy.

Inexpensive, simple, easy to make.

Andreas Thaler · Mar 28, 2025

When will you start series production?

Sirius Glass · Mar 28, 2025

So in effect you are putting an unknown and uncalibrated filter in front of the lens. Why?

Harry Callahan · Mar 28, 2025

Leaving aside that it can (musn`t, but can) sound strange if you want to take pictures unnoticed... let me put it like this:

Aaah, Mr. Bond, nice sunglasses you have there... and even a case for them. Most people just put on their sunglasses or clip them on their collar if they don`t need them, but you Mr. Bond also carry a case for them around. But, Mr. Bond, you never put the glasses inside the case, you just clip them outside the case where the glasses cannot be protected -which is strange. Also you never put the sunglasses on and never permit anyone else to use them - but you often hold the case-clipped glasses with both hands at unusual angles and fiddle around the case with both hands...
...strange Mr. Bond, strange - let me have a look at your case-clipped sunglasses Mr. Bond!

Pieter12 · Mar 28, 2025

Why? Just use a smartphone and no-one will notice.

paul ron · Mar 28, 2025

Pieter12 said:
Why? Just use a smartphone and no-one will notice.

EXACTLY!

hahahahaha if you look like the millions of other phone heads, no one would even raise an eyebrow as you take pix. just look like you are talking into the pizza n click away.

but hold up a glasses case, now that may attract attention as that looks out of place for sure.

loccdor · Mar 29, 2025

paul ron said:
but hold up a glasses case, now that may attract attention as that looks out of place for sure.

You don't raise it up. You keep it on your lap while sitting or hold it near your waist as you would normally hold an object that you were just carrying. Every now and then you can tilt it a bit and take a picture while acting as if you were just randomly shuffling an object around. The power of it would come from how little attention you seem to give it, it would benefit from the basics of the magician/sleight of hand skillset.

Sirius Glass said:
So in effect you are putting an unknown and uncalibrated filter in front of the lens. Why?

You could get fancy if you want and select a pair of perfectly round eyeglasses and mount an optical filter in them instead. They'd need to provide at least a couple stops of darkening in order to obfuscate the lens behind them. But easier to just test the optical effect on the camera of the stock shades and adjust accordingly.

Harry Callahan said:
Most people just put on their sunglasses or clip them on their collar if they don`t need them

Most people pay a lot less attention to the small details than you think. We go on autopilot and our brain imagines in the gaps for us. Resting your thumb on the nose bridge allows the shades to seem naturally pressed to the case rather than glued. When you aren't using it, you could also place it in a bag so as not to expose it to attention.

Pieter12 said:
Why? Just use a smartphone and no-one will notice.

Down to personal choice about medium.

Andreas Thaler said:
When will you start series production?

Maybe will come up with a prototype this year if I have time. I don't typically do photography where I would benefit from more low-profile than just a compact 35mm that fits in a coat pocket. But I could see street photographers, subway photographers, taking pictures of people in dangerous neighborhoods, etc. as some possible use cases.

Andreas Thaler · Mar 29, 2025

Bonne chance!

250swb · Mar 29, 2025

There are already cameras hidden in baseball caps that use a remote switch to set them going, and 'hidden' in both the US and the UK law is not illegal except for places were people may expect privacy, like toilets, changing rooms, etc. But it's on the very edge of becoming 'surveillance' which is illegal (unless a registered user of CCTV etc.) if used for nefarious purposes. I wonder what cameras in baseball caps are used for, social documentary reportage, landscape, portraiture, or wildlife photography? I'm sure there would be a market for sunglass case cameras should it be too windy to wear a hat.

Don_ih · Mar 29, 2025

paul ron said:
look like you are talking into the pizza

So you too have noticed those people that walk around with their phones held like a slice of pizza while they talk? and I thought I was the only one....

Chan Tran · Mar 29, 2025

Use the phone. Put it in your pocket with the top of the phone sticking out. Use a bluetooth shutter release.

Sirius Glass · Mar 29, 2025

Even stealthier than the OP's idea is a Tessina camera on a wrist strap. One can even have the tessina with a light meter on the camera.

I have one of these cameras and the wrist strap so I will not need your product.

Pieter12 · Mar 29, 2025

You're a bit late. In 1938, Walker Evens hid a 35mm camera under his coat, with the lens poking between buttonholes. He took a series of "subway portraits that is well-known.

Harry Callahan · Mar 29, 2025

loccdor said:
...

Most people pay a lot less attention to the small details than you think. We go on autopilot and our brain imagines in the gaps for us. Resting your thumb on the nose bridge allows the shades to seem naturally pressed to the case rather than glued. When you aren't using it, you could also place it in a bag so as not to expose it to attention.

...

...But I could see street photographers, subway photographers, taking pictures of people in dangerous neighborhoods, etc. as some possible use cases.

Yes, not everybody will notice immediately but this set-up has too many suspicious elements for me. In a dangerous neighborhood it needs just one person to notice and you`re in trouble.

I think even Blofeld would find this suspicious sooner or later - and he`s the guy who never tries to take Bonds wristwatch, key-chain, cigarette case, belt, explosive pen or whatever secret-agent-device Bond has with him this time.
Blofeld is one of the least distrusting villains, knowing that Bond is a secret agent, but i think even he would find this suspicious - which is why i started the Bond-thing in the first place.

Pieter12 said:
You're a bit late. In 1938, Walker Evens hid a 35mm camera under his coat, with the lens poking between buttonholes. He took a series of "subway portraits that is well-known.

At least five of them are looking directly into the lens.

Pieter12 · Mar 29, 2025

I would think holding up a pair of sunglasses pressed to the outside of a case would attract more attention than not.

Don_ih · Mar 30, 2025

I think you're pretty unlikely to be noticed doing anything anywhere now, since everyone else is already fully immersed in their phone-universe....

Pieter12 · Mar 30, 2025

Maybe one of these, at least in the USA:

Sirius Glass · Mar 30, 2025

Pieter12 said:
Maybe one of these, at least in the USA:

View attachment 395123

Until someone mistakes it for a gun when one is in public. Post 12 have a better and safer solution.

Pieter12 · Mar 30, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
Until someone mistakes it for a gun when one is in public. Post 12 have a better and safer solution.

I guess irony doesn't travel well over the internet.

Sirius Glass · Mar 30, 2025

Pieter12 said:
I guess irony doesn't travel well over the internet.

The system irony detector is down due to a recent cut in funding.

grain elevator · Mar 30, 2025

This is not a great idea. You will get anything from called a creep, to beaten up, to imprisoned (if you try this in countries that like to charge people with espionage). All for bad photos even from a technical standpoint as you can't frame or focus or set exposure. Better invest that energy into figuring out how to come off non-threatening with a camera held up to your face.

Pieter12 · Mar 30, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
The system irony detector is down due to a recent cut in funding.

I guess it's the I in DEI.

Sunglasses & Case Camera Idea

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