This Hotshoe Camera Provides a Digital Twin to Film Photos

5 days ago 15

Two images of a vintage Nikon film camera with a digital viewfinder attached on top. The left shows the back view with the screen displaying a photo; the right shows the camera on a wooden surface with books in the background.

An innovative cube camera could provide a fallback option for photographers shooting film.

The Ligar by Escura fits onto any film camera with a hotshoe and takes a photo when the shutter is released. It has just completed crowdfunding on Kickstarter where it raised $24,000, far more than its initial $5,000 goal.

A vintage black and silver film camera with a detachable lens sits on a wooden surface. A small, modern black camera is mounted on top. Antique books and a blurred background are visible behind them.

A compact black camera, a small metal camera accessory, and a folded black tripod are arranged on a reflective black surface.

Escura is perhaps best-known for its Instant 60s camera and last year unveiled an unusual credit card-shaped camera called InstantSnap.

Escura trumpets its new product, Ligar, as a new era in photography. “Imagine capturing both film and digital images simultaneously with just a single press,” a press release reads.

The tiny cube-shaped camera, weighing just 40 grams (1.4 ounces), delivers 12-megapixel photos and records video in 1440 x 1440 at 30 frames per second.

A sunny city street in Japan with pedestrians on the sidewalk, tall buildings, power lines, and signs in Japanese. A green "Suntoku" sign and traffic lights are visible, along with cars on the road.

Being able to record videos allows photographers to capture the “story leading up to your photo” as well as capturing moments that “occur between shots.”

Escura says the Ligar means film photographers need not worry so much about things going wrong. Catastrophes can occur during the film developing process, or photographers can sometimes forget to load the film. The Ligar acts as a backup and digital twin; Escura calls it a hybrid photography experience.

“With just one press of the film camera shutter, Ligar captures a digital image at the exact moment, allowing you to enjoy both digital and analog captures,” the company says.

A small black camera with a lens sits mounted on a compact black tripod, set against a dark reflective surface and background with dramatic lighting highlighting the camera.

The Ligar can also act as a standalone camera. It has a 240 x 240 pixel LED viewfinder, a 1/125 shutter speed, and a 0.45x wide-angle 3.2mm f/2.8 lens that has a focusing distance of 0.3 meters to infinity. The lens has a 17mm thread and Escura notes it is easy to attach compatible lens filters.

There are also “time capsule” filters built into the camera itself that evoke different eras, starting from the 1950s all the way through to the 2010s.