Point-and-shoot cameras never really made a comeback the way vinyl or film did, but that hasn't stopped makers from wanting one — provided they get to build it themselves. The latest entry is PiShot, an open-source, 3D-printed camera project from hobbyist Irtaza2009 that wraps a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and the Camera Module 3 in a case shaped like a classic compact camera, complete with a rear screen, physical controls, and a cold shoe on top for accessories. The design files, wiring documentation, and Python control software are all published on GitHub for anyone who wants to print and build their own.
The project first drew wider attention this week via a write-up on Hackaday, which walked through the build's core components: a Pi Zero 2 W as the compute brain, the official Camera Module 3 for image capture, a small ST7789 SPI display mounted on the back for live view and menu navigation, tactile switches for shutter and control input, and an 18650 lithium cell paired with a power management board to keep the whole thing cordless. The 3D-printed shell does the job of holding all of that together while imitating the silhouette of a real compact camera rather than looking like a Pi glued into a project box.
What's Actually Inside the Shell
The component list reads like a fairly conventional Pi-camera build, but the execution is what elevates it. Rather than the typical flat-panel enclosure with a camera poking out the front, PiShot's printed case is deliberately styled after the compact cameras that used to live in every drawer and glovebox: a rear-mounted screen for composing shots, a top-mounted cold shoe for mounting a flash or microphone, and physical switches instead of a touchscreen-only interface. The project's GitHub repository lists the control layout in detail: four 2-pin tactile push buttons for menu navigation, a separate momentary push button for the shutter release, and a mini SPDT slide switch for power. That's a meaningful design choice for anyone who has tried to operate a bare Pi camera rig in bright sunlight or with gloves on — a dedicated screen and tactile buttons are simply easier to use than pointing a phone at a preview feed over SSH.
Power comes from a single 18650 lithium-ion cell, rated around 3.7V and 1500mAh, run through a TP4056 charging module with built-in protection circuitry and an MT3608 boost converter that steps the cell's voltage up to a regulated 5V for the Zero 2 W and its peripherals. It's the same basic architecture used in countless battery-powered Pi projects — not a novel subsystem, but the right one: 18650 cells are cheap, widely available, and easy to source in protected or unprotected form depending on what the power board expects.
On the software side, the camera's behavior — shutter triggering, menu handling, and driving the ST7789 display — is handled by a Python script that Irtaza2009 has published alongside the hardware files. The Hackaday write-up notes that Python-based control on a Pi Zero can be a performance tradeoff, since Python isn't historically the fastest option for camera timing on constrained hardware, but it keeps the entire stack, mechanical and software, inspectable and modifiable by anyone who clones the repository rather than gatekeeping behind a compiled binary or a closed firmware image.
Print-and-Build Basics
As with most of these compact camera-style Pi builds, the appeal isn't the raw output — a Zero 2 W and Camera Module 3 aren't going to out-resolve a real digital camera — it's the form factor and the fact that you built it. The GitHub repository is the authoritative source for the actual case geometry, fastener list, and wiring diagram, and it's the place to check for the specific version of the Camera Module and screen the case was designed around before ordering parts, since fit tolerances in printed camera enclosures are usually tight around the lens barrel and screen cutout. The repository's bill of materials also calls for a 32GB microSD card for the Zero 2 W, and the printed parts list includes a detachable grip, a viewfinder piece, and a tripod extension alongside the main body — small additions that push the build closer to a real compact camera's handling rather than a bare board in a box.
The Hackaday write-up flags the HQ Camera module as, in the site's own words, "an interesting upgrade to this device, for a mirror-less compact" — a path to noticeably better image quality than the fixed Camera Module 3 offers, for makers willing to go looking for it. The HQ Camera is a physically different module than the Camera Module 3, so fitting one would likely mean modifying the printed shell rather than dropping it in as a straight swap — something to plan for before starting a print if a lens upgrade is the eventual goal.
What It Means for Makers
PiShot lands in a well-worn but still popular niche: turning a Raspberry Pi Zero into something that looks and feels like a dedicated camera rather than a dev board with a ribbon cable hanging off it. What makes it worth a look isn't novelty of parts — Pi Zero, Camera Module, SPI display, and 18650 cell are a familiar combination in this space — but that the whole build, mechanical and software, is public and forkable on GitHub. That means the printed files can be remixed for a different screen, a bigger battery, or the HQ Camera module without starting from scratch, and the Python control code is there to be read, not reverse-engineered.
For anyone who has wanted to build a "real" camera out of a Pi rather than just breadboarding a camera module to a preview window, PiShot is a reasonably approachable entry point: a Zero 2 W, a Camera Module 3, an ST7789 panel, a handful of tactile switches, an 18650 cell with a TP4056 charging and MT3608 boost-converter power board, and a printer. None of those parts are exotic or expensive individually, and the hardest part of the build is likely to be the print tolerances around the lens and screen openings rather than sourcing anything unusual. The tradeoff, as always with fixed-lens Pi camera modules, is image quality that won't compete with actual point-and-shoot hardware — but that's rarely the point of a build like this one.
