Developing creativity

Bigshot camera shows kids science behind photography

There has been plenty of buzz about the Bigshot camera recently – and this exciting educational product, which has been compared to the Raspberry Pi for the potential it could have to engage young hands and minds with technology, is now available to pre-order in the UK exclusively from Rapid. 

Bigshot is a kit form digital camera aimed at children aged 8 and above which provides a complete learning and creative experience. As with the Raspberry Pi, hobbyists and project makers have also cast seductive eyes towards the camera.

The camera is assembled from a 43-piece kit

The primary function of Bigshot is to give an insight into the science and engineering behind photography. As children assemble the camera from the 43-piece kit, they learn about optics, mechanics, electromagnetism, electronics and image processing. Once built, Bigshot is a fully functioning 3 megapixel sensor digital camera, with viewfinder, flash, timer and settings wheel – as well as a hand crank to provide back-up power. Images can be framed in regular, panoramic and stereo views – with the latter providing 3D photographs. This will give children a unique opportunity to document the world around them. 



 Bigshot is supported with extensive online resources, which teachers can use to prepare lessons, after-school activities, weekend and holiday projects. With Bigshot as their tool, teachers are encouraged to produce STEAM education – STEM with added Arts.

The creator of Bigshot, Shree Nayar, was inspired to create the product when he saw the documentary film Born into Brothels. The film chronicled how children in one of the poorest parts of Kolkata were given cameras to photograph the world around them. Prof Nayar, who heads up the Computer Vision Laboratory at Columbia University, trialled the product with pupils in the US, India, Japan and Vietnam and with the profits from the sales hopes to be able to donate the product to children in the developing world. “In an age when software rules I want kids to know how to build hardware”, says Nayar. “We describe concepts that children would normally encounter at college, but try to make them accessible even to an eight or 10-year old.”

"Unlike a camera that you can snap together and you don't have to worry about the parts inside, in this case each component that the kid is handling has to be safe and be something that reveals a concept."

We are so excited that Bigshot can be pre-ordered now from Rapid, the exclusive distributor of Bigshot in the UK.