Cliff House's Giant Camera

Antonette Loresca

Cliff House's Giant Camera

As different advanced digital SLRs are widely used today, why not look back how the very first camera works, way back since the time of Aristotle, which is known as camera obscura. A device which project an image of the surroundings onto a surface using only existing light sources from outside like sunlight. A large-scale of camera obscura, inside where people can enjoy the view of the Pacific coast in a large parabolic disc, is located in San Francisco, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, and the last remaining structure of the world famous Playland. It was built in 1946 on the observation deck behind the Cliff House and remodel to resemble a giant camera in 1957. A metal hood in the cupola at the top of the San Francisco Camera Obscura slowly rotates, making a full revolution in about six minutes to get a full view around of its surroundings. An image will be projected onto a horizontal viewing table (like a giant playback monitor) via a reflected image from a viewpoint at the top of the building. 

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