PiShot Makes a Pocket Camera From a Raspberry Pi Zero

A Camera That Looks Like a Camera

There is a particular satisfaction in a build that resists the obvious answer. Everyone carries a phone with a better sensor than this project has. Developer Irtaza2009 built the PiShot anyway — a 3D-printed compact camera around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — and the result, covered on August 10, 2026, is a reminder that ergonomics are a feature, not a nostalgia tax.

• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W paired with the official Camera Module 3
• ST7789 SPI display mounted on the rear in a point-and-shoot layout
• Single 18650 cell with dedicated management and power supply boards
• Tactile switches on GPIO for controls, plus a cold shoe mount on top
• Open source, with code published on GitHub and still receiving updates

What Hardware Goes Into the PiShot?

The parts list is deliberately unexotic. A Pi Zero 2 W does the computing, which is a sensible pick — it has the quad-core silicon to actually process frames, in a footprint small enough to disappear inside a handheld shell. Camera Module 3 supplies the imaging. An ST7789 panel over SPI handles the rear display.

Power comes from one 18650 lithium cell with proper management and supply boards rather than a bare USB battery pack taped to the back, which is the detail that separates a project you carry from a project you photograph once. Controls are tactile switches wired to GPIO pins, and the shell carries a cold shoe on top for a light, a microphone, or a rangefinder if you want one.

The software side is a Python script. The write-up is candid that Python on a Pi can leave frame rate on the table compared to a lower-level implementation — a fair caveat, and one the repository is well positioned to address over time since the code is public.

Why Build a Camera Instead of Just Using a Phone?

Because the phone form factor is a compromise that photography lost. A slab held at arm's length is unstable, the controls are on the same surface as the image, and there is no place to put your fingers that is not either a lens or a screen.

The PiShot's layout — screen at the back, shutter under the index finger, body braced against the palm — is how cameras converged for a century before phones interrupted the trend. Rebuilding that shape around a Pi Zero costs a fraction of a dedicated compact and produces something the builder can modify. Swapping in an HQ camera module for better image quality is the obvious next upgrade, and it is a soldering-iron decision rather than a purchase decision.

It also sits in a good tradition of single-board computer projects that solve a real problem with modest parts, like the Raspberry Pi bird logger that identifies 11,000 species we covered recently.

Where to Find the PiShot Files

The project code lives on GitHub under the Irtaza2009 account and continues to see updates, so the build is a moving target in the good sense. Anyone reproducing it will need a 3D printer for the shell, basic soldering skills for the switch wiring, and the usual care around lithium cells.

For makers working on the microcontroller side rather than the Linux side, the PyBLE MicroPython IDE over Bluetooth is a useful companion tool. More builds like this in our mini computer coverage.

Sources: Hackaday — August 10, 2026; PiShot on GitHub — August 2026.