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CinePi Project
Hardware · 2024–26

Cinema camera · Built on CinePi

PR-585R

4K RAW. Built by hand.

A DIY cinema camera I built around a Raspberry Pi 5 and a Sony IMX585 sensor. It can shoot 12-bit RAW 4K footage on a much lower budget than a normal cinema camera. I designed the 3D printed body based on the JVC GR-C7E camcorder and branded it with Prism™, a fictional company I created for The Empty Halls and also used in my Advanced Higher Graphics project. I gave it the title of PR-585R.

  • 4K3840×2160 · 44 fps
  • 12-bitRAW DNG
  • £529.47Total build
The Prism PR-585R from the front: Sony lens, red and black 3D-printed body, and a monitor on a top handle
Prism™

CinePi

PR-585R

The PR-585R from behind in a studio, showing its red side panel with the Prism badge and the ports on its black rear
Technical data, see page 06

A handmade cinema camera

I wanted a camera that could shoot proper RAW footage without spending thousands. The PR-585R records straight to an NVMe SSD, it works with the Sony A-mount lenses I already owned and runs for quite a few hours off a 45W power bank.

The name actually means something too. The PR is for Prism, 585 is for the sensor and the R at the end is for Raspberry Pi.

  • RAW
  • 4K44 FPS
  • 12BIT
  • C/AMOUNT
  • NVMe
  • 3840×2160 at up to 44 fps
  • 1920×1080 at up to 70 fps
  • 2048×1152 crop at up to 90 fps
  • 12-bit and 10-bit RAW, plus 12-bit HDR at up to 27 fps (slight crop)
  • Records to a 512GB NVMe SSD
  • C-mount, plus Sony A-mount lenses through an adapter
  • 5-inch monitor on a NEEWER top handle
  • Metal push buttons and a rotary encoder
  • 45W USB-C power bank
  1. Looking into the Sony lens, with the sensor board visible behind the glass

    The sensor

    The sensor is Will Whang's StarlightEye board with a Sony IMX585 on it. It is a really nice sensor with great dynamic range.

  2. Close-up of the raised Prism badge and PR-585R model name on the red side panel

    The body

    I blocked out the body in Blender and then designed it properly in OnShape. It's printed in sections and held together with heat set inserts. The red side panel bolts on so I can swap it out later if I want.

  3. The rear of the camera: the power bank bay, a round port with the monitor cable, and the Raspberry Pi's Ethernet and USB ports

    The power

    A 20,000mAh power bank sits inside the camera and can be seen from the back. The Pi 5's USB and Ethernet ports open so I can get footage off it easily (Samba or SD card).

Prism PR-585R · Features02

Owner's manual

Names of parts

The PR-585R from the front left, with numbered markers on its parts
Fig. 1 · Front view

Front

    Rear

      The camera from the front, with the monitor housing on top

      Part 1 · Front

      5-inch monitor

      A 5 inch 1024×600 HDMI screen in a 3D printed housing. It's used as the viewfinder and shows the Cinemate interface.

        Exploded render of the camera body from OnShape, showing the red side shell and Prism badge panel, the black rear shell with the fan and port cut-outs, the front control panel, the lens mount plate, the rotary encoder knob, the Raspberry Pi 5, the internal frame and the base plate
        Fig. 3 · Exploded view of the case
        Prism PR-585R · Owner's manual03

        Picture quality

        Shoot it flat.
        Grade it later.

        The PR-585R shoots in RAW so every frame comes off the sensor quite flat but with all of the detail kept (when exposed right of course). It looks fairly dull straight out of the camera but then I get to make it all colourful in DaVinci Resolve. Drag the slider across the image to compare the before and after.

          Test tapes

          Some test shots from throughout the build process. Tests 01 and 02 were shot on the IMX585. Test 03 is using the OV5647 (no IR cut) sensor I started with, as I didn't have the IMX585 yet. (Tests not in chronological order.)

          • Test 01Sony IMX585 E-180
          • Test 02Sony IMX585 E-180
          • Test 03OV5647 · no IR cut E-180
          Prism PR-585R · Picture quality04

          December 2024 to now

          The making of the PR-585R

          1. An online article about CinePi, the DIY camera built from off-the-shelf parts

            01December 2024

            Planning & ideas

            I found the CinePi project when scrolling around on the internet and joined the Discord. I was inspired by the projects I saw other people had made and immediately started planning out a parts list on Google Sheets.

            • Planning
            • Ideas
          2. The parts list spreadsheet, with prices and each part's share of the budget

            02Dec 2024 – Apr 2026

            Revisions & saving

            I didn't have the money to spend on this project so I spent about a year saving. Every so often I would come back to my plan and alter it as I found better parts or just changed my mind on what I wanted to do.

            • Saving
            • Revisions
          3. A Raspberry Pi 5 with its box

            03Early April 2026

            Parts ordering

            I finally committed to ordering all the parts with the total build coming out to £529.47. I ordered from a variety of online shops including The Pi Hut, Amazon and AliExpress.

            • Parts
            • Ordering
          4. A Raspberry Pi wired to a camera module, buttons and a rotary encoder on a desk

            04Late April 2026

            OS & software setup

            The parts from The Pi Hut arrived first which meant I could get started on the software side. I flashed the Cinemate image and worked through driver configuration for the OV5647 on the Pi 5. It took a bit of back and forth to get the unsupported sensor working but eventually I got it to capture RAW DNGs.

            • Software
            • Linux
            • DNG
            • Cinemate
          5. The case design in OnShape: a red and black camera body with the Prism badge

            05May 2026

            Case design

            I started blocking out a case in Blender to house all the components, then moved to OnShape to design it for 3D printing. I based the design on the JVC GR-C7E, a compact camcorder which I really like the look of, including the red side panel and angled front face. I designed it to be modular so I can replace the side panels in the future if I need to.

            • CAD
            • 3D design
          6. The printed red and black body part-assembled on a desk, with the buttons and encoder fitted

            06Mid May 2026

            Housing assembly

            All the parts arrived and I got to work on assembling the camera. I printed all the case segments across a few days and then started fitting the components inside. I put in all the heat set inserts and mounted the Pi, SSD and fan. I also wired up the buttons and rotary encoder and got everything fitting inside the case.

            • Soldering
            • Assembly
            • 3D printing
          7. A frame from a walk: a path between hedges that the OV5647 sensor turned pink

            07Late May 2026

            Portability tests

            Using a power bank to power my Raspberry Pi 5 (which expects 5V 5A) caused some issues at first. I was doing some testing in my garden just filming some plants and it would keep going undervoltage and shutting down. I thought I might have to switch to something other than a power bank, but as a last attempt I bought a USB-C to C cable from Pimoroni as I thought my cable might be the issue. It worked great with no more undervoltage issues. Me and my friend then went out on a walk to do some more testing.

            • Troubleshooting
            • Testing
          8. The StarlightEye IMX585 module on its invoice, with a handwritten thank you for being the first order

            08Mid June 2026

            IMX585 upgrade

            I had been saving and waiting for Will Whang's IMX585 board to come back in stock. When it did I got my hands on one immediately (order number one!). I designed and printed the new sensor module and installed it. It did need a small bit of debugging at first but that was down to some changes I had made to the software before. It works great, looks so pretty and now lets me use the Sony A-mount lenses that I already owned.

            • Upgrades
            • Troubleshooting
          9. A beach in Corfu at golden hour, with sun umbrellas on the sand and hillside villas behind

            09July 2026

            Testing in Greece

            I decided to take the camera with me on a trip to Greece. We went to the island of Corfu. It was the first time I'd taken it abroad (I got stopped both at airport security). It was 2 weeks of filming which really put my build to the test. I got some of my favourite footage I've ever captured. I also found I needed to make a few changes to the software to make it more usable when out and about. I made these changes with my laptop in the evenings. A big thing I added was focus peaking, which was a big help.

            • Travel
            • Testing
          10. Airflow improvements in the CinePi camera

            10September 2026

            Airflow Improvements

            While on the trip to Greece I noticed that the camera was getting quite hot. The 40mm fan in the side of the camera didn't seem able to pull air across the heatsinks effectively. This is because I didn't have any vents allowing air to flow through the camera. I added some vents to the back of the camera along with a new airduct to direct the airflow across the important parts. This has helped keep the temperature down a bit more and prevent thermal throttling.

            • Cooling
            • Airflow

          11. 11Now

            Stereo audio

            I'm currently working on getting stereo audio working on the camera.

            • Audio
            • In progress
          Prism PR-585R · History05

          Technical data

          Specifications

          Specifications

          Model name
          PR-585R (Prism, IMX585, Raspberry Pi)
          Sensor
          Sony IMX585 (StarlightEye v2.0 by Will Whang)
          Recording
          3840×2160 up to 44 fps
          1920×1080 up to 70 fps
          2048×1152 (1.9× crop) up to 90 fps
          3456×1944 HDR (1.1× crop) up to 27 fps
          3840×2160 HDR up to 22 fps
          Bit depth
          12-bit, 10-bit (4K only), 12-bit HDR
          Format
          Uncompressed RAW DNG frames
          Media
          512GB Samsung NVMe SSD on an NVMe Base
          Recording time
          About 25 min of 4K 12-bit at 24 fps
          Higher frame rates are for short takes
          Lens mount
          C-mount, Sony A-mount through a Fotodiox adapter
          Lenses
          Sony DT 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 SAM II
          Kowa 6mm f/1.4
          Monitor
          5-inch HDMI touch screen, 1024×600
          Computer
          Raspberry Pi 5, 8GB
          Software
          Cinemate (customised, open source)
          Power
          NOBIS 45W 20,000mAh USB-C power bank
          Power draw
          About 4 to 10 hours per 100% charge
          Controls
          Metal push buttons, rotary encoder
          Audio
          Mini USB microphone, 48 kHz WAV (stereo in development)
          Motion data
          Gyro log with every clip, for stabilising in Gyroflow
          Cooling
          40mm fan and heatsinks
          Body
          3D printed, heat set inserts, modular side panels
          Colour
          Prism Red / Black

          Price list

          Core

          Optics

          Power

          Monitor & rig

          Controls

          Body hardware

          Audio & cooling

          Total£529.47

          In development Next: stereo audio

          Prices are what I paid for each part at the time. The specs might still change as I keep working on the camera. Built on the open source CinePi platform.

          Prism PR-585R · Technical data06

          Memories That Don't Fade

          None of this would have been possible without the CinePi community such as: the CinePi project itself, Cinemate for the camera software and Will Whang's StarlightEye for the IMX585 board.

          Prism™ PR-585R · Built on CinePi · Creative Experiments · 2024–26