#lens

PixLens: Reality into 8-bit 🧊📷 https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/04/25/pixlens-reality-into-8-bit/

PixLens is a little acrylic cube designed by materials engineer Hakusi Katei (Monoli) that makes 16 × 16-ish mosaic—no batteries, no-screens, or post-processing required pictures. A pair of crossed cylindrical micro-facets on the front and bkack split light into rows and columns; each facet behaves like a tiny diverging lens, so every square of the area forms a chunky “pixel”.

It's been described as a “prism that Minecrafts scenery without electricity” … retina resolution? heck no, this is deliberate degradation. It's a cute art-tool, about 34 × 34 × 16 mm and 18 × 18 effective pixels, pop in a camera bag and drops straight in front of any lens—phone, DSLR, webcam, or even your eye… Each version-1.3 piece is CNC-cut, hand-polished, engraved with the PixLens logo, and released in pre-order batches of 500-1000 units.