NeoLucida: The 21st Century Camera Lucida Drawing Tool

If you're a beginning artist and you think this will help you with life like drawings you're on the right track. However, you must still master the basics before getting the full life like effect. This will definitely help you with the outlines and proportions. This does take some getting used to and I'd say the learning curve will vary depending on your skill level. I don't consider myself an artist and I got some stuff out of it the 1st time using it. The device itself is well made. The clamp is sturdy and allows for a 3" mounting surface and the neck is quite adjustable. Once adjusted it stays in place. Mounting and adjusting is simple. Make sure your drawing surface and the surface the Lucida is attached to is stable otherwise your strokes will not line up. I recommend they be one and the same. The box comes with the Lucida, carrying bag a pencil and instructions as well as web links which will direct you to more information on the device's history as well as tips on how to use it properly it. I felt it was a great tool for me to have and I found myself drawing once again. Something I haven't done in a long time.

Well Made... insanely tedious to set up and use due the the eyepiece being crazy small. If the eyepiece was twice as big it MIGHT negate this issue. That being said, It is well made, well packaged and functions as intended.. Maybe it cost too much to make a bigger prism? I mean ,, it seem like the the resources and quality went to all the other components, Clamp with nice padding so it wont scratch furniture, goose neck, nice strong, stable. housing around the eyepiece is machined well with threads that holds securely but then there is the eyepiece (1/4 inch? ) ummm... what? also, one has to get the lighting just right to be able to see the subject and the pencil on your paper. Even then You have to move your head/eye to see the detail you are trying to achive. Also, product should come with a backbrace. luckily I can return it, .... Dang I had high hopes...

This product should be commended for finally making a modern, affordable version of the ancient camera lucida available to a wide audience. Long available only in expensive antique form, this is the first mass-market device of its type available in decades. However, the makers perhaps over-emphasise the ease of its use; whilst it is simple in form, it is far from simple to set up effectively, quite difficult to maintain in position once it has been set up, and a steep learning curve to get anything more than rudimentary results from (in many respects that is what it should be used for - to make preparatory sketches for a more finished drawing or painting, rather than to make a finished drawing directly). It also has (for me) a very limited field of view due to the tiny prism and aperture. While it can be positioned to draw small objects and still lives, it is harder to see how it could be used for landscapes or even for larger interior scenes - a factor not mentioned in the information I have seen. It also needs very precise lighting conditions to work effectively - slightly too dark, and the subject is hard to see on the paper; slightly too bright, and you can’t see your pen or pencil on the paper to trace. So while it may be widely available, it may not be for all. If you are interested in art history, or optical devices it is great; if you are also patient and looking for a drawing aid it could be a boon. However, if you are a novice looking for a quick means of suddenly being able to draw, you may find this frustrating and more trouble than it is worth to you. At the price it is unbeatable for what it is, just don’t expect magic.

Great little gadget for those learning to "see" and draw or those wanting to perfect their skills. You don't have to be an experienced artist to use it. It's a bit tricky to learn how to see out of it and how to best set it up for use at first. I found using a very large cutting board made it stable, portable, and easy to use out in the field or setting up a scene with natural light in my home studio with a drawing surface. It is well made for the price with a nice suede pouch and instructions for setting up the best angle. Be sure to set it up where you can comfortably view straight down through the lens. Standing is easiest or have a low table or chair that adjusts you to the height you need to look down at the right angle. Give yourself time and patience to play with the right set up for your needs. I also use this in my classroom for my elementary students to help nurture the budding artists' ability to compose and focus on details of the scene before them. Their learning curve on learning how to use this is much shorter than most adults!

And it is. That is, it overpromises. If it worked as well as the video shows, it would be worth five stars. It's a nicely constructed little gadget that clamps to a surface and lets you copy the subject matter in front of you. I'm an artist who sketches a lot and figured this device would help me do two things: one, get perfectly accurate proportions for portraits, and two, do cityscapes to keep buildings, cars and people in proportion to one another. I have found it pretty difficult to get the lighting right for the latter, and the subject has to stay completely still for portraiture (most people, not to mention the artists, would go crazy). The most important defect is that the advertising misrepresents the efficacy of the mechanism. The advertising implies that the Lucida transfers the object image to your drawing surface, and the ad makes it look like the subject matter is, in fact, reflected onto the paper. It's not. It's an optical illusion done with mirrors that takes considerable practice to get, where your eye sees the paper and part of the image at the same time. So you can trace the image -- that part's correct. But the effect is less than the advertising shows. You need patience, and maybe aspirin. If you don't have much drawing ability, this device might get you rolling. But if you're already an artist who sketches from life, the Lucida may make you question whether it's worth the trouble. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being "useful," I'd have to give this a 6. An additional observation: I have a friend who can't draw, but is a brilliant professional photographer. Instead of a live subject, he puts one of his photos onto his computer, then uses the Lucida and a pen to transfer the computer image from the computer monitor to paper -- all of which end up as some drawings that look quite convincing, and as legitimate as an artist might do directly with a pen. I do, however, expect my friend to gradually go blind if he keeps doing it. I keep mine hanging in my studio (the kitchen), sort of like a trophy.

Admiration can easily lead someone to overemphasizing the good and hiding (What is perceived as) the bad in others. Art historians that admire the ancient masters have done the same thing over the years; many ancient masters would use a prism (Camera lucida) or a projector (Camera obscura) as an aid to draw pictures, which explains how some old pictures and paintings are so photo-realistic that they can sometimes look indistinguishable from a photograph. Knowing that ancient masters used such techniques tarnishes their reputation of being super-human in their ability to draw, or at least this is the fear of art historians that want to minimize or refuse to acknowledge the use of camera lucidas/obscuras. This subject can be quite polarizing. I personally believe that such tools help AUGMENT talent rather than REPLACE it, so it doesn't detract from the wonderful works of art they helped to create. Until now, an affordable and easy to use camera lucida has never been readily available, but the NeoLucida has filled this gap. The NeoLucida is a prism on a snake-like bendable cord (Similar to USB lights you can find elsewhere) and a clamp to keep it stable on a table surface. The device will not give you magical artistic abilities, but it will AUGMENT your artistic abilities and allow you to focus more on your drawing technique. When I first received my NeoLucida, I thought "Everything I do will be wonderful!", but the first couple of attempts did not turn out very good. I realized that thoughtful effort was required to make a good drawing, and from that point on my drawings have been improving. This is the "secret weapon" of the ancient art world, and it's about time that they can be in the hands of anybody that has a few dollars. While the NeoLucida does not promise miracles, it will certainly make drawing much more rewarding. You can literally trace what is directly in front of you.

Most bad reviews are right and half the reviews are 1-3stars. The idea works in theory, but NOT made this cheaply. 1 star execution of 5-star idea. 1) MICRO-SCOPIC FIELD OF VIEW; requiring you to have perfect youthful near vs. far uncorrected vision to begin to use it. So that means... 2) THE IMAGE IS TINY, SO YOUR TRACING IS TINY. 3) YOUR HEAD WIGGLING SLIGHTLY WHILE YOU'RE BENT OVER IT SO YOU CAN'T TRACE A MOVING TARGET, so you spend half or more of your time making sure other things traced are still lined up, and moving your head to make it line up, 4) YOUR TRACING BEING TINY QUICKLY WRECKS THE TRACING because your pencil hand is not a lazer scalpel. 5) YOU NEED THE NECK MUSCLES OF A PRO-WRESTLER; and then deeply concentrate on keeping your head perfectly still, second by second, while bent over uncomfortably. AND THIS sucks all the fun out of even trying to use it. 6) BASICALLY YOU'RE GOING TO ERASE MORE THAN YOU TRACE before your neck hurts, and eyestrain gives you a headache. 7) YOU'RE GOING TO ERASE OFTEN AND HAND-DRAW BACK THINGS YOU ALREADY TRACED to correct position errors on the moving target. 8) OFTEN YOU CAN ONLY TRACE PART OF SOMETHING, because you have to move it close to get tiny detail. Example; I tried tracing the straight lines of a foot long model car and couldn't keep my lines straight because I was trying to trace something tiny, which then moved because my head had shifted slightly, so the next line I tried to trace was far off the target, and writing over a different part of the tracing I'd done well. Then I had a new problem, I couldn't even see the whole car, just the front third...so I can't move the device, or the angle goes different and the 3-D angles go out of whack. That didn't matter, because my "tracing" was crap, and I was erasing wavy lines (head movement) are redrawing them straight, when I wasn't redrawing traced things that got erased to correct tiny errors. Why bother? Skip this and drop real dollars on a large one that works.

What do they say? Everything old is new again?! This tiny, well made little system has a learning curve to it, but once you see what you NEED to do and do it the first time, you've GOT IT! Not only do you need to look straight DOWN through the prism towards the paper, but you need to ONLY LOOK THROUGH THE EDGE of the prism. BOOM! There's the object you've got in front of you, your paper, AND the tip of your pencil. After that, you just need to practice your outline skills. EVERYWHERE, I have taken this, I have drawn a crowd of fellow curious artist. It is simple and very well made :D