Camera Obscura, Edinburgh

A great day out for the adults and the kids! Its nice to have the option to do something a bit different rather than you typical museum or gallery. Have visited twice before but never get bored of it!

Quite fun. The children loved it. We were unaware that it is the oldest guided tour in Edinburgh. We were planning on heading down the Royal Mile faster and torrents of rain sent us inside. We were so glad it did. The children enjoyed it as much, if not more than the castle.

I live in Edinburgh, and the Camera Obscura is one of the few places I keep going back to. I have been a regular long before I did a little work on the exhibits and got to know the friendly staff. I have watched it change since my childhood from a quirky old tenement stair with some optics on top to something more resembling the bridge of the Enterprise. Here you will find tricks with lenses, mirrors, monster holograms, funny sparky things out of Frankenstein, things that spin and flash and bemuse. There's also a lot of unusual views of Edinburgh. The exhibits are on several levels and once you reach the top, you get a personal show with the Camera Obscura. The original lenses date back to the 1850's, and its refreshing these days to find something that shows a real picture without digital pixels and computers.