History Main / MagicalCamera

* The ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'' short story ''Backcloth for a Crown Additional'' has Eisenhorn investigate the death of a nobleman who had had his picture taken at a traveling fair two days before. He discovers that the photographer’s camera is tainted by Chaos, killing anyone whose picture it takes.

[[caption-width-right:299:[[If the skull in the lens]] [[ObviouslyEvil didn't tip you off]], this is an evil example.]]

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' had a gadget called the Voodoo Camera, which doesn't create photos, but instead create {{Voodoo Doll}}s of anyone it flashes at.
* The main character in ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'' has a power that lets blow up anything he shoots with his camera, although the magic is in himself rather than the object.

** In ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'', Yoshihiro Kira is a ghost who's possessed the camera to which his Stand was bound. The Stand in question, Atom Heart Father, allowed Kira to exist inside the photos it captured and affect objects in the real world by manipulating their equivalents in the photograph. It also prevented the real world counterparts of anything in the area captured by the photograph from moving outside of the camera's field of view, and prevents anything not depicted in the photos from ''entering'' it. Jotaro eventually defeats him by taking a photo of Kira himself and then destroying the camera, [[PhantomZonePicture trapping Kira alone in the photo]]. [[spoiler:It only ''sort of'' works; while Kira can no longer remotely affect the real world, it turns out he can lean out of the photo and bring physical objects inside.]]

** And in the [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon live action adaption]], the magical pens in the original that the heroines used were updated to magic cellphones. One function was the ability to create a disguise based on a photo taken with it.

* In the film ''Film/TimeLapse'', the Finn, Callie, and Jasper discover a machine with such a camera embedded in it, within the apartment of their deceased neighbor. The camera and machine is pointed through the window of their living room, and is revealed to be able to take pictures of the living room one day in the future.

* Iconographs, as they are called on the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', are little more than boxes containing a very tiny imp with a sketchpad and set of paints. Because the imps have no imagination whatsoever, the images they create are accepted as objective. The flash works by frightening a captive Salamander, a magical lizard which absorbs light and can release it suddenly. In ''Literature/MovingPictures'', movies were created using six imps triggered in succession, suggesting an imp can paint an image in only 1/4 of a second.

** A notable example was the use of a different creature as a flash source. Its light caused psychological visages of its subjects thoughts to pop up in the picture.
* Creator/StephenKing's story ''The Sun Dog'', one of the novellas of ''Literature/FourPastMidnight''. The protagonist receives a polaroid camera for his birthday, but every picture it takes, regardless of what it's pointed at, is of a "dog" that gets closer and closer to the camera (and looks less and less like a dog) with each successive shot.
* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Literature/SayCheeseAndDie'' is about a camera which causes tragedy to befall any person shot with it. In the sequel its pictures curse the protagonists instead. They begin to respectively [[WeightLossHorror lose weight]] and [[InvertedTrope gain weight]], presumably until it kills them. They manage to save themselves at the last moment by having the photos color inverted at a picture developing shop.
* Marginal example: Photographs and paintings alike in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' are animate and semisentient, due to some kind of special darkroom process. Considering the penchant some wizards have for tinkering, there are probably magical cameras too, but they aren't played up.
* Shallan Davar, of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' can take a Memory of a scene, recording it with photographic accuracy for later drawing. Drawing a Memory removes it from her head, greatly increasing the probablility that this is some kind of magic. ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' reveals that most Lightweavers possess this power.

* Played for laughs in ''Series/ThirtyRock''. The super HD video camera seems to show the characters ''true selves''. Through the viewfinder, Liz appears significantly less attractive with a unibrow and a prominent facial wart, Pete suddenly looks naked and several decades older, Jack looks 20 years younger, and Kenneth is a ''puppet'' with blue skin.

* In ''Series/Warehouse13'', Artie has a camera which turns the people it takes pictures of into pictures, specifically life-sized cardboard cutouts. A second picture puts them back to normal. Another episode had Man Rey's camera, which could steal youth from one person and give it to another.

** Another episode, "The Tale of the Photo Finish," crossed over with PhantomZonePicture. Two boys at a prep school try to join the Lions' Society, a group of [[UpperClassTwit rich, smug]] [[JerkJock Jerk Jocks]]. As a hazing prank, one of the boys is forced to steal the current headmaster's portrait, and unknowingly frees the [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned spirit]] of Jasper Davis, a victim of the Lions' bullying from decades ago. To punish the Lions, Jasper starts using his old camera to seal them away in photographs, where they're frozen in time permanently.

* Early in ''VideoGame/FobiaStDinfnaHotel'', Roberto obtains a special camera lens which allows him to "see things in other worlds". Looking through the lens around St. Dinfna's interiors allows Roberto to catch glimpses of it's past supernatural activities, locate hidden entrances, and SeeTheInvisible.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-978 SCP-978]] is an instant one Polaroid camera that when, taking a picture of a person, the photograph is not of that person but of what that person wants to be doing at that time.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Double Spoiler]]'' has Hatate's camera, which has some sort of magical Google image search function that allows her to get pictures without actually taking them. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation In-game, the only difference between Aya's and Hatate's cameras are the zoom distance and charge speed.]]
** On ''Impossible Spell Card'', Seija can equip a toy camera as one of her cheat items. It functions similarly to Aya's camera when equipped as main, and increases Seija's speed when used as sub.
** On ''Violet Detector'', Suireko's main ESP ability is her spirit cellphone camera, which works pretty much like Aya's camera, and is required to obtain photographs for her nightmare diary. Unlike Aya, she doesn't have a photo requirement and can just curbstomp the nightmares, but each is only considered "cleared" once she has managed to take at least two photographs before beating the boss. Which is sometimes harder than it sounds, since some patterns require liberal usage of her other ESP abilities, and specially short-range teleportation, but none really necessitate the camera unless you make it a point to incorporate it.

* {{Snapshot}} is a puzzle platformer where you can photo an area of the level to cut and paste objects around.

* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' has the Mexican magical realism camera that shows how people perceive their true inner selves. This ends up forcibly outing Pat.* About that camera capturing soul business: ''Webcomic/{{Minus}}'' did it. Then again [[AWizardDidIt Minus Did It]].

* About that camera capturing soul business: ''Webcomic/{{Minus}}'' did it. Then again [[AWizardDidIt Minus Did It]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' has the Mexican magical realism camera that shows how people perceive their true inner selves. This ends up forcibly outing Pat.

* The titular camera in ''Film/{{Polaroid}}'' is one.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "A Most Unusual Camera" features a camera that shows the future.
* In ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', Artie has a camera which turns the people it takes pictures of into pictures, specifically life-sized cardboard cutouts. A second picture puts them back to normal. Another episode had Man Rey's camera, which could steal youth from one person and give it to another.
* Film/BlackScorpion villain Flashpoint has a Magical Camera that lets him take {{Phantom Zone Picture}}s.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-105 SCP-105-B]] is a camera which when a picture is taken with it by SCP-105 (Iris), the resulting photograph is in fact [[PortalPicture a window to the area photographed that 105 can reach through]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''

* The first-person horror game, ''VideoGame/{{Madison}}, have your teenage protagonist receiving a cursed camera capable of connecting the world of living with the dead, where taking pictures allows you to see spirits and sense the supernatural. As it turns out, said camera actually belongs to a SerialKiller three decades ago and still houses it's owner's spirit.

[[folder:Film]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/RekkitRabbit'', Jay uses a magic camera from Chakabrak to take some headshots of his mom and step-dad, Henrietta and Lorne before they audition for a music agent. Unfortunately, when Jay takes their picture with the camera on "Rock Star" setting, [[spoiler: it turns Henrietta and Lorne into a pair of [[BalefulPolymorph grotesque monsters]] (according to Rekkit, all rock stars in Chakabrak look like monsters, making them literal monsters of rock).]]

[[quoteright:300:[[Literature/SayCheeseAndDie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/say_cheese_and_die___original_classic_goosebumps_illustration.png]]]]

* The Russian horror film ''Deadly Still'' has a similar plot to ''Polaroid'', revolving around an old instant camera that kills any person or animal photographed with it.

[[quoteright:300:[[Literature/{{Goosebumps}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/say_cheese_and_die___original_classic_goosebumps_illustration.png]]]]

* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Say Cheese And Die'' is about a camera which causes tragedy to befall any person shot with it. In the sequel its pictures curse the protagonists instead. They begin to respectively [[WeightLossHorror lose weight]] and [[InvertedTrope gain weight]], presumably until it kills them. They manage to save themselves at the last moment by having the photos color inverted at a picture developing shop.