The design and first deployment is described for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory–California Institute of Technology ice borehole camera system for acquisition of down-looking and side-looking images in a borehole made by a hot-water drill. The objective of the system is to acquire images in support of studies of the basal dynamics and thermodynamics of West Antarctic ice streams. A few sample images, obtained during the 2000/01 Antarctic field season, are shown from the basal layers of Ice Stream C.