Making a pinhole camera

Woodsy

Woodsy

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Ok, so I have this idea that I want to make a pinhole camera :D My inspiration came from seeing THIS on flickr.

I've been giving the design some thought over the last few days and have decided that the best way to ensure sealing integrity, is to essentially cheat a little and use a 120 film back as my mechanism.

I have also been thinking about apparent focal length, and have decided that I want to make my camera unique. Basically, I want to make it so that I can change focal length. Due to the simplicity in the way pinhole cameras work, changing focal length is done by simply changing the distance between the hole and the film plane. I have also made sure the hole is small enough to render a "fairly" sharp image, but also in a thin enough piece of material to not hinder the optical path.

So, on this unique note, I have decided that I want to incorporate the use of bellows. My plan is to make a small document/tutorial on how I constructed the camera, including any problems I face and overcome, and also rough "science" on how to calculate focal length, and other bits and bobs.

Whilst this is not intended to be a plug, I am having a little trouble finding some bellows. As such, I have made a wanted thread for any small-ish bellows camera, working or not, that someone is willing to part with. Thread is HERE.

Anyway. So far, I have made the plate with the hole in. This was made with a 0.8mm drill bit and a square of tin cut out from a can of beer and bent flat. Hole has been counter sunk with a larger drill bit to remove burrs. I had the idea to try and bore a hole with a needle to really get a low diameter hole. Pics to come asap :D

Hope this thread turns out as well as I hope!

W
 
Interesting, I've been thinking about building one with a 120 film back as well, it may be a little more accurate than my Zero Image. I'm also busy converting an old body cap so i can try some digital pinhole stuff. I've got some copper plate but I need to find a disc cutter that doesn't cost the earth.
 
Wasn't Steve Smith building his own pinhole camera? Wonder how he got on with it.
 
Pinhole is so easy, the only thing i would recommend it that the hole is made as small as possible and if you want to expose directly onto darkroom paper then the deeper the tin the larger the image.

I have made many different ones, the latest was had 3 holes for a multiple exposure. They are great fun to play with.
 
Nah, he was building a functional 6x12 camera.

@Kev.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Interesting, I've been thinking about building one with a 120 film back as well, it may be a little more accurate than my Zero Image. I'm also busy converting an old body cap so i can try some digital pinhole stuff. I've got some copper plate but I need to find a disc cutter that doesn't cost the earth.
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Well this is the thing... I thought about making it out of something more basic, such as that tin of spam. However it dawned upon me that I might have a lot of trouble making something that is light tight and with the ability to advance the film without a dark bag. A 120 back just struck me as the logical thing to use really. Cheating? maybe... but hey, it'll work!

Blundred77 said:
Pinhole is so easy, the only thing i would recommend it that the hole is made as small as possible and if you want to expose directly onto darkroom paper then the deeper the tin the larger the image.

I have made many different ones, the latest was had 3 holes for a multiple exposure. They are great fun to play with.
Click to expand...

I did think about using darkroom paper, but I wanted something I could A) scan directly once developed (Got an Epson V600), and B) load with multiple exposures at once. That said, it being small is also a factor. Oh, and I don't have a dark room :(

Indeed about the hole size. I am looking into ways of making it as small as possible, as on reflection, I don't think this ~1mm diameter hole will be small enough. Very gently tapping a hole with needle might work, but I am conscious of burrs, and so would rather it was somehow drilled and countersunk. I guess I just need a smaller drill bit.

Kev M said:
Wasn't Steve Smith building his own pinhole camera? Wonder how he got on with it.
Click to expand...

Sam_G said:
Nah, he was building a functional 6x12 camera.

@Kev.
Click to expand...

Now that sounds cool! Would love to see what progress he's made.
 
Forgive the low quality photo... But this is what the I've made so far.

photo.jpg


Smaller would be better I'm thinking.
 
when I made my pinholes I used a drill bit to start with, but didn't go through all of the material. This gives a slight bump on the other side, which I filed down, again not going quite through. I then used a needle with a very fine point and twisted it with gentle pressure on the top. It gradually works through the remaining material, and provided you take it slowly, you can make a hole to almost any diameter you want.

It takes about 20 minutes in all, and it has a nice finish from the original drilling
 
Cracking. Sounds good to me fella. I will give that a try. Just out of interest, have you got any examples of some photos taken with it? Really interested to see peoples results!
 
I don't know where the negs from it are, I've just had a look through my binder but I can't find them.

I can try and take some more black and whites and probably have them scanned tomorrow?
 
Don't go out of your way fella, I'm just interested to see what people have achieved from their pinholes :D Don't take new shots just for me dude!
 
I kep meaning to get it back out again, this gives me a good excuse.

The one I'm intending to use is a cheat like yours. using an RB67 back. It's just made of mount board left overs and elastic banded to the back :D
 
I have a 0.5 / 0.6mm pcb drill bit spare if you want it.
 
Haha, fair enough Chris, I look forward to the results :D

That mintolta looks quality :D I bet it suffers from the hole being too close to the film though...

Rob, many thanks chap but I think I'll stick with the needle method... Just made another hole in the same bit metal using the needle method. Pic to come in a sec. Appreciate the offer though :)

EDIT
photo2.jpg


Larger hole is actually circular... something odd happened when I took the photo. But for size comparison it's ok. That was a quick attempt so could potentially make it smaller still. Exposure times will suffer!
 
used the Irn Bru can,sandpaper and needle method to make a pinhole insert for a lens-cap pinhole experiment last year. Pictures were rubbish, to be honest, but the pinhole itself was pretty decent. I checked it's circularity and measured it's size by using a flatbed scanner. The scan was taken at 4800dpi, and the holes diameter was 71 pixels - so 71/4800 or 0.01479" (0.375mm) - could probably have gone smaller, had I have had a slightly more dainty needle...

For this year's pinhole day, I cheated and bought a Holga 120WPC :shrug:
 
I've absolutely no idea mate. I plan on working that out when it arrives. I'll probably try and fashion some sort of frame around the outside of the film window and secure the bellows to that. I need to be careful with that though, as if any glue I use is translucent, I'll need to mask that somehow as well. This will require some thinking :D
 
When I make mine I drill a hole with any size bit then use a bit of tin from a coke can and use a very very fine needle to pop a hole through then if needs be clean up with some fine sandpaper or something. Make sure you do this on some wood. Does the trick.
 
Blundred77 said:
When I make mine I drill a hole with any size bit then use a bit of tin from a coke can and use a very very fine needle to pop a hole through then if needs be clean up with some fine sandpaper or something. Make sure you do this on some wood. Does the trick.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I'm making the hole in; tin from a can of 1664 :D.

Just finished making a hole a few mins ago. Gently tapped a hole with a needle, then countersunk with a 1.5mm drill bit making sure not to make the hole any wider. No burrs I can see under a magnifying glass, and measured the diameter with the needle and a micrometer. I got a diameter of 0.0181", which is 0.45975mm. Of course I don't need that level of accuracy, so will assume it is 0.5mm for the sake of easy maths later on.

I recon this is small enough to render details fairly well, whilst keeping exposure times under the realms of "silly" :D.

david1701 said:
that fuzzy black **** in lenshoods/camera bodies
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Gotcha. I shall see what I can do. I'll probably be using epoxy resin as my adhesive, and could test out the addition of a very fine black powder to the resin at the mixing stage. Every little helps, right? :) Failing that, Chemical metal will work just as well, with the added benefit of being non transparent.
 
1664 can will be fine, especially if you make a few "accidental" mistakes and need to obtain more empties.

Make sure that you spray the chamber of your pinhole camera (camera obscura) black.
 
Great idea Woodsy, I think I might have a go at building something similar. You can get 0.5 drill bits (always braking them at work :) ) and just counter sink each side.

Is there any science on how small the hole should be / how thick the material the hole should be in? As I have a flat piece of titanium I nabbed from work that might work quite well :)
 
Liam said:
Great idea Woodsy, I think I might have a go at building something similar. You can get 0.5 drill bits (always braking them at work :) ) and just counter sink each side.

Is there any science on how small the hole should be / how thick the material the hole should be in? As I have a flat piece of titanium I nabbed from work that might work quite well :)
Click to expand...

I think that the easiest answer as to thickness, is as thin as possible whilst still staying rigid. So, Aluminum can material is good, but if it's sanded down thinner it's better. There's someone out there that's making pinholes out of silver shims - I think they were 5 thou stock...
 
Ahh ok, look expensive!

I have done a bit of research (wikipidea) and it looks like its important to have the film curved if you want it to be sharp across the frame. I might use b&w darkroom paper, if so what ISO would I rate it as or would it not matter?
 
Right. I now have my 120 back :D Many ty's David!

I was unable to remove the bellows from a camera that was very kindly donated to me, so I am going to have to come up with some other method. This might put my plans to make the focal length changeable in trouble, but I shall see what I can do.

/heads to fictitious drawing board
 
What problems did you face?

I have a agfa billy which has bellows and would be quite easy to modify.. but I don't plan on :)
 
david1701 said:
could make bellows, they're like the least complicated part?

what ya gonna use for a shutter?
Click to expand...

I guess I could try making them... though they're not as easy as you might think...

For a shutter, I plan on using my finger, than replacing the dark slide. Either my finger, or some black electrical tape :D
 
With a hole that small, would electrical tape block it with sticky stuff?
 
Hmmm, that is a very good point, hadn't thought of that. It's certainly a possibility, that's for sure. Any ideas for an alternative? Or do you recon simply covering it with my finger until the dark slide is replaced will suffice?
 
You could put a bit of paper on the tape where it covers the hole so the sticky bit is in only in contact with the area around it. If that makes sense ?
 
when we did this at college in first year we used blu tac and had no problems, the pinhole camera was a film canister though so the negs were pretty small, the ones that worked that is!
 
The sticky stuff shouldn't block the hole. I've used a variety of tapes from electrical to a couple of layers of gaffer (sp?) tape and they all survived.
 
Ok, so I've been away from this thread for a while... Have been busy with other stuff. However! I have now completed my camera :D

I sold out. I made solid bellows from cardboard and sealed with black electrical tape. I feel dirty :(.

So. I made the bellows such that they give a 31 degree angle from the optical axis to the line joining the pinhole and the edge of the frame. According to Nikon's website, the FoV of the 35mm F/2 is 62 degrees, so I can safely assume I have a 35mm field of view! Awesome. Ok, so I checked that first, but anyhow, I achieved the result I wanted.

As a result, with the focal length being 35mm, and the pinhole diameter being 0.5mm - well, near enough - the aperture value is simply F/70. So there we have it! I have a 35mm F/70 "lens" :D

All I need to do now is factor in ISO and reciprocity, and I should get some good exposures. Pics to come asap!
 
Woodsy said:
Ok, so I've been away from this thread for a while... Have been busy with other stuff. However! I have now completed my camera :D

I sold out. I made solid bellows from cardboard and sealed with black electrical tape. I feel dirty :(.

So. I made the bellows such that they give a 31 degree angle from the optical axis to the line joining the pinhole and the edge of the frame. According to Nikon's website, the FoV of the 35mm F/2 is 62 degrees, so I can safely assume I have a 35mm field of view! Awesome. Ok, so I checked that first, but anyhow, I achieved the result I wanted.

As a result, with the focal length being 35mm, and the pinhole diameter being 0.5mm - well, near enough - the aperture value is simply F/70. So there we have it! I have a 35mm F/70 "lens" :D

All I need to do now is factor in ISO and reciprocity, and I should get some good exposures. Pics to come asap!
Click to expand...

I found this program a handy one...
 
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