Pinhole Results (was Developing/Printing for a One Off Project)

Southdowns

Southdowns

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Hi, this is the first time I've ventured into this section. I'm sure it all went very quiet as I walked through the door!!!!!

Anyway, I'm after a little advice please. I'm not overly interested in film photography as a photographer, just as a viewer; I love to look at shots taken on film, but I'm not likely to want to get into taking them.

That said, I've given my nine year old daughter an old 35mm compact and three rolls of film that I found in a drawer, and have one other roll left over. With that last roll, I'd like to do a pinhole project with her, using a template I've found for a double frame (panoramic) camera. I'm unlikely to buy any more film after that though.

So, I can easily find companies who'll develop and print the shots from the compact, but what do I do with the panoramic ones? The obvious answer is to develop them at home myself, but the cost is difficult to justify given the kind of one off project that this is.

Are there companies/services out there who will develop unusual aspect ratios? Or is there another solution I haven't found yet, such as a cheap way to do it at home?
 
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My local lab will leave the roll uncut if you ask when you put it in to be developed you can then cut them correctly when you get home.
 
A lot of pro labs will do processing/printing/scanning for films shot through a Hasselblad XPAN, which is essentially a panoramic camera which exposes double frame 35mm (65mm x 24mm). As the panoramic camera that your proposing would be very similar, the lab would probably be able to run the film through the scanner gate for that, especially if you design the camera to expose for the size above.

E.g from Club 35: http://www.club35.co.uk/xpan.html
 
Thanks guys. I like the idea that my pinhole camera would be very similar to a Hasselblad XPAN!!

I'll check, but it strikes me that any pro lab would be too expensive for a children's project like this, so maybe I'd be better off using a standard single frame 35mm format in my pinhole, and sending it off to one of the consumer labs.

I'm guessing that the starter processing kits I've seen, which begin at about £45 (possibly without chemicals/paper?), really are the cheapest I'll find for doing this at home? If so, that's a bit of a non-starter given the use I'll put it to.
 
Southdowns said:
Thanks guys. I like the idea that my pinhole camera would be very similar to a Hasselblad XPAN!!

I'll check, but it strikes me that any pro lab would be too expensive for a children's project like this, so maybe I'd be better off using a standard single frame 35mm format in my pinhole, and sending it off to one of the consumer labs.

I'm guessing that the starter processing kits I've seen, which begin at about £45 (possibly without chemicals/paper?), really are the cheapest I'll find for doing this at home? If so, that's a bit of a non-starter given the use I'll put it to.
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To be honest any of the pro labs are usually of an equal or even cheaper price than most high street or consumer mail order services (and which are unlikely to even print panoramic negs if you were to give them to them). If you want to do just normal 35mm, for example, Club 35 charge £6.60 including return postage (and their a freepost address) for C-41 (colour negative) films and 6"x4" prints and their of top quality every time with them usually coming back within 4 days of you sending them the film. Boots etc charge a similar price for something which is likely to be of inferior quality processing and scanning wise.

For what your doing, I wouldn't bother trying to process and print it yourself as the start up costs (especially for printing) are quite high for only doing a few films and remember that to print you would need a darkroom.
 
Boots would probably dev and leave the roll un-cut if you asked and someone on here may be able to scan for you. I'm pretty sure if you tell a flat bed film scanner that its 120 film then you could get a decent scan out of them with a bit of work.
 
I think Transpacolor and Peak Imaging will also do them as if they were X-Pan images.

Is the panoramic camera something already in existence or are you making/modifying it?


Steve.
 
Genie Imaging have handled my sprocket Rocket negatives (same format as your proposed camera) just fine, cutting them into the equivalent of 6 negative strips.

They have also obliged when I asked for uncut rolls, and a few other places I have used in the past have also kindly honoured this request.

Shouldn't be a problem as long as you give them clear instructions, really.
 
Thanks everyone, very helpful :)

Steve, I haven't made it yet. I want to do that with Izzy to help her understand how camera's work, but obviously then need to show her some results or it'll be pretty pointless! I also want it to be a different format to the compact she's been having fun with, just to keep it interesting and to distinguish the two.

This is the one I have in mind.
 
Hi mark,

If you go to any of the big supermarkets they will usually do dev only and leave it uncut for you for the same price as normal, which works out pretty cheap. If you wanted them scanned I could do them for you if you post them over and send them back with the scans on DVD. Saves you having to spend more money on something that may not work : thumbs:
 
Wow, thanks Chris! I'd want to pay you for the DVD at least.

Given that the cameras not even made yet, it might be a little while; is it OK if I PM you once I have the negatives ready?
 
Thats fine, just give me a shout once you need them doing and I'll sort them out :D
 
Well, we built our camera, had brilliant fun shooting with it, learned a lot, had the film developed at Asda for £2.00, then…………

…………realised the film we'd been using had already been exposed about 5 years ago :(


20130329-120331.jpg by MarkBerry1963, on Flickr


20130329-121449.jpg by MarkBerry1963, on Flickr

Oh, and I lost my Manfrotto Compact tripod; it's hers now, apparently!!!!

There were some tantalising hints of the shots we might have got on the negatives, but nothing recoverable.

Oh well, off to look for some new film now!
 
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For the bargain price of 3 quid:
£1 for a roll of AgfaVista 200 from any Poundland nearby
£2 for another process at Asda

And you'll forget this one-off!
 
True! Although I do also need to recover £47 for the tripod she's pinched!!
 
Funnily enough I just bought the same tripod from a river based on line shop for £39. Seems to be a pretty well made,lightweight tripod.

Andy
 
Ah, good old Zambezi.co.uk eh!

It's the second one of those I've had lost; the first one I left hanging on a tree as I took some handheld shots :(

It really is very nice. Obviously not as stable as a bigger beast, but not bad at all given it's weight, and much better than any other compact one's I've tried. Fantastic for hill walking days :)

Or at least, it was :(
 
It's a shame nothing was recoverable Mark. Let me know when you've got the next one done :)
 
Cheers Chris :)
 
"Philistine", I hear you say, but is seems like a lot of hard work to me.

Why not buy a decent digital :)

Seriously, I admire your dedication/interest. I've been looking to get Isabelle a cheap film camera from Ebay...I got confused and retreated to my Nikon/camera phone.

Cheers.
 
Because easy is no fun :thumbs:
 
posiview said:
"Philistine", I hear you say, but is seems like a lot of hard work to me.

Why not buy a decent digital :)

Seriously, I admire your dedication/interest. I've been looking to get Isabelle a cheap film camera from Ebay...I got confused and retreated to my Nikon/camera phone.

Cheers.
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I reckon most of us in here have decent digital in our bag.
For me film is just more fun, sure it has the whiff of nostalgia. But getting a decent image from cameras that might be up to a century old gives me a feeling of immense satisfaction.
Newer...30-50 year old cameras can have wonderful lenses and are more than capable of making stunning pictures. These one time expensive tools can be had today for relative buttons. I'm lucky enough to own cameras I could only have dreamt about affording when they were new.
Modern....80's-90's film gear has a lot of features now standard on digital. Auto focus, sophisticated metering, weather sealing
So it is possible to shoot film relatively simply. Of course it can be confusing, most thing are until research and familiarisation kicks in.
Spend just a few pounds on an SLR and 50mm lens, let her loose with a few rolls of film from Poundland. Have them developed and put onto CD, maybe printed at Asda/Tesco
Could be the start of something. At worst you'll probably get your money back if it goes the other way.
 
Well, the pinhole thing started as a way to teach Isabelle how cameras work, and have a bit of fun, but I'm going to buy a cheap rangefinder from EBay (probably a Yashica J), for two reasons:

1) I LOVE the look and feel of rangefinder style cameras, but there's no way I'll be able to afford a Fuji X100 for quite some time!

2) I hope I can improve my photography by being forced to slow down and do everything manually.

Really, for ten quid to buy the camera, I figure I might as well give it a go. Even if I end up not using it much, it'll make a nice retro ornament!
 
Cracking post mark, if I were to be lazy, I might ask you to let me know if you see some decent slrs on eBay . :) Rangefinder.... How cool is that word.

Cheers
 
Lazy Andy? You? Never!

I did take a look at SLRs, and you can get some very nice ones for next to nothing (and if you have over £100 to spend, the worlds your oyster as far as I can see). I looked at Minoltas mostly, thinking I'd be able to use my Sony lenses, but of course they're all APS-C only, which is no good for a "full frame" 35mm film camera.

At that point I switched to the rangefinders as I don't want to spend more than 2 peanuts until I'm sure I want to get into film.

Yep, rangefinder is a wonderful word! Whoever came up with that was a marketing genius.

My first "proper" camera was a film rangefinder with needle light meter, but I can't for the life of me remember which one, and the EXIF data seems to be missing from the photos I've got in my album! I wish I understood how to use it as more than a snapper's camera at the time, but I got some lovely shots with it none-the-less :)
 
Southdowns said:
Lazy Andy? You? Never!

I did take a look at SLRs, and you can get some very nice ones for next to nothing (and if you have over £100 to spend, the worlds your oyster as far as I can see). I looked at Minoltas mostly, thinking I'd be able to use my Sony lenses, but of course they're all APS-C only, which is no good for a "full frame" 35mm film camera.

At that point I switched to the rangefinders as I don't want to spend more than 2 peanuts until I'm sure I want to get into film.

Yep, rangefinder is a wonderful word! Whoever came up with that was a marketing genius.

My first "proper" camera was a film rangefinder with needle light meter, but I can't for the life of me remember which one, and the EXIF data seems to be missing from the photos I've got in my album! I wish I understood how to use it as more than a snapper's camera at the time, but I got some lovely shots with it none-the-less :)
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You flatter me...of are flattering me aren't you ;)

Not exactly high end, but I've just bought a Holga off here. I did have a good luck on eBay, but suspect further research was required in regards the lens I could use, etc.

Might even post some of the results up. I've been watching Ted Forbes The Art of Photography on Youtube (highly recommended) and he's just done a series on film photography where develops and edits the same photograph in film and digital format. Fascinating watch.

Did I say I'd recommend him?.

Cheers.
 
Excellent stuff Mark, a really good project.

Andy
 
Cheers, it was good fun to do, and we'll be loading another roll of film in it now we know it works. I'm not sure how to achieve better focus; is that just down to how clean the pinhole is? Or maybe what looks like poor focus is actually camera shake; the camera is pretty lightweight, the exposures are quite long (seconds not fractions of seconds), and elastic bands aren't the most secure tripod mounts known to man!!!
 
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