I am thinking on making some kind of a pinhole camera front on which i could attach my 6x9 roll film back (the Graflex 23 type).
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
6x9 DIY PINHOLE camera
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Personally, I'd do this the quick & dirty way and obtain an old roll film camera with a defective/damaged lens and/or shutter, remove the lens and/or shutter and put a plate with a pinhole in it instead. A suitable 'adapter plate' with the desired film to pinhole distance could be 3D printed or fashioned in any other DIY way.
The quality of the pinhole itself does matter, btw. I think the really good ones are made with a laser. If you just punch a hole in a piece of metal, you end up with a tiny inverted volcano shape and I think that's suboptimal in terms of image quality. It's also difficult to accurately control the size of the hole. I'd consider purchasing a ready-made pinhole of decent quality (they often come in sets of various sizes, I think) and then using that as a starting point for your project.
The quality of the pinhole itself does matter, btw. I think the really good ones are made with a laser. If you just punch a hole in a piece of metal, you end up with a tiny inverted volcano shape and I think that's suboptimal in terms of image quality. It's also difficult to accurately control the size of the hole. I'd consider purchasing a ready-made pinhole of decent quality (they often come in sets of various sizes, I think) and then using that as a starting point for your project.
OP
OP
I wasn't thinking to sacrifice any kind of camera Defective or not, I want to make one myself...
The trouble is finding the right and well made pinhole, I think it should be 0,2 mm.
The second is the distance, thus the shape of the 'camera' body.
I could make it out of wood, but I don't know how the get the right measures...
The trouble is finding the right and well made pinhole, I think it should be 0,2 mm.
The second is the distance, thus the shape of the 'camera' body.
I could make it out of wood, but I don't know how the get the right measures...
No sacrifice necessary if you use a Speed Graphic - just put a lens board with a pinhole on it.
As for making one out of wood, you will need a way to attach the film back. And any distance (within reason) from the film to the pinhole is fine - but at a certain point, exposures will need to be very very long.
I've made pinholes by pushing the very tip of a needle through pop-can aluminum and sanding the burr down. I have no idea what size the hole was. The thinner the metal, the better.
As for making one out of wood, you will need a way to attach the film back. And any distance (within reason) from the film to the pinhole is fine - but at a certain point, exposures will need to be very very long.
I've made pinholes by pushing the very tip of a needle through pop-can aluminum and sanding the burr down. I have no idea what size the hole was. The thinner the metal, the better.
I think the idea of using an existing roll-filmback is good. I made a pinhole camera for roll film out of a wooden box that came full of Rollei-brand film. The box fitted a roll of film very neatly - of course it did - but the winding parts I made were the weakest part of the finished camera, because of my limited practical skills. I managed to break the winder on two separate outings.
So I did what Don_ih has just said. I made a pinhole plate (so I at least made part of the camera!) and attached it to a Graflex lens-plate with a pilot hole. My Century Graphic is far and away my best pinhole camera. I think making the attachment parts to fix a film back onto a camera body would be as hard as making the film-back parts - not a lot of advantage in having used a ready-made film back.
I have also made a camera from an old toffee tin; that uses sheet film, so needs no winding parts. There's a lot to be said for this! I have to reload it in a black bag after every exposure, and you need to sort out developing sheet film; but the camera has no moving parts, and no red window! I hold the film in place with two strips of magnet.
The quality of your images will depend a lot on your pinhole. I would put your effort into that. I made my pinholes by the method here:
www.pinhole.cz
and that also has some stuff about the optimum size for your pinhole, and how to calculate exposure time.
Briefly, use a pin to make a deep dent in your aluminium sheet; there should now be a pimple on the other side. Then sand that pimple away until the hole appears, and check its size at intervals as you sand. I use a little toy digital microscope for that, but a digital close-up photo works too. This method gives you a hole with razor-thin edges.
For a shutter, most wooden-box cameras are sold with a swivelling cover. I found it a bit too easy to disturb the camera when using that. With my tin-box camera, I use a fridge magnet as the shutter, with a layer of felt so it doesn't stick on too hard. With the Century Graphic, I have used a black-tape shutter so far. The lens plate is aluminium, so if I wanted to use a fridge magnet, I'd need to glue a steel washer around the pinhole.
Good luck!
So I did what Don_ih has just said. I made a pinhole plate (so I at least made part of the camera!) and attached it to a Graflex lens-plate with a pilot hole. My Century Graphic is far and away my best pinhole camera. I think making the attachment parts to fix a film back onto a camera body would be as hard as making the film-back parts - not a lot of advantage in having used a ready-made film back.
I have also made a camera from an old toffee tin; that uses sheet film, so needs no winding parts. There's a lot to be said for this! I have to reload it in a black bag after every exposure, and you need to sort out developing sheet film; but the camera has no moving parts, and no red window! I hold the film in place with two strips of magnet.
The quality of your images will depend a lot on your pinhole. I would put your effort into that. I made my pinholes by the method here:
Making the Pinhole [pinhole.cz]
Briefly, use a pin to make a deep dent in your aluminium sheet; there should now be a pimple on the other side. Then sand that pimple away until the hole appears, and check its size at intervals as you sand. I use a little toy digital microscope for that, but a digital close-up photo works too. This method gives you a hole with razor-thin edges.
For a shutter, most wooden-box cameras are sold with a swivelling cover. I found it a bit too easy to disturb the camera when using that. With my tin-box camera, I use a fridge magnet as the shutter, with a layer of felt so it doesn't stick on too hard. With the Century Graphic, I have used a black-tape shutter so far. The lens plate is aluminium, so if I wanted to use a fridge magnet, I'd need to glue a steel washer around the pinhole.
Good luck!
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Because sometimes it's more fun to make it yourself.
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I think that the problem will be finding or making a Graflok back.
Distance? Pinholes don't have a focal length. The pinhole-to-sensitive surface distance, which can be whatever you want, is the focal length.
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As for the size, wikipedia is your friend:
Pinhole camera - Wikipedia
The "focal distance" is anything youj want, but for a given film size, pinhole images will appear sharper for shorter "focal length". Plus the spectacular wide-angle and depth-of-field look.
There is much online information that eases entry into the intriguing world of pinhole photography. For determining the correct pinhole diameter, I use the downloadable calculator at pinhole.cz, although with a constant of 1.6 instead of the often recommended Lord Rayleigh value of 1.9. For much information on pinhole photography, visit https://jongrepstad.com/. Eric Renner has long provided help to the pinhole community at https://pinholeresource.com/. His profusely illustrated book, Pinhole Photography, should be inspiring as well as informative.
That, exactly. My Century is my best pinhole camera, but even half-broken, my home-made cameras are more fun (and they cost me a quid or two each to make, unless I cost my time).
Just an idea to think about: I have a spare 23 film back. If I'm prepared to dedicate that to pinhole, I can make a simple box and glue it to the front of the RFB. If I were going to glue it, I'd simplify the job by filing away the ridge by the right-hand end of the film gate. Then I might score the surrounding metal a little to help the glue take. I'd use Araldite Rapid; good epoxy glue for the impatient and clumsy. If I don't want to lose the back as a spare for the Century, I could mae a groove in the box-edge to mate with that ridge, and put self-adhesive felt or velvet on the mating edge of the box,and hold it on the RFB with strong rubber bands.
First I need to design the box. The film gate determines the width and height. I'd use material as thick as possible to maximise the area of glued edge.
The depth front-to-back determines your angle of view. I like to let it be quite wide, but the image will fade out to darkness, and I don't like too much of that. With my Century, I have gone as short as 50mm (film to pinhole) without getting severe falloff; so without having thought too hard about it, I think I'd make the box about 30mm deep. Drill a smallish hole in the front, and fit my pinhole plate on that. I might fasten a steel washer on it as well, to use my fridge-magnet shutter.
If I go the rubber-band route, I could make an extender if I ever wanted a narrower field of view: I'd call it the portrait accessory.
The camera needs a tripod bush; I have some little screw-in adapters to reduce a tripod socket from 3/8 to 1/4 inch; I can mount one of those in a little wood-block and glue it on the bottom of the box.
This needs so little wood (if I make it with wood) that I probably already have a scrap of hardwood that will do. I have matt black paint. I have a little bag of thin aluminium shutter-doors from old diskettes that I can use for a pinhole plate. I may even have some velvet.
I'm not going to jump up and do this right now; but I may try to do it before World Pinhole Day
OP
OP
I thought by fixing the roll film back with some strong rubberbands cut out of a automobile's inner tire...
I have a nice stock of plywood too, if only my saw table wasn't gone, but I still have a hand saw...
That link Bernard_L gave for ready made pinholes looks interesting.
Thank you all for your highly appreciated suggestions and information!
Now just some calculating and thinking to do.
L'imagination au pouvoir!
I have a nice stock of plywood too, if only my saw table wasn't gone, but I still have a hand saw...
That link Bernard_L gave for ready made pinholes looks interesting.
Thank you all for your highly appreciated suggestions and information!
Now just some calculating and thinking to do.
L'imagination au pouvoir!
The pinhole cameras I have made for myself are all 4x5, but looking at my Graflex RH-8 back, you would need a wooden plate with an aperture for the film gate cut out, and a frame about 1/4" deep around three sides for the light trap. And cut a slot for the locating rib. I'd probably use bungee cord to hold the back on - sliding catches would be more complicated.
The front of the box is going to be maybe 30-40mm in-front of the film plane - that has to be decided in conjunction with the pinhole diameter. You may be able to find a suitable box in a craft store to cannibalize, it just has to be at least as big as the camera mount. You can always mount the RFH on a larger box. You have to take care to center the pinhole on the film gate.
If you look at the Will Travel cameras you will get the idea - they are 4x5 and up and 3D printed , but the principle of the back is the same.
The front of the box is going to be maybe 30-40mm in-front of the film plane - that has to be decided in conjunction with the pinhole diameter. You may be able to find a suitable box in a craft store to cannibalize, it just has to be at least as big as the camera mount. You can always mount the RFH on a larger box. You have to take care to center the pinhole on the film gate.
If you look at the Will Travel cameras you will get the idea - they are 4x5 and up and 3D printed , but the principle of the back is the same.
..but the OP wants to use roll film.
My point was not to overthink what you use to make the pinhole, not that he should use can for the body of the camera.
Well -- here are some things I did ... Thru a Pinhole. (Yeah, maybe I'm guilty of enjoying the camera building more than the use! 
)
About the 5th row of thumbnails has the actual cameras (the links open sub-galleries with more views of the designs and fabrication). I'm not 100% sure what your rollfilm adapter looks like, but maybe what I did for conventional holders could work. I have considered doing a sort of hinged door on the back with some foam pads to apply a bit of pressure to minimize filmholder motion, but the big rubber bands seem to work OK.
I have used the Pinhole Designer app mentioned by Jim Jones. It's not been updated in a decade or so as far as films for which it can generate charts, but the dimensional tools are there and that's the basic physics. There is also Mr Pinhole. I prefer Pinhole Designer because last I dived into this stuff it was more forthcoming with what equations, assumptions, and values it used, but it is a Windows app. The Mr Pinhole stuff has the advantage of platform independence as it's a browser script.
I have made all my own pinhole plates using the "dimple and sand" method. An early one was in soda can aluminum which is about 5 mils, but later efforts have been 1 or 2 mil brass shim stock. ( A mil being 0.001 inches, 0.0254 mm.)
)About the 5th row of thumbnails has the actual cameras (the links open sub-galleries with more views of the designs and fabrication). I'm not 100% sure what your rollfilm adapter looks like, but maybe what I did for conventional holders could work. I have considered doing a sort of hinged door on the back with some foam pads to apply a bit of pressure to minimize filmholder motion, but the big rubber bands seem to work OK.
I have used the Pinhole Designer app mentioned by Jim Jones. It's not been updated in a decade or so as far as films for which it can generate charts, but the dimensional tools are there and that's the basic physics. There is also Mr Pinhole. I prefer Pinhole Designer because last I dived into this stuff it was more forthcoming with what equations, assumptions, and values it used, but it is a Windows app. The Mr Pinhole stuff has the advantage of platform independence as it's a browser script.
I have made all my own pinhole plates using the "dimple and sand" method. An early one was in soda can aluminum which is about 5 mils, but later efforts have been 1 or 2 mil brass shim stock. ( A mil being 0.001 inches, 0.0254 mm.)
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For pinholes I use the tin flashing from the hardware store. And "drill"/spin it very slowly with the finest/ smallest pin I can find then lightly sand it and clean it up with the pin, it's trial and error some are better than others, focal length dependant.
I have a problem with the graflex xl system so I have lots of things that pop together in various configurations.
I've always wanted to get one of the skink pinhole holders that fit in a shutter.
Just because I lost my favorite pinhole because it was cold and the electrical tape failed...
That one was very sharp on a 4x5 @~90mm
I have a problem with the graflex xl system so I have lots of things that pop together in various configurations.
I've always wanted to get one of the skink pinhole holders that fit in a shutter.
Just because I lost my favorite pinhole because it was cold and the electrical tape failed...
That one was very sharp on a 4x5 @~90mm
OP
OP
What does "tin flashing from the hardware store..." means?
OP
OP
Well -- here are some things I did ... Thru a Pinhole. (Yeah, maybe I'm guilty of enjoying the camera building more than the use!
About the 5th row of thumbnails has the actual cameras (the links open sub-galleries with more views of the designs and fabrication). I'm not 100% sure what your rollfilm adapter looks like, but maybe what I did for conventional holders could work. I have considered doing a sort of hinged door on the back with some foam pads to apply a bit of pressure to minimize filmholder motion, but the big rubber bands seem to work OK.
I have used the Pinhole Designer app mentioned by Jim Jones. It's not been updated in a decade or so as far as films for which it can generate charts, but the dimensional tools are there and that's the basic physics. There is also Mr Pinhole. I prefer Pinhole Designer because last I dived into this stuff it was more forthcoming with what equations, assumptions, and values it used, but it is a Windows app. The Mr Pinhole stuff has the advantage of platform independence as it's a browser script.
I have made all my own pinhole plates using the "dimple and sand" method. An early one was in soda can aluminum which is about 5 mils, but later efforts have been 1 or 2 mil brass shim stock. ( A mil being 0.001 inches, 0.0254 mm.)
The pinhole made out of a piece of a soda can is shiny metal coloured (and plastic lined), does it has to be blackened and if so how?
OP
OP
Well -- here are some things I did ... Thru a Pinhole. (Yeah, maybe I'm guilty of enjoying the camera building more than the use!
About the 5th row of thumbnails has the actual cameras (the links open sub-galleries with more views of the designs and fabrication). I'm not 100% sure what your rollfilm adapter looks like, but maybe what I did for conventional holders could work. I have considered doing a sort of hinged door on the back with some foam pads to apply a bit of pressure to minimize filmholder motion, but the big rubber bands seem to work OK.
I have used the Pinhole Designer app mentioned by Jim Jones. It's not been updated in a decade or so as far as films for which it can generate charts, but the dimensional tools are there and that's the basic physics. There is also Mr Pinhole. I prefer Pinhole Designer because last I dived into this stuff it was more forthcoming with what equations, assumptions, and values it used, but it is a Windows app. The Mr Pinhole stuff has the advantage of platform independence as it's a browser script.
I have made all my own pinhole plates using the "dimple and sand" method. An early one was in soda can aluminum which is about 5 mils, but later efforts have been 1 or 2 mil brass shim stock. ( A mil being 0.001 inches, 0.0254 mm.)
A time ago, I tried that "dimple and sand" method too.
I used a piece of the 'pressure plate' of a Polaroïd 600 cassette, which is thin and black, but that didn't work as the images ware so unsharp that hardly some rough contour forms could be distinguished.
It was a try out made of a body cap of my Hasselblad and used on that camera, hoping to make some 6x6 pinhole photographs...
I used the finest sewing needle I could find AND didn't break when I gently taped on it with a small 120g hammer (on a piece of MDF wood, which is rather soft).
I must have done something wrong, but didn't figure that out, yet...
I thought that using a pinhole body cap on a Hasselblad seemed to be common practice?
But now I would like to make a 'dedicated' pinhole camera on which I can use the (WISTA-) rill film backs I have. I think that making the camera plate on which the roll film back must fit seems to be the easiest part as I have a lot of stuff laying around...
And, DWThomas, in the attached photos you can see how a 6x9 roll film back looks like:
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Flashing (weatherproofing) - Wikipedia
Metal used to cover tricky exposed places in brickwork, like where a brick chimney meets a tiled roof.
That would still be pretty thick for a pinhole - much thicker than pop can aluminum. You can paint the aluminum with black marker or black ink, but make sure the pinhole is clear.
The time I did that I used a felt permanent marker pen, but although it's thinner than typical flat black paint, it can still mess up the edges or partially block the pinhole. That said, I'm not sure how important it is in the first place. But I have since gone to using brass shim stock (available at auto parts stores and some hobby shops) which can be chemically blackened. There are (or were!) chemical methods used by jewelers, model railroaders, etc. Some have had success with using photographic toners to blacken brass. I would think the direct sulfide toners should work but have not had much luck with that.
Thanks! Not sure what sort of access is needed to reload and all, but the silvery studs at top and bottom might enable anchoring the back to a flat box surface with small eye bolts (assuming there are some that small).
In general, the ideal pinhole plate is an infinitesimally thin sheet and the pinhole has a knife edge. As the thickness increases, it potentially creates additional light fall-off away from the central axis, there is already some degradation just from the increasing pinhole-to-film distance as the coverage angle increases, also the hole becomes more elliptical as the angle increases. As the plate material thickness further increases, the hole becomes essentially a cylindrical tunnel that produces hard vignetting.
As to a body cap pinhole adapter, the general approach that works is to drill a fairly large hole in the center of the cap (3/8" / 1 cm) then mount a thin pinhole plate centered on the hole. In that link to my stuff upthread, I went way over the top on a body cap for my Bronica SQ-A (the poor man's Hasselblad!), making a shutter in addition to the pinhole. (But I still owned some hand operated sheet metal working equipment back then.)
It's fun!
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