8 b 10 pinhol'n

Hi all
Late night ebay'n after a few drinks and I now have a 8 x 10 pinhole camera. Well I was feeling a little remorseful cause I got out bid on a 8x10 camera, which are pretty rare around here, so I got the poor mans version.
Its a Vermeer 8x10 with what I think is a .5mm hole and a focal length of about 4". Came with a film holder and more importantly some film (foma 100)
Would it be worth me increasing the focal length? Seems for the film and diameter it should be around 141mm.
Also I tried using photo paper and a flash with some flood lights. Im not sure the flash made any difference even after firing a nikon sb-26 32 times. Think 15minutes of flood light gave more. Do multiple flashing work with pin hole?
Thanks, can only get better.
Foma 100 @ 10mins. Developed in rodinal, with rotary drum, then a contact print.


variable rc Paper negative, flashed and developed in centrabrom. Scanned and converted to positive.

Awesome, 0.5mm could stand a little more focal length, but not too much. My homemade 8x10 is 0.4mm and about 150mm, about f/375ish, making it about 9 1/2 stops slower than f/16. ~ 1 min in full sunlight with a yellow filter and reciprocity using HP5+.

For RC paper, I like to pre-flash in the darkroom first, and the paper is pretty blue sensitive giving white skies even with the yellow filter.

You've chosen some dark scenes to start with, gonna need some long exposures for that type of work,
I've never tried flash or light painting with pinhole, seems like you'd need a *lot* of light to
make a difference... get out into the sun, and near the water

Sally forth, lad; keep tilting and windmills and don't forget to share...

-Tim

Is there reciprocity with paper and short exposures?

dasBlute said:

Awesome, 0.5mm could stand a little more focal length, but not too much. My homemade 8x10 is 0.4mm and about 150mm, about f/375ish, making it about 9 1/2 stops slower than f/16. ~ 1 min in full sunlight with a yellow filter and reciprocity using HP5+.

For RC paper, I like to pre-flash in the darkroom first, and the paper is pretty blue sensitive giving white skies even with the yellow filter.

You've chosen some dark scenes to start with, gonna need some long exposures for that type of work,
I've never tried flash or light painting with pinhole, seems like you'd need a *lot* of light to
make a difference... get out into the sun, and near the water

Sally forth, lad; keep tilting and windmills and don't forget to share...

-Tim

Click to expand...

Thanks will try that and do a bit of experimenting.

Heres a couple from yesterday using foma 100 film. Contact print then scan.

10 minute exposure.

A 20 sec exposure in bright sunlight. A group photo of our little local film group get together. Probably needed a bit more exposure.

Heres a paper positive of a paper negative, pre flashed and used a yellow filter. During the 20 minute exposure the paper must of moved.
I also toned it using copper and vanadium.

Wow! You are a pinhole shooting machine. From the looks of these images I would say don't change a thing.

The photos are nice as they are but if you want most sharpness possible you should try a 0.3mm or 0.4mm pinhole for this 4" (100mm) focal length. Here's an 8x10 with 70mm FL with 0.3mm pinhole. Very very wide and very sharp.

James Guerin said:

The photos are nice as they are but if you want most sharpness possible you should try a 0.3mm or 0.4mm pinhole for this 4" (100mm) focal length. Here's an 8x10 with 70mm FL with 0.3mm pinhole. Very very wide and very sharp.

Click to expand...

Thanks James.
I have a .3mm Nikon body cap I might try and adapt.