8X10 pinhole build -

[DWThomas]

I think that's about 8 mils (0.008) in inches which is maybe a little thick -- but hey, if it's free, try it!

My last couple of pinhole plates were made with 1 mil brass shim stock which is admittedly pretty hairy to work with. In the past I've used 2 mil, which is easier to handle and still works well. A few hobby shops and even some art supply stores carry assortments of brass widgets for model making, K&S is a brand, that includes a pack of 3 or 4 thicknesses of brass shim stock.

The ideal pinhole is a knife edge -- a hole in an infinitesimally thin sheet! :confused:

 

[edcculus]

yea, somone was telling me to just poke a hole in some aluminum foil, but the process control freak in me shutters at that idea!

Wondering if a cutting from a soda can would work better?

 

[DannL.]

When I first got into making pinholes I started with aluminum and the ol'Coke can, etc, only to have difficulty when getting a nice "thin" and round hole at and around .5mm. I then read some ancient article from the 19th century that described using "brass". So, I bought a sheet of very thin brass from our local Hobby Lobby craft store and went to town making pinholes. Brass was definitely the ticket for me. Thin brass can also be cut easily with scissors to create brass pinhole plates for insertion into shutters or homemade holders. "Thin" is also important because your really don't want a pinhole that looks like a "tube" through a thick plate. You can also pound (aka flatten) brass in order to make it thinner, as needed. The aluminum that I've tried to use had a tendency to crack and fracture when stressed.

I wish you the best in your venture.

 

[removed account4]

late to the party but
if you are still trying to locate a source
for laser cut pinholes try william christiansen
http://www.pinholeedun.com/Welcome.html
i bought mine from him ages ago, he's extremely nice and helpful!

 

[bvy]

yea, somone was telling me to just poke a hole in some aluminum foil, but the process control freak in me shutters at that idea!

Wondering if a cutting from a soda can would work better?

I did this with a piece of disposable pie tin, which I think is somewhere between tin can and tin foil in terms of thickness (very scientific, I know). I made the pinhole with one of my mother-in-law's sewing needles.


As long as you have access to a mother-in-law, you should be able to do the same thing.

 

[NedL]

I did this with a piece of disposable pie tin,...

Awesome bvy! I think I remember seeing this one before. It's excellent!

 

[edcculus]

That is a very sharp picture. Just shows that worrying a little about the detail can really bring a huge difference. I was reading a how to a guy posted on a photo blog on making a pinhole cap for a d!g!t@1 camera. He explined pinhole cameras as "a camera that uses a small hole instead of a lens to make a blurry picture for artsy purposes". The sampes he showed were blurry, but not artsy...

 

[DWThomas]

That is a very sharp picture. Just shows that worrying a little about the detail can really bring a huge difference. I was reading a how to a guy posted on a photo blog on making a pinhole cap for a d!g!t@1 camera. He explined pinhole cameras as "a camera that uses a small hole instead of a lens to make a blurry picture for artsy purposes". The sampes he showed were blurry, but not artsy...

Yes, I've noticed in going through the Worldwide Pinhole Day stuff that the digi-pinhole stuff tended to be pretty fuzzy. In general it seems the larger the format, the more apparent sharpness, so 35mm is getting pretty small, and a "crop frame" sensor would be going even further in the wrong direction. But being a compulsive tinkerer, I have picked up a spare EOS body cap and do have plans to try something with my 40D One of These Days(tm), mostly to try to get an idea of how much is real limitation and how much is craftsmanship problems. But I plan to try more "serious" work with the 8x10!

I've posted this one before somewhere here, but this shot is from a 4x5 with possibly the best pinhole plate I've made to date -- in 0.001" brass shimstock. For no lens, it's pretty durn good.

 

[bvy]

I concur -- my 35mm pinhole experiments were far less sharp. This with a homemade 35mm pinhole camera:

1/2", Superia 800

Also not as sharp, but this was taken handheld (no tripod or support). Same camera:

~1/4", Fujifilm 200

I won't share my digital pinhole images, but they're less impressive, and I don't even bother anymore.

ETA: Nice locomotive, by the way, DW. I like the detail you got in the shadows. And, yeah, pretty sharp too.