Infected with pinhole virus - my first shot!

[Ralf]

The people here at APUG are really good at infecting innocent people like me with new photographic viruses

Browsing the APUG forum for a few days now, I also read some threads on pinhole cameras. I found that interesting, so last night I did some basic reading on it, and an hour ago I started building my very first pinhole camera!

Being a rather impatient person, it had to go really fast, I wanted to see how it works and wanted to see the first exposure. I quickly drew the layout of a simple box on a piece of black paper, glued it all together with black gaffer tape and fixed it to the Pola back of my (stolen) MF camera. After half an hour my masterpiece of fine craftsmanship was finished.

The biggest surprise was, of course, it actually worked and was lighttight. I neither have the skill nor was I in my excitement patient enough to make or get a good metal plate hole, so for this first try I simply punched a hole into the paper made box with a needle.

Focal length: 90mm (3,54 in)
Pinhole: 0.6mm (0.236 in)
Film: Fuji instant B&W, 100 ASA, 6x6cm (MF), 1 year expired
Exposure time: 4.5 minutes
Light: 40W table lamp

For your entertainment find attached to this post

- the actual shot (me reading APUG during exposure. First one was black, second white, this is the third exposure. Seems like I assumed my pinhole camera to be a little more wide angle that it actually was)

- my exquisite blue print for the paper box

- a scan (don't have a digi at hand, d'uh) of the camera

That was both great fun and an interesting experience. I felt a little like a kid on christmas. First thing tomorrow I'll do an outdoor shot, now it's dark over here.

 

[Matthewt]

Great isn't it? Knowing that it works. I just posted my very first shot as well. Look for thread about daylab pinhole and 665 film

 

[Peter Schrager]

photo

Nice first photo!
Peter

 

[Andy K]

Very nice work!


'Expertly mounted with black tape' hehehe!

 

[Nige]

fun isn't it!

 

[Donald Qualls]

Aaaah. Pikers.

I've got, right here, a Polaroid Model 210 that's been converted for auto-exposure pinhole photography. Just waiting for me to get some Type 667...

 

[PhotoPete]

auto-exposure pinhole photography

Auto-exposure? What have you got up your sleeve?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Very simple, really -- I just locked the camera in 3000 speed mode and bollixed the opening over the electric eye to reduce it about the same amount as the pinhole reduced the original f/42 (or so) aperture. Only about an hour more work than the minimal, manual-shutter pinhole conversion would have been. So, when it's sunny out, I can point and shoot on Type 667 -- exposures can run as low as 1/4 second, if I'm figuring it right. I might find I have to add a tripod mount and fabricate a cable release adapter, we'll see when I have film...

As a bonus, with the original focal length, the original parallax corrected viewfinder is still accurate, as long as I set the distance on the scale...

 

[Ralf]

Thanks a lot guys for all the nice comments.

Auto-exposure with a pinhole? It will be a long way for me before I'm able to build such Star Trek-technology into my camera.

Nige, I looked at that world pinhole day site, fascinating!

As threatened to do, I made an outdoor photograph this morning. We've got a little snow already, otherwise the weather is just plain ugly these days.

 

[noseoil]

To obtain the proper angle of view, use your drafting skills to make a top or side view of the camera and the relationship of the pin hole to the film plane. Just draw a line from the edge of the film out through the pin hole along both edges. This is your "view finder" for the focal length. You can now make two paper apertures (big one front, small one back) to stick in place so you can compose before the shot. Takes a little bit of playing to get it right, but it will give you an accurate window to compose by. Great job for your first hand-made camera. When is the 8x10 going to be done? tim

 

[Ralf]

To obtain the proper angle of view, use your drafting skills to make a top or side view of the camera and the relationship of the pin hole to the film plane. Just draw a line from the edge of the film out through the pin hole along both edges. This is your "view finder" for the focal length. You can now make two paper apertures (big one front, small one back) to stick in place so you can compose before the shot. Takes a little bit of playing to get it right, but it will give you an accurate window to compose by. Great job for your first hand-made camera. When is the 8x10 going to be done? tim

Thanks for the hints regarding angle of view. For now I drew two lines on the box, both on the top and one side, from the film plane to the pinhole. That gives me a rough idea of the angle of view, good enough for that first camera, which I'm afraid will fall apart in a few days, anyway

As for 8x10, you hit the nail on the head. I recently made some comment here at APUG in another thread, that simply reading about LF makes we want to give it a try. Not necessarily pinhole, I'd also love to see a camera with lense of that or another large format.

Attached is my first color shot. The film was expired like the B&W one, but showed significant decline in quality compared to the B&W film. However, my scanner somehow added brightness and shifted the colors, so the result is quite okay. The original is darker and lacks yellow.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Lack of yellow, in a pinhole Polaroid, is as likely to be due to reciprocity failure inducing a color shift as it is due to age (if the pod is still moist enough to spread and develop the print, age-related color shifts are likely to be minimal). Type 669/89, especially, is prone to shift to blue when exposures exceed about 1/2 second.

 

[Ralf]

Donald, I think you found the reason for the color shift. Exposure time was more than 4 minutes, I should have thought of reciprocal failure myself.

Aside from that I think the color film has had its days. I bought it two years ago, and then forgot about it.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Generally, with most Polaroid materials, if the pod still has enough "goop" in it (to use the technical term) to develop the print, it'll work fine. However -- when making pinhole images, it may be impossble to separate the effects. Either way, a nice blue filter and lots of extra exposure should fix it up...

 

[Ralf]

Donald, thanks a lot for all the info and comments. Much appreciated!