New to Pinhole

[Andrew Brown]

Hi. I recently purchased a zero image pinhole camera Zero 69. I did some test shots with Ilford Delta 400 B&W. It was a rainy day and I was experimenting with different shutter speeds. I had the film professionally developed and scanned them on my Epson v800 scanner. In the first image you will notice that the decking and furniture appears wavy (7 minute exposure), the second image (1 min exposure) is less so but there still appears some distortion. It is not the scanning because I can see the distortion in the negatives. Also images appear soft, I know images from pinhole photography are softer but do you think the images are within the acceptable range? (the aperture is roughly f250). Any help with these 2 issues would be appreciated. Cheers Andrew

 

[bvy]

They're acceptably sharp for pinhole. The top edge of the first frame also appear wavy, which makes me think the film wasn't sitting completely flat inside the camera during the exposure. But I don't own one of those cameras, so I don't know much about them.

 

[dasBlute]

Nice start, the zero image models are pretty nice, the softness is a feature ... the film less-than-flatness is not.
i don't have one, but I'd make sure the film tension is 'relatively' firm before taking images.

Keep it up, pinhole is a great way to explore the world...

-Tim

 

[DWThomas]

Welcome to APUG! I think the shots look good, another note is that more contrast sometimes creates the perception of sharpness, and here thanks to a dreary day, the contrast is relatively modest. As bvy suggests, the wavy stuff may be film flatness or something not quite lined up right in loading the camera. I have never seen a Zero Image at arm's length, but in the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day submissions on the WPPD website, work done with Zero Image cameras is usually among the most impressive.

I assume the 69 is for 6x9cm frames, therefore 120 film. In my own (limited) experience, larger formats tend to appear sharper. (Someday I should go through the math behind pinholes and see if that idea has any theoretical support!) Anyway, I'd say you are off to a good start.

 

[TheToadMen]

Welcome to APUG!
I agree with the others. The lines of the straight floor boards are wobbly too in the first image and not so in the second image.
This suggest that the film wasn't flat. If you load a film, put a little tension on the roll when winding the first part. This may help.

And may I suggest you try colour film as well in your Zero camera?
Enjoy!
Bert from Holland

 

[kier]

Yeah, somehow you got a wrinkle in your film in camera. As Bert mentioned, you'll want to make sure there's tension in the backing paper between the reels before you close it up. I have the same camera - I've never had this problem, but have always made sure to have tension before closing it up. I'm sure you'll resolve the issue with this.

Now, if you want to see some of what the Zero Image cameras can produce, I got you covered: http://fslashd.com/tag/zero-image/

Also, you look like you could use a little better exposure there. Got a smartphone? http://fslashd.com/2015/06/smartphone-apps-for-pinhole-photographers/

@DWThomas you're absolutely right, larger formats will appear sharper. But that's not a pinhole thing - it's the fact that larger formats don't need to be enlarged as much. No matter how the image was projected onto the film (lensed or lensless), larger format will get you sharper results.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG

Those are sharp for pin hole photography. You have a film flatness problem.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

That's a lot of wobble in the wooden slats! I suspect there is no tension in the film across the exposure area.

The way the back cover of the 69 camera presses against the film can result in imperfections of flatness, but the example of what you have shown is at the extreme end. I surmise that the film has not been tensioned during the loading so that there is reasonable (but not concise) flatness.

Re sharpness: Don't be tempted to "sharpen" pinhole images; what you have shown is normal in obtaining the characteristic softness but excellent definition of pinhole photography. The Zero Image cameras have an unusually sharp rendering to start off with, but they are still only pinholes, not asph lenses. Your objective should not be (like some LF people) to obtain a razor-sharp image from a pinhole, or sharpen it in the scan step until every little detail is visible, dammit.