Very excited: my Ilford Obscura pinhole camera comes today but in the mean time...

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

My Ilford Obscura Pinhole 4x5 is going to be delivered today but in the mean time, my shoe box keeps doing pretty well.
After my initial attempt at the pinhole I started over and tried to make one of the proper diameter and make it very clean and round. I think I did pretty well. It seems to be about .4 or so. I got my f stop worked out at f/256.
I set the camera on the rail of my front porch, it was snowing. The exposure was 28 minutes, the picture is of my neighbor's house. I got the black border by trimming the paper neg down a bit on two sides and allowing the edge to go black.

I toned it in Sepia after I was done.

I'm still amazed at what comes out of this thing.

pentaxuser · Dec 15, 2017

Nice one. It is like an "old days" photo which of course is exactly what it is

pentaxuser

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Nice one. It is like an "old days" photo which of course is exactly what it is

pentaxuser

Thank you. I'm anxious to see what comes out of a box that's constructed better than my shoebox.

Ces1um · Dec 15, 2017

I like how the car either arrived or left part way through your exposure. Could you please give us your impressions on the obscura once it arrives? I'd really like to see how you find it.

pentaxuser · Dec 15, 2017

Let us see the pics when you are able to use it. It will certainly help others who might be considering the Ilford model to decide if the improvement in quality, if any, is worth the expense.

Thanks
pentaxuser

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

Ces1um said:
I like how the car either arrived or left part way through your exposure. Could you please give us your impressions on the obscura once it arrives? I'd really like to see how you find it.

That's funny you should say that. My neighbor was getting ready to leave and they have a Ford truck that's usually parked there but they moved it and pulled the car you see in it's place so it's a smear of the truck and car together.

I will certainly come back and report on the Obscura.

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Let us see the pics when you are able to use it. It will certainly help others who might be considering the Ilford model to decide if the improvement in quality, if any, is worth the expense.

Thanks
pentaxuser

Will do. That's precisely what I'm wondering. I can say that the design is really nice. The way the top slides into the bottom is brilliant and much better design than I'd have thought of, though now that I've seen it I'm thinking about getting some black foam core and upgrading my shoe box to have the same design.

pentaxuser · Dec 15, 2017

Interesting point about the car. How long did it sit stationary to show up like that? I am assuming that in 28 minutes if it had simply arrived and then left in say 2 minutes it wouldn't show at all or be very faint but I have no real knowledge of what percentage of the total time something has to be there in a fixed spot to show up.

We now have motorways in the U.K. where traffic is virtually nose to tail for hours and moving at 60-70 mph but any one vehicle will occupy the scene for a couple of seconds only. I assume that this scenario shows as a kind of misty blur but I don't know

pentaxuser

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Interesting point about the car. How long did it sit stationary to show up like that? I am assuming that in 28 minutes if it had simply arrived and then left in say 2 minutes it wouldn't show at all or be very faint but I have no real knowledge of what percentage of the total time something has to be there in a fixed spot to show up.

We now have motorways in the U.K. where traffic is virtually nose to tail for hours and moving at 60-70 mph but any one vehicle will occupy the scene for a couple of seconds only. I assume that this scenario shows as a kind of misty blur but I don't know

pentaxuser

I don't know either. I had to look out the window to see what had happened after I printed it and saw the result!
If the cars are moving, then it will be a long snake like blur I think.

That's part of the fun, this weird stuff that happens.

DWThomas · Dec 15, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Interesting point about the car. How long did it sit stationary to show up like that? I am assuming that in 28 minutes if it had simply arrived and then left in say 2 minutes it wouldn't show at all or be very faint but I have no real knowledge of what percentage of the total time something has to be there in a fixed spot to show up.

We now have motorways in the U.K. where traffic is virtually nose to tail for hours and moving at 60-70 mph but any one vehicle will occupy the scene for a couple of seconds only. I assume that this scenario shows as a kind of misty blur but I don't know

pentaxuser

I've had two interesting experiences with that. One, a 14 or 15 second pinhole exposure on film looking across an expressway here that is never totally empty, and I see nothing recognizable of vehicles. The other was a pinhole exposure along a local rail trail. In the final image there was some weird, angled soft streak showing against some evenly gray pavement. Thinking back, I remembered that as I had the shutter open, a guy came by on a bicycle. I suspect it was a momentary flash of sunlight from a polished pedal crank, well above normal light intensity, but nothing else registered. Grand fun!

@rpavich good luck with the new acquisition, you've made great progress with the shoebox!

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

DWThomas said:
I've had two interesting experiences with that. One, a 14 or 15 second pinhole exposure on film looking across an expressway here that is never totally empty, and I see nothing recognizable of vehicles. The other was a pinhole exposure along a local rail trail. In the final image there was some weird, angled soft streak showing against some evenly gray pavement. Thinking back, I remembered that as I had the shutter open, a guy came by on a bicycle. I suspect it was a momentary flash of sunlight from a polished pedal crank, well above normal light intensity, but nothing else registered. Grand fun!

@rpavich good luck with the new acquisition, you've made great progress with the shoebox!

That's good to know!

Just waiting on the Fedex guy, and while I'm waiting, I made one out of a Kentmere 30.5mm roll film box.

ic-racer · Dec 15, 2017

The 'ghost car' reminds me of paper negative pinhole pictures I made in the 1970s. I had not made any since, however, for this years Eclipse, I used pinhole to image the sun. On film this time.

Let us know how the new camera works for you.

winger · Dec 15, 2017

rpavich said:
That's part of the fun, this weird stuff that happens.

Now you're having fun! When you start noticing all the different containers that might work and wondering how things will look after a few minutes of exposure, you're hooked. Good work with the shoe box! I should get back to some of my old ones.

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

ic-racer said:
The 'ghost car' reminds me of paper negative pinhole pictures I made in the 1970s. I had not made any since, however, for this years Eclipse, I used pinhole to image the sun. On film this time.

Let us know how the new camera works for you.

Will do.

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

winger said:
Now you're having fun! When you start noticing all the different containers that might work and wondering how things will look after a few minutes of exposure, you're hooked. Good work with the shoe box! I should get back to some of my old ones.

That's exactly what's been going through my mind!

MattKing · Dec 15, 2017

Looks like you are having fun!
The reason I bought a "manufactured" camera rather than trying to make my own isn't so much to do with the "quality" of the results, but rather the ease of film (in my case) handling. I expect that is what you will notice most with the Ilford camera.
That, and the fact that I am much better with cameras than just about any other tools!

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

And one made from a Kentmere film box.
Ilford MGIV preflashed for 1.5 seconds at f/16 enlarger head all of the way up. Printed at 0 grade.

Ces1um · Dec 15, 2017

rpavich said:
My Ilford Obscura Pinhole 4x5 is going to be delivered today but in the mean time, my shoe box keeps doing pretty well.
After my initial attempt at the pinhole I started over and tried to make one of the proper diameter and make it very clean and round. I think I did pretty well. It seems to be about .4 or so. I got my f stop worked out at f/256.
I set the camera on the rail of my front porch, it was snowing. The exposure was 28 minutes, the picture is of my neighbor's house. I got the black border by trimming the paper neg down a bit on two sides and allowing the edge to go black.

I toned it in Sepia after I was done.

I'm still amazed at what comes out of this thing.View attachment 191862

Do you know what your post made me do? It made me check out walker cameras to look at the harmon titan pinhole. That's a pinhole camera which I had been considering buying for quite some time. It was on sale for a considerable discount. Your post made me buy it, a second 150mm cone, some film holders and film. Your post single handedly made me enter the worlds of both large format and pinhole photography. I hope you're happy with yourself. You're a bad influence

rpavich · Dec 15, 2017

Ces1um said:
Do you know what your post made me do? It made me check out walker cameras to look at the harmon titan pinhole. That's a pinhole camera which I had been considering buying for quite some time. It was on sale for a considerable discount. Your post made me buy it, a second 150mm cone, some film holders and film. Your post single handedly made me enter the worlds of both large format and pinhole photography. I hope you're happy with yourself. You're a bad influence

Glad I could be of service!
I'd love to have that one but it's too expensive for right now.

Theo Sulphate · Dec 15, 2017

Very good results you have there.

What I like about the long exposures required of pinhole photography is that the resulting image is not an instant in time, but shows a brief passage of time as an additional dimension.

MattKing · Dec 16, 2017

Theo Sulphate said:
Very good results you have there.

What I like about the long exposures required of pinhole photography is that the resulting image is not an instant in time, but shows a brief passage of time as an additional dimension.

Unless of course you have good friends who are very patient (3 minutes!) and great sports:

lantau · Dec 16, 2017

I bought this one too. The only disappointment was that they don't have direct positive paper in there anymore. Instead it is two packages of MGIV and one package Delta 100. I haven't clocked up even ten exposures in more than a year, but it was still a worthwhile purchase. I normally load it in my bathroom and then take one shot somewhere, but once I headed into town with it and a changing bag. I used three sheets of Provia and one Foma 400 and it was feeling a bit strange to sit on a bench with my hands in the changing bag handling camera, boxes and film sheets. Wonder what people thought I was doing. At least no one was droping a coin.

rpavich · Dec 16, 2017

lantau said:
I bought this one too. The only disappointment was that they don't have direct positive paper in there anymore. Instead it is two packages of MGIV and one package Delta 100. I haven't clocked up even ten exposures in more than a year, but it was still a worthwhile purchase. I normally load it in my bathroom and then take one shot somewhere, but once I headed into town with it and a changing bag. I used three sheets of Provia and one Foma 400 and it was feeling a bit strange to sit on a bench with my hands in the changing bag handling camera, boxes and film sheets. Wonder what people thought I was doing. At least no one was droping a coin.

Yeah, that was disappointing to me. I had to buy a couple of boxes from Europe. I'm taking it out today with my changing bag to see how it goes.

Ces1um · Dec 16, 2017

lantau said:
I bought this one too. The only disappointment was that they don't have direct positive paper in there anymore. .

I've never used direct positive paper before. Can it be used in a standard film holder? what's needed for chemistry to develop/fix it after it's exposed? I'm really intrigued with the entire idea of this. Would you mind pm'ing me with some info on it if you get a second and don't mind doing so? It'd be much appreciated.

Ces1um · Dec 16, 2017

MattKing said:
Unless of course you have good friends who are very patient (3 minutes!) and great sports:

Very impressive that they could sit that still for so long!

Very excited: my Ilford Obscura pinhole camera comes today but in the mean time...

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Very excited: my Ilford Obscura pinhole camera comes today but in the mean time...

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