zero image - minimum focus distance

[SusanK]

I recently purchased a Zero Image 69 camera. By it's simplicity, a new form of creativity is now bouncing around in my mind. So, I'm wondering, with an effective f/stop of 235... how close can I get to the subject matter in the foreground and retain focus?

SusanK

 

[Jim Noel]

I have used mine as close as 18". This is likely not the near limit.
Jim

 

[Bromo33333]

I don't think there is a "focal length" per se - you will have diffraction effects that will limit your sharpness anyway - and the length from the pinhole to the film and the diameter of the hole will just determine your image crop.

Why not just shoot some extreme close ups and see what you get?

 

[Pinholemaster]

Why not try shooting something one inch away and report back to us.

It's a great camera.

 

[CarlRadford]

An inch or two is good

 

[RH Designs]

I recently purchased a Zero Image 69 camera. By it's simplicity, a new form of creativity is now bouncing around in my mind. So, I'm wondering, with an effective f/stop of 235... how close can I get to the subject matter in the foreground and retain focus?

SusanK

I remember reading somewhere (forget where, sorry!) that the depth of field of a pinhole camera is from infinity to whatever the focal length of the "lens" is. So on my Zero Image 2000 which has a 25mm (1") focal length, the d-o-f is from infinity to 25mm in front of the pinhole.

 

[Tom Miller]

The focal length of the Zero 6x9 is 40mm, or about an inch and a half. Anything from the pinhole to infinity will get recorded and, in one sense, be in focus. If the photographed object is closer to the pinhole than the focal length, it will be magnified, and will appear softer or fuzzier than the the portions of the image that are farther away. A good rule of thumb for this camera would be to photograph objects that are at least 40mm away from the camera to retain equal clarity throughout the image.

 

[Jim Jones]

Pinholemaster gives the most practical advice for your photography. A properly designed pinhole camera is noticably sharpest at a certain distance. Judging from the published specifications, the Zero 6x9 is optimized for fairly close subjects. Extremely close subjects will be much less sharp. This quality can be used creatively, though.