12-03-08 – Pinhole Camera – Its not photography, its Farktography

This topic has 64 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 4 months ago by corsec67.

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October 23, 2008 at 12:51 am #1463

Elsinore
Keymaster

Take some shots with a pinhole camera, lens, or lens cap.

Theme suggestion by Killerclaw–thanks!

October 23, 2008 at 5:00 am #19760

corsec67
Participant

Hmm, I will have to dig out the pinhole lens I made out of a body cap and use it some more. I have a piece of aluminum can with the hole sanded in it.
Sample:

Are all of the pictures in this theme going to be about that quality level, or does anyone have a secret to getting better quality?

One thing I want to take advantage of is the very deep dof.

(I am assuming that CCTV/Security camera pinhole lenses are out of this theme, since they have glass elements?)

October 23, 2008 at 11:44 pm #19761

sleeping
Participant

does anyone have a secret to getting better quality?

There’s a formula for the “correct” hole size, which depends on the distance between the image plane and the pinhole, which will give the best quality. The trouble is accurately measuring a very small hole….

http://pinhole.stanford.edu/pinholemath.htm

October 24, 2008 at 1:53 am #19762

justkat
Participant

i was told there’d be no math.

October 24, 2008 at 3:06 am #19763

sleeping
Participant

i was told there’d be no math.

Well, it’s not strictly *necessary*, but a little bit can be useful on occasion 😉

November 6, 2008 at 4:58 am #19764

sleeping
Participant

I did a bunch last weekend, on Polaroid & Fuji instant film, using a pinhole I made by stabbing some foil with a pin:

http://flickr.com/photos/awrose/tags/pinhole/

November 8, 2008 at 4:35 pm #19765

olavf
Participant

Does anyone have any experience with Lenox Laser (http://www.lenoxlaser.com/pinholephotos/index.html)? They’ve got some pretty nifty looking stuff, including a pinhole fitting for my EOS for $33. Highly tempting…

November 8, 2008 at 11:55 pm #19766

soosh
Participant

never heard of them, but their photoslits look very interesting. nice find!

November 9, 2008 at 12:42 am #19767

olavf
Participant

Thanks. That was part of what I was thinking about in the long run. The only challenge there is going to be fitting them in a cap in such a way that they’re replaceable (preferably in the field). I think some experimentation might be in order…

November 14, 2008 at 9:46 am #19768

Killerclaw
Participant

I’m just borrowing a friend’s pinhole camera and using photopaper.

November 14, 2008 at 9:36 pm #19769

Elsinore
Keymaster

(I am assuming that CCTV/Security camera pinhole lenses are out of this theme, since they have glass elements?)

To ensure maximum participation, I don’t think we should rule out pinhole lenses. Any pinhole should work, with or without lenses.

November 21, 2008 at 7:52 pm #19770

Elsinore
Keymaster

Ok, I made a pinhole myself and got results similar to corsec‘s. FWIW, those of you with Lensbabies, I made mine with one of my aperture rings (the f/4 to be exact) and used it in my Lensbaby. I glued aluminum foil across the aperture ring (kind of like a frame) and used the extremely fine point of one of my sewing machine needles to poke the tiniest pinhole I could in the middle of the foil. It’s hard to estimate the size of the pinhole when you’re dealing with such a tiny size, but I estimated that it was still bigger than the “optimum” you get when you use one of the calculators (plus, I was using it on top of the ~50mm Lensbaby optic, so that complicated things.

So I ordered up one of the pinhole body caps from Lenoxlaser.com. Theirs are 240 microns in diameter, so very tiny indeed. They had it in stock and shipped it quickly. Played with it some a bit ago, and the results are as bad (possibly worse? should have kept more of my Lensbaby ones to compare to) as the homemade one. I guess I’m just not getting the point of the whole pinhole experience. Everything’s supposed to be equally in focus, but it’s really just equally soft due to diffraction. It’s worse than that, it’s physics, Jim! Maybe I should try it out on an EOS film body sometime (of course, I’d have to get one, first…). Not sure if that would change things? Or I just need to find something that looks good when it’s out of focus 😉

November 21, 2008 at 8:00 pm #19771

corsec67
Participant

I think this is going to be a “everything is going to be blurry” theme.

There is a reason not many people use pinholes. I think that the quality get better as the film size gets bigger, but the aperture gets much smaller. (Smaller than f/200?!)

I have made a pretty good pinhole, taking a bit of aluminum from a can, sanding off the paint from both sides, poking it with a pin (not all the way through), and then sanding the other side to make a nice hole about .3mm across.

Altough composition is hard, pinholes are kind of good for very macro stuff.

November 21, 2008 at 8:08 pm #19772

Elsinore
Keymaster

Hmmm I’ll have to try something more macro….

November 21, 2008 at 8:39 pm #19773

corsec67
Participant

Hmmm I’ll have to try something more macro….

(That is uncropped on my APS sized sensor)

I used a CFL lamp so that something would show up on the focus screen to make it easier. Otherwise, you have a 1-5 second exposure, dark frame subtraction, and then recompose cycle.
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