Buying a film camera...

[tataencu]

I am thinking of buying a cheap camera to use as a pinhole (since I am too lazy to build my own) and was thinking Canon EOS 3000 (RebelX) would do the trick...

What do you think? Or do you have other suggestions? (like maybe something cheaper, but remember I would like autofocus because I might use it for other things also)

 

[newrmdmike]

if you buy a pinhole buy a 4x5 pinhole . . .

film body, well, what do you want out of it? what are you using it for? i wouldn't buy rebel anything just bc of how plasticy they feel, but light gear is nice sometimes.

 

[newrmdmike]

and why 35mm?

 

[tataencu]

i was thinking of 35mm for future use as a standard 35mm camera and because being a little cheaper

do you have a suggetion/link for a 4x5 pinhole?

 

[newrmdmike]

let me look, i've seen some stellar 4x5 pinhole shots on that 55s film, its expensive though. when your not using that you could just use ortho film, or photo paper.

there was an artical in rangefinder actually that had it, maybe someone else here will be able to look and see which pinhole they used. i'll look for some links though

 

[tataencu]

ok. thanks a lot
i'm waiting :-D :-D

 

[newrmdmike]

a quick google search gave me this http://www.zeroimage.com/ and i've heard of them/seen them before.

i love building my own, and can build a camera in minutes, its really fun to do and would recommend it to you, it doesn't cost anything, and you can get good results.

 

[newrmdmike]

look on freestyle photo and bh for some others, the zero image cameras are pretty expensive.

 

[tataencu]

thanks a lot for the link. yeah I will build one myself for sure but that when I get some time, since now I'm having a lot of exams and stuff like that

until then I dunno..maybe I'll buy a readdy made one or make one from a standard camera...i'll see

 

[newrmdmike]

you can also just poke a hole in your body cap, or buy a laser cut pinhole body cap for $30, i think you can get those off the freestyle website.

 

[tataencu]

yea, that's what i'll do.
but the problem is I don't have a SLR, and not even a dSLR at the moment. I only own a Sony DSC-H2. That's why I was thinking of buying an eos 3000 or something similar and was asking for advice.

So...if I buy an eos 3000 at about 60$ just for this. Is it a resonable price? (just for the body)

 

[Steph]

Any 35mm camera with a bodycap will do. Just make sure it as a B or T setting as exposure times can be anything from about one second to several minutes. Some cameras rely on their batteries to leave the shutter open; this might be an issue if you do a lot of pinhole photography as the battery may drain more quickly than usual.

 

[tataencu]

after digging a little i found out that the canon eos 3000 uses the battery to hold the shutter open during bulb exposure.
but a new battery gives about 4 hours of non-stop bulb exposure...so it shouldn't be so bad

 

[usayit]

Since you are specifically looking for a SLR to make into a pin-hole, why don't you just purchase an old fully mechanical camera? No need to worry about batteries... plunger release with a stop watch should work nicely.