Pinhole cameras - who's made one?

[Kramertron2000]

So Iv recently had a brainwave (dangerous, I know), and decided to try and make a pinhole camera. That part is simple enough. But I want one I can use roll film in (either 35mm or medium format), so Id need some kind of advance mechanism. I was thinking of sacrificing a disposable camera and using its internals.

Who has made a pinhole camera, and if you made one for roll film, how did you design the advance mechanism? The idea of a single shot and having to load a new piece of photo paper or film, or carry 10 cameras with me doesnt sound like fun.

 

[compur]

Get any old 35mm SLR plus a body cap and put a hole in the cap. Voila. Pinhole camera.

 

[Kramertron2000]

I could do that. Takes a bit of the fun out of it though I guess. Having said that I do have 2 Nikkormat FTns, and one of them the shutter speeds slower than 1/4s are dodgy, so it would be a good candidate.

 

[480sparky]

Get any old 35mm SLR plus a body cap and put a hole in the cap. Voila. Pinhole camera.

Dat's wut I dun.

 

[Derrel]

I used sheet film and a large Quaker oats cardboard tube to make my pinhole camera. The front lens was a pinhole in aluminum foil, taped to the front. This was a one shot and then reload pinhole camera.

 

[Kramertron2000]

Maybe a single shot dealy with some kind of "easy load/unload" system could work for sheet film or photo paper. By that I mean a removable or hinged top with a slot to slide the film or paper into and pull it out of, so even though you can only do one shot at a time it would only take a few seconds in a dark room to take the paper or film out and load another.

I have some nice offcuts of wood around that would be nice to do something creative with. Otherwise I could just poke a hole in a body cap for one of my SLRs as others suggested

I also thought about instax/polaroid film, but it seems to be a bit of a problem to get the developer evenly over it without putting it through a camera with the proper rollers

 

[snowbear]

35mm film box, pin hole in one end, cut other end flaps off, paint inside of box black, tape it to a 135mm ('Instamatic") cartridge.
Placed a piece of electrical tape over the hole for a shutter, use a coin to advance the film.

Hole in the body cap, too - works for film or digital.

 

[Kramertron2000]

Now that is an interesting idea - Iv never seen instamatic film before, but seems like a good system for this kind of thing.

 

[480sparky]

Pinhole camera build - b-a-r-e-n-d ©

 

[Kramertron2000]

Awesome link! That looks like exactly what I was after.
Thanks

 

[n614cd]

We used the spool from thread to wind the film onto. Then a short screwdriver to turn it.

Tim

Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk

 

[webestang64]

I used sheet film and a large Quaker oats cardboard tube to make my pinhole camera. The front lens was a pinhole in aluminum foil, taped to the front. This was a one shot and then reload pinhole camera.

Back in grade school (6th) our class did that with a shoe box. That was my one and only pinhole camera. Boy the 70's seem forever ago....LOL

 

[Derrel]

Here is a very complete article with many photographs showing how to make the classic Quaker oats pinhole camera. I love the vintage photos too!

https://sdsu-physics.org/assets/PDFs/oatmeal_pinhole_camera.pdf

 

[cgw]

Likely old news but this still qualifies as "hardcore" pinhole photography!

Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline produces 'dreamy' image | The Star

 

[Light Guru]

Do a google image search for pinhole camera film advance and there are several examples.


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[Grandpa Ron]

I took the lens off my SLR and made a cardboard barrel so the focal length was about 65 mm. A hole in the lens cap would have been easier.

The problem with the 35 mm format is image size. You will be hard put to make a pinhole less that .35 mm so the f value will be about f 200.
Buy the time you enlarge to a usable image the fuzziness that some like to call soft focus is too fuzzy for my taste.

You can of course order a laser cut pinhole about as small as you want but I would suggest using a 120 format if you are building a camera. I have a 4x5 view camera that I am tinkering with but the shutter mechanism is my main concern.

This is about as good a shot as I could get with 35 mm format and a .356 mm pinhole.