Hi.
When I made a pinhole camera many years ago, I used copper strip that was very thin and placed that over an open Âbox made of cardboard and pushed a dressmakerâs pin through the copper in the middle.
I used printout paper as the sensitive material then used it as a paper negative after soaking it in thin machine oil.
I developed it and fixed it normally.
Did you know a film may be developed by rubbing with a human thumb?
As with the box pin hole camera the results are awful.
I also made photographs using copper plates. I cleaned the copper plate with acetone then washed it with hydrochloric acid washed with distilled water then dried with acetone.
It was then exposed to light using a lens and a window.
I then plated it with silver by putting it in silver nitrate solution. It was washed then rinsed with hydrochloric acid and washed again and then gold plated with gold chloride solution.
I then washed it with distilled water.
All I got was an image of the window in silver and gold.
Later I took a conventional black and white image and exposed the copper plate with an enlarger.
Eventually I made an image in silver and gold of an unclothed young women.
Then I was attacked.
From: owner-photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 07 February 2011 15:07
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
Subject: RE: making a pinhole
Well I have a drill press and tools so what I was planning to do is drill the hole directly into the body cap, but don't know if I can find a bit that small after hearing the discussions. Taking it into the body cap would give a good clean hole that wouldn't tear up every time you threw it into a bag like aluminum foil would. Anything paper, ect would be destroyed the first time you tossed it in the camera bag. I was hoping for something durable enough that it could bounce around, be abused by banging into other stuff in a camera bag, and still be totally functional.
The solid material being plastic I might be able to heat a needle and melt a hole through it. Drilling would give the cleanest hole and I suspect that would be key. The thickness of the material also could and likely would be an issue I didn't think about.
Rather than aluminum foil, if I glued some cloth over a bigger hole, fiberglassed over it, painted it flat black, anyone see any problems. Would be thicker than foil, but likely much much stronger. It would also be a pain to redo if damaged. Oh well
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: making a pinhole
From: Tim Corio <tcorio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, February 07, 2011 8:17 am
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
<photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I played with this a few years ago using my Canon 5D. I cut a large
hole in a body cap and glued a paper towel tube (painted black on the
inside) to that. Glued a cardboard disk to the end with a small
(quarter inch) hole. I painted the whole outside black in several
layers to fill in a few small light leaks.
Over the hole in the end of the tube I taped a piece of aluminum foil.
In that foil I poked a small hole using a pin.
This gave pretty good results. I could not get a clean hole. Small
defects in the hole scattered light reducing contrast.
Body caps are cheap on eBay and the rest of the material is nearly free.
You can experiment a lot for little cost.
Tim
On Sun, 2011-02-06 at 21:43 -0600, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> On 2011-02-06 16:20, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Came up with an idea. Toyed with the idea of trying some pinhole
> > photography but something always seems to get in the way. Came up with
> > an idea to turn a regular film/digital camera into a pinhole using a
> > body cap. Should work on any 35mm digital ect that would accept that
> > kind of cap, and an extra cap in the bag weighs next to nothing and no
> > bulk or extra stuff to lug around.
>
> Would you be shocked to learn they're commercially available? I have
> one for my Nikon bodies. I've done a tiny bit with it on digital; I
> should try it on the D700, which should be a bit better than the DX
> cameras; a bit.
>
> > Now I suspect the smaller the hole the better as far as sharpness, but
> > is there a group of sizes that I should try? How much of a difference
> > in hole size should I allow. Granted a body cap isn't going to alter
> > the GDP, but its not like getting another piece of cardboard either. Id
> > be interested to hear thoughts and ideas of those with pinhole
> > experience.
>
> For sharpness, there's an optimal hole size (depends on distance from
> sensor), and either bigger or smaller loses you resolution. For
> 35mm-size cameras, going for sharpness is a mugs game, though; you don't
> get sharp pinhole photography from that small a neg.
>
> (Lots of easy online resources on hold size.)
>
