Re: pinhole camera

David Jacobson (jacobson@cello.hpl.hp.com)
4 Apr 1997 08:50:30 -0800

In article <33440f14.890399@news.erols.com>, Laurie <ltanner@erols.com> wrote:
>Has anyone ever made their own pinhole camera? If so, what were your
>results like? I have some directions on how to make on but I am
>relucant to do so as of yet. I am also having a hard time finding the
>126 film it asks for. Any tips on where to buy it? Thanks in advance!
>****Laurie*

I haven't made one, but my daughter did. The film type is
unimportant. You probably want a film that is fairly large, ie at
least 120 and not 35mm. Or you can directly expose printing paper.
You get a reversed image, but it is direct. The f-stop is just the
pinhole-to-film distance divided by the pinhole diameter. The optimum
pinhole dimeter is give by .036 sqrt(si), where si is the distance
>from the pinhole to the film and all units are in millimeters.

The one my daughter made was just a shoebox with a piece of aluminum
foil with a needle hole for a pinhole, and black electrical tape for a
shutter. All interior surfaces were painted black. Photographic
paper (don't know the type, sorry) was taped against the back (with
safelight illumination in a darkroom), the lid put on, and taped with
masking tape, and the whole contraptions taken outside. They opened
the shutter for some number of seconds, (sorry again, but I don't
know), took it back in the darkroom, took it apart and developed the
paper.

-- David Jacobson