Anybody Ever Made a Pin Hole Camera? (Page 2): Last year I saw a pin hole camera kit at Barnes and Noble for $19.95. It looked pretty cool.

gekko Loc: Peekskill, NY

Last year I saw a pin hole camera kit at Barnes and Noble for $19.95. It looked pretty cool.

alliebess Loc: suburban Philadelphia

In my high school photography class we made pinhole cameras to use with 4x5 sheet film which we then developed and printed. I still have the phto, but the camera and negative are long gone. Some museums now sell pinhole camera kits. Ours were made of plain cardboard.

csharp Loc: Massachusetts Berkshires

alliebess wrote:

In my high school photography class we made pinhole cameras to use with 4x5 sheet film which we then developed and printed. I still have the phto, but the camera and negative are long gone. Some museums now sell pinhole camera kits. Ours were made of plain cardboard.

Scan the photo and post it. We'd love to see what you did.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

What a wonderful experience! Glad you mentioned it as I have a pin hole camera sitting here right now waiting to go outside and take a photo. A group of us photographers meet once a week for breakfast and came up with the idea of doing some good old fashioned back to basics photography.
David Kay

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Actually now you can get a pinhole body cap for a camera and take pin hole photos with your digital camera. I just bought one, but have not had the opportunity to try it.

There is nothing like the smell of developer and watching the image come alive in front of your eyes.

Yes, I still do that very often and in fact now playing with lith developement.

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

When I do a Photogtraphy Merit Badge class for Boy Scaouts I have pin hole camera I made out of a "Almond Kisses" can that is about 4" X 4" X 6" and show them what a "basic" camera is. I tape film to the lid and then drill a hole in the other end tape tin foil to the inside and then take a pin and make a hole in the tin foil and have a piece of black tape that is over the hole for a shutter. Then I show how a beam of light comes from the sun and hits a stick man and then boucees through the pin hole and ends up on the film upside down. Then the get to look under the darkcloth at the ground glass on my view camera and see how it works. It is a lot of fun - Dave

Eveline

Over the years I made several pinhole cameras. My favourite used 8x10 inch sheet film. The camera was made out of a box of photocopy paper. Large negatives and wonderful contact prints. I want to make more! I have tried digital pinholes but don't like the softness.

farnsworth52 Loc: W. Pa.

My first pinhole was a painted tin can with a removable lid. That camera, and I do mean camera, was the first time I felt like I had a little bit of what Photography was all about; freezing time for the future.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

Nikonian72 wrote:

I used a cylindrical oatmeal cereal box, so the curved B&W paper captured more in focus than a flat surface would have. All I remember is the long exposure required.

In a pinhole camera, everything is in focus regardless of the distance. That is provided the pinhole is small enough.
Of course if the pinhole is too small, the exposure is so long that you need a VERY steady support.

About 20 years ago, we did this with our grade 9 classes in conjunction with a unit on light. The students were amazed to see their image appear before their eyes and they had a very practical use for the science theory they had learned.

With my class, I also turned the entire classroom into a camera obscura. The student taped paper to the board opposite the windows. With the lights turned out and the windows blacked out except for a few pinholes, well, they were more like pencil holes, the students were able to trace the image onto the paper.

It was a great couple of days, enjoyed by students and staff alike.

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Eveline wrote:

Over the years I made several pinhole cameras. My favourite used 8x10 inch sheet film. The camera was made out of a box of photocopy paper. Large negatives and wonderful contact prints. I want to make more! I have tried digital pinholes but don't like the softness.

8X10 wow I used 4X5 a lot they enlarged to 8X10 nicley. the trouble with digital is you have to enlarge them too much and the pinholes I have made seem to have jagged edges so they get soft when enlarged. Has anyone bought or made a lazer cut pinhole. I think that may help. - Dave

hdp26 Loc: Upstate NY

In our junior high school we taught a science class based on a photography theme that meet our states science curriculum. The students had to make pinhole cameras that would accept both film and paper medium to create an image. The class taught concepts of physics of light, lenses and chemistry all structured around photography. Good thing we had access to lots of government surplus photography supplies. There must be hundreds of former students in our town that can recall making pinhole cameras. Hope it is a fond memory for them. One of these former students now is the head of the biggest photography store in town.

Izzy

Looks pretty neat. Kinda looks like he is looking over his shoulder at a storm coming at him.

csharp wrote:

When I was 13 years of age in 1945, I made a pin hole camera out of cardboard, painted black. I didn't know how to handle film so I used Kodak's thinest paper to record an image of my kid brother on a tricycle. I then made this contact print. Sixty-seven years later I can still remember the excitement as the image slowly appeared in the Dektol tray.

Anyone here have a similar experience? What moved you very early on in your photographic voyage?

kitcar Loc: Liverpool.Merseyside. UK

Brings back memories. My introduction to photography, (I was 10 at the time, 1941) was a DIY frame, an exposed film negative (subjuct didn't matter), light sensitive paper (think it was called contact paper), left on the window sill for a couple minutes (my first lesson exercise in light exposure). When an image was formed on the paper it was fixed in a Hypo mix. I was very fortunate that there was a photo' shop handy that dealt in used potography gear & all that was then very basic chemicals. The best buy was ex-army outdated 620 film (yes the cases where painted khaki). The owner showed me how to adapt the 620 film winder hole to 120 with a nail punch, worked every time. Sorry for going on, but I love a good memory jogger. Kitcar

csharp Loc: Massachusetts Berkshires

kitcar wrote:

Brings back memories. ..... I love a good memory jogger. Kitcar

Thanks to all who responded and jogged our memories of a simpler and more basic time in our respective travels in photography. We move ahead with Active-D Lighting but shouldn't forget the magic of light itself.

Izzy

why do I bother, most of you act like I am not even here.