I have been a reader of this blog for quite a few years. I must have stumbled upon it around the time I was getting into film photography and was working through decades of photographic gear to determine what my starting point would be. Since then I have discovered that what attracts me to film …
Developing and Shooting a 3D Printed Large Format Leaf Shutter Read More
Many moons ago I was keen to try my hand with large format, as large as I could manage, 10 x 8 seeming a good choice. You can tell how long ago from my pinhole shot of the Humber Bridge in the UK which shows it under construction some 50 years ago! Since large format film was way beyond my means at the time I thought I would try enlarging paper to produce paper negatives which I would then contact print onto more enlarging paper to produce a positive image, just like Fox-Talbot.
When I became aware of the existence of the Solarcan™ (the cheap and easy yet effective famous solargraphy pinhole camera), I immediately ordered one and, lucky me, received it just several days before a solstice. My little house is facing the South almost perfectly, and I climbed on a tall and shaky ladder to attach the can to the downspout with duct tape, as high as my fear of breaking myself a leg could afford.
I’ve built a bunch of conversions out of a vintage folding Zeiss 520/15. Most of these 6×12 cameras end up with a 65mm f/8 lens. It wasn’t until I was commissioned to build a similar 6×9 camera that the format caught my attention. The client wanted a 65mm to get the feel of his 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. Here is the camera I came up with for him.
Two main factors determine how a pinhole camera “sees” – that is, whether its angle of view is wide, normal or tele. The first is the sensor size (throughout this post I’ll use ‘sensor’ as a general term for any photosensitive surface, including film, paper or digital sensor). The second is the focal distance (the …
A Calculator for Pinhole Camera Design – by Sroyon Read More
