I know that the people who bother to make & use pinhole cameras tend to be divergent types so I thought I'd ask, what's the most "different" pinhole you've ever made? In the interest of science I'm posting a pic of mine: a pinhole "lens" that's the eye of Jesus.
Poptart, I don't know if this means you're genuinely righteous, or an evil blasphemer.
Fortunately, I don't particularly care...
The further off the beaten path I've gone to date is mounting perfectly ordinary brass shim stock pinholes in the lids of Altoids Gum tins to make super-wide angle 35 mm pinhole cameras. The images are remarkable...
Photography has always fascinated me -- as a child, simply for the magic of capturing an image onto glossy paper with a little box, but as an adult because of the unique juxtaposition of science and art -- the physics of optics, the mechanics of the camera, the chemistry of film and developer, alongside the art in seeing, composing, exposing, processing and printing.
Did you center or off-center the pinhole?
Did you put your pinhole in the lid of the can or through the bottom?
What pinhole size did you use?
What did you use to darken the inside of the tin?
In total darkness, how do you determine and cut the length of film to put in the can?
How do you secure the film in the can?
Did you center or off-center the pinhole?
Did you put your pinhole in the lid of the can or through the bottom?
What pinhole size did you use?
What did you use to darken the inside of the tin?
In total darkness, how do you determine and cut the length of film to put in the can?
How do you secure the film in the can?
I can give you some answers here...
Did you center or off-center the pinhole?
It doesn't matter except the Altoid can has round corners. Easier to put it in the middle.
Did you put your pinhole in the lid of the can or through the bottom?
Only matters in that the overlap is on the top so the bottom would be a better place to put the film to elimnate potential light leaks.
What pinhole size did you use?
Small very small. Only Donald knows for sure.
What did you use to darken the inside of the tin?
Paint. Black flat Krylon or Rustoleum would work.
In total darkness, how do you determine and cut the length of film to put in the can?
Can't you tell, Donald chewed it with his teeth. In reality, all you have to do is make a template out of shirt cardboard, line it up with the film s you pull it out of the cassette in total darkness, then cut.
How do you secure the film in the can?
Two ways come to mind. One is two sided tape. The other is to make the film just long enough to wedge into the bottom of the can.
Tim's pretty close -- the hole is .006" (two the same, in fact, for two tins), the hole is in the lid and the film in the bottom, held in place by a pair of strips of matt board, film curl over the convex bottom against the strips. The strips give about a 1/16 unexposed edge, covers about half the edge markings.
These tins are especially nice for this because they're *exactly* the right width for 35 mm.
Photography has always fascinated me -- as a child, simply for the magic of capturing an image onto glossy paper with a little box, but as an adult because of the unique juxtaposition of science and art -- the physics of optics, the mechanics of the camera, the chemistry of film and developer, alongside the art in seeing, composing, exposing, processing and printing.
No sure what everyone else used to block the pinhole, but I simply tape a piece of black cardboard over the pinhole. When I want to start the exposure, I simply remove it; simple, quick and easy.
I've used black electrical tape on my GumPintoids, but you can also use a piece of flexible magnet strip, or a small ceramic magnet (easier to remove for exposure if you glue on a handle of some sort), or any sort of tape with a black piece of cardboard (matt board, poster board, etc.) to cover the actual pinhole. I've also used camera shutters, though so far only in converted cameras that already had a shutter...
You should be able to put 120 film in a Pintoid -- lemme check...
Okay, I have half a dozen Everest gum tins awaiting conversion; they'll accept 120 film of about 6x6 dimension; it's a snug fit for width and you'd have to trim corners to fit in a longer piece. I don't have a standard Altoids tin handy, but I've heard 2x3 sheet film just nicely wedges by the corners in those, which means they should also accept 120 if you get the length just right. I'd suggest cutting to 6x6 and using small rails to hold the film against the inside bottom of the tin; that way you don't have a major problem if your stop slips in the dark and you cut a roll a mm or two too long or short.
BTW, the mini-Altoids tins accept 35 mm film, and are the basis of Marcy Merrill's "SpyPintoids" -- very tiny cameras using approximately square chips of 35 mm. I've got a couple Starbuck's mints tins here that also will hold similar film, but those are no longer available from Starbuck's.
BTW, if you're shopping around for tins and like cocoa, Starbuck's currently has a 3-flavor pack of cocoa that includes *three* pinhole cameras -- 120 degree sectors of a cylinder, so the three tins pack like a single can. The tins look as if they'd hold 4x5 on the curved side with the pinhole in the center edge to make nice curved film semi-pano cameras. I'm still debating -- I'd never drink the cocoa, but my wife probably would; however, I'm about 15 tins behind on pinhole camera making and can't really spare $15. Maybe the tins will turn up at Goodwill...
Photography has always fascinated me -- as a child, simply for the magic of capturing an image onto glossy paper with a little box, but as an adult because of the unique juxtaposition of science and art -- the physics of optics, the mechanics of the camera, the chemistry of film and developer, alongside the art in seeing, composing, exposing, processing and printing.
Thanks for all of the great information on the Altoid pinhole.
I had assumed that the mint and the gum were packaged in the same sized can. Soon after I started building a pinhole in an Altoid Mint Can, I became aware of the smaller Altoid Gum Can. I am now in the process of also building a pinhole camera in the 35mm sized Altoid Gum Can.
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Originally Posted by narsuitus
