paint can pinhole camera, what size pinhole?

[timeUnit]

Sure, I'm going through a little "trouble" to make the camera... :-) But it's a lot of fun!

The only paint can I found was glossy yellow inside, so I "needed" to paint it black, which I did last night. Took maybe ten minutes.

The pinhole was made in the fashion you mention. Looks pretty good under a 8x loupe.

The shutter was easy to make, and looks pretty cool. If I had any magnets lying around I might have used them, but I don't.

One thing that needs to be understood is that Sweden is quite different from the US. While we have hardware stores in the city, they are less and less oriented towards selling hardware, and more into selling domestic appliances etc. Not seldom am I forced to take the car out of town to a hardware store for professionals, a store that of course closes at 5 pm, so I have no chance of making it after I get off work...

There is a big trend in Sweden towards buying everything pre-made. Getting parts to build things is increasingly difficult. Even the huge hardware stores in the suburbs have less and less material, and more and more pre-made. To me it's quite frustrating.

But back on topic. Paint can camera is almost ready. Tonight I'll mount the lens. ;-) That is, tape the pinhole to the inside of the can. Done!

[rwyoung]

Disappointing to hear about the hardware store dilemma in your country. Too bad. Lots of neat stuff to be had at old mom-and-pop style hardware stores!

Congratulations on your camera work though. Exciting stuff.

Two other accessories you might want to consider are a small platform you can screw onto your tripod. Then you strap the camera down to the platform. The second is a bean-bag style weight for steadying the camera.

I first tried attaching an appropriately sized nut to my metal cans and while that worked for a can set on its flat bottom, twisting the tripod for a horizontal shot let the can flop a bit as the metal bottom "bent".

Instead, I cut out a small platform from 1/4" MDF board. Covered with black felt so it was a little less slippery. And used a "t-nut" driven in from the back side to mount to the tripod. Now I can use some large rubber bands to hold my cameras to the platform either upright or on their side.

As for making a bean-bag, I just poured a pound or so of bird seed into a zip lock plastic bag. Then used a second bag for extra "strength". Cheap and works but down side is the plastic is a little slippery. Should really use fabric for the outer bag.