From the PepsiCam

[Kevin Caulfield]

Nice work, Anthony. I too am impressed by the sharpness of the car pic.

[Anthony J. Martinez]

I made a 4x5 pinhole camera this spring for WPPD. I already owned some 4x5 filmholders and shim stock, so my bigger expenses were a (lifetime supply of) brass blackening liquid and two T-nuts for horizontal and vertical tripod mounting. (The store was out of zinc plated nuts so I bought stainless!) A basement and garage/workshop full of miscellaneous miscellany supplied scraps of birch plywood and other material. I think it was some careful attention (and unusually good luck) with making the actual pinhole, but I believe this year's effort gave the best results I have ever gotten with a pinhole camera.

Anyway, it's fun stuff.

Hah! So that's you! I actually bookmarked your site from a search for DIY 4x5 Pinhole. I do not have any film holders, so that's going to have to be purchased. I was considering making film holders myself, but I'd like to be able to use the same holders with another camera later so I think I'm going to just buy some holders and build the camera around that. For the tripod mount on the PepsiCam I actually took a hacksaw to a 120 film spool (since they're reproducing in the corner at an alarming rate) and cut the end off. I tapped the hole in the bottom of the cut off spool end, and then shoved it through another piece of foam core. More duct tape, and there you have it!

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Is it just me, or is it kinda sad that these homemade pinhole cameras produce far better photos than the overpriced trashcams on eBay?

[Anthony J. Martinez]

Well the good results from my $7 investment certainly don't make me sad

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I'd be quite happy too. A pinhole has been on my to-do list for a few weeks, and if I can get that sort of results, I'll be tickled. A friend of mine has done a few, and has some images that could easily have come from a "proper" lensed camera.

[P C Headland]

Nice stuff.

Were the exposures guestimates, or did you cheat and use a meter

BTW, the doors off 3.5" floppies (remember those) make great pinhole stock.