Author Topic: My new pinholaroid apparatus / contraption (Read 6505 times)

DS · « **on:** May 25, 2010, 04:32:07 PM »

So, as you know I bought two Hasselblad instant backs. One was in good shape and is used on the 'blad. One was a bit tired and destined for other things...

Two plates comprising The hasselblad gubbins unscrew to expose the full size of the film. I then glued and screwed a piece of hardboard to the bit of the back where the mounting plates were.

The box part of the camera is made of a tin that contained a watch or aftershave or somesuch. I cut a hole out of the back the same size as the film and a hole in the front to take the pinhole. This gave a focal length of about 50mm or so- so I made three spacers from foamcore mounting board to make the focal length slightly longer (and give the art-deco stylee accents). The whole was covered in copious duct tape for structural and aesthetic reasons. The inside was covered in a couple of coats of matt black plastikote spraypaint for light-tightness and to kill reflections

The pinhole is made of a bit of beer can, the complicated shutter mechanisim is a bit of black ringbinder cover.

The focal length is about 63mm. The diameter of the pinhole is 0.273 ish mm so it's about f230 and gives about a 98? on the long dimension of the film. There's a tripod mount crudely grafted to the bottom.

I downloaded a program called piholecalc to work out what size of pinhole I needed and made a few to try and get one closest to what it thinks is the optimal diameter (0.292mm)

It seems fairly light tight as long as I don't leave it out in the sun and I'm reasonably happy with the results:

(this one went weird- leaks and weird internal reflections?)

Miller · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2010, 04:55:13 PM »

Nice full frame Cut & Shut job as we say in London...

The pics are also worthy a mention... Sweeeeet and I await more images.

Thanks for sharing and I like the 'weird' one.

Rgds

Mlr

astrobeck · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2010, 05:36:41 PM »

Lovely!
Hooray for pinhole, and the weird one at the bottom has perfect "hole" flare.

You can avoid this in the future if you care or want to by shading the pinhole from the sun's glare a bit--I usually just move my hand to make a shadow on the hole without blocking the scenery.
Perfect contraption and want to see MORE!!!!

DS · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2010, 05:40:05 PM »

@ miller & astro
Thanks!

I like the weird one- and I now know it's flare so I can reproduce it. Will try some black and white tomorrow...

LT · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2010, 06:13:50 PM »

great stuff - keep em coming.

Diane Peterson · « **Reply #5 on:** May 25, 2010, 07:31:31 PM »

Pinholes are always so fascinating! these are great....

CarlRadford · « **Reply #6 on:** May 25, 2010, 08:32:36 PM »

Pretty darn creative

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #7 on:** May 25, 2010, 09:53:10 PM »

I have a stack of admiration for anyone who is experimenting.

I really dig the last one.

DS · « **Reply #8 on:** May 25, 2010, 10:32:42 PM »

I like experimenting- just wish I could do it full time instead of having to work

I'm new to this instant film mullarkey- I've found reciprocity charts from fuji for the fp-100c but they only seem to go up to about a minute. I've tried a few longer exposures (c. 5min) but they came out seriously underexposed even with 5 extra stops extra added .... Does anyone have any further info about what happens with seriously long exposures with this film?

Francois · « **Reply #9 on:** May 25, 2010, 10:33:43 PM »

Happy to see I inspired somebody to tinker

It's not always as hard as it seems to do something that works.

OK, I would have done it with less duct tape and probably a lot more epoxy glue but if it works for you, that's all that really matters

DS · « **Reply #10 on:** May 25, 2010, 10:50:12 PM »

Quote from: Francois on May 25, 2010, 10:33:43 PM

Happy to see I inspired somebody to tinker
It's not always as hard as it seems to do something that works.

OK, I would have done it with less duct tape and probably a lot more epoxy glue but if it works for you, that's all that really matters

Yeah- I planned to epoxy (I love epoxy) but my stash of araldite went bad- I was on holiday at my girlfriend's parent's summer house last week and sadly it's far away from shops. At first I was a bit distraught that I might not finish my little project but then I realised that while there was no hope of glue there was plenty of duct-tape. There's two layers because I tried to paint the first layer with plastikote and it dissolved the tape. Will have to get around to posting about the other home-made cameras. Some of them even have lenses....

BTW- I'm a natural born tinkerer- I've always enjoyed making stuff but sadly now I live in a two room apartment with no access to a workshop. I do have, however lots of sketch books full of things I will make when the happy day arrives when I have my own shed.

astrobeck · « **Reply #11 on:** May 26, 2010, 01:25:15 AM »

Quote from: DS on May 25, 2010, 10:32:42 PM

I like experimenting- just wish I could do it full time instead of having to work

Does anyone have any further info about what happens with seriously long exposures with this film?

In my own use, I have found it seriously shifts to the blue.....

DS · « **Reply #12 on:** May 26, 2010, 01:34:14 AM »

Quote from: astrobeck on May 26, 2010, 01:25:15 AM

Quote from: DS on May 25, 2010, 10:32:42 PM
I like experimenting- just wish I could do it full time instead of having to work

Does anyone have any further info about what happens with seriously long exposures with this film?

In my own use, I have found it seriously shifts to the blue.....

Yep- I find very, very dark blue:

Francois · « **Reply #13 on:** May 26, 2010, 03:37:41 PM »

Quote from: DS on May 25, 2010, 10:50:12 PM

Yeah- I planned to epoxy (I love epoxy) but my stash of araldite went bad-

I never tried this for epoxy but I know I keep my cyanoacrylate glue (crazy glue) and my silicon caulk in the refrigerator door. The cold prevents the product from drying up in the nozzles yet is not cold enough to cause the creation of crystals. I just take it out of the fridge before working with it. Never had any problems from doing that.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #14 on:** May 27, 2010, 01:39:17 PM »

Nice stuff. Really nice in fact. This has me thinking....

I should definitely look into doing something similar for the summer. I fancy shooting some 125i pinholes and then staining them in coffee as per my usual 'style over substance' process. I have a lovely Zero 120 format pinhole came, but I stopped using it along with all of my other 120 cameras about a year ago when my busy life got even busier and I pushed me into using instant film pretty much to the exclusion of all else. An instant pinhole cam sounds like a great idea.

Construction-wise, should I just try and ballpark it or do I need to make reasonably precise measurements etc.? I know there's a lot of literature out there on making a pinhole, but does anyone have a shortcut to happiness (I feel the need for a Miller-style, 5 step set of instructions

)? I'll probably get a single evening to cobble it together. I have the option of using either a 550 and/or a 405 film back. I have a 545 sheet film holder too, but suspect that's a step too far :-)

astrobeck · « **Reply #15 on:** May 27, 2010, 02:45:44 PM »

Ed,
Just make, hand drill, or get a pinhole of any small size and run with it and you'll be fine with any kit you set up.

After hand drilling over a hundred holes and using them in various cameras and cobbled together boxes, I have found that I can get a happy image without trying too hard. The light here in NM is fabulous, so the tough part is just selecting the scenery.

The majority of the pinholes I drill with sewing needles and stop drilling once I feel the prick of the needle tip through the material (brass shim stock) that I am using.

I don't time my exposures any more and just "become the emulsion" and guesstimate how long to let the exposure go depending on light and subject. I also let my exposures go a little extra long to account for reciprocity-which if you read any film mfg. tables on it, they never account for lengthy exposures like pinhole usually demands.

The exposure tables, with angles and pinhole sizes etc. are abundant on the web, but I don't look at them any more and just wing it.

Be laid back and just have fun with it- you'll do great!

Diane Peterson · « **Reply #16 on:** May 27, 2010, 03:05:46 PM »

If you can get your hands on a#16 BEADIING needle you can get a really tiny pinhole...#16 is the smallest/finest needle made and i just hot glued it to the open mouth of a clothes pin...and like astrobeck says you don't have to try to hard after that! and she should know cause she has come up with some outrageous images with her pinholes..She certainly has inspired me!

Francois · « **Reply #17 on:** May 27, 2010, 03:31:55 PM »

Or if you want to go high tech, just get the Pinhole Designer (pinhole.cz). It calculates everything and even prints exposure calibration charts. Small and sweet.

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #18 on:** May 27, 2010, 03:50:28 PM »

I bought this on ebay a few years ago - it looks like a Polaroid back that has been modified, but, more substantial that a normal back. Oddly it has a Polaroid plate on one side (which you can see) and on the other it has a plate screwed to it saying Olympus.

I have looked for Francois mark on it somewhere!

It is very, very wide!

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astrobeck · « **Reply #19 on:** May 27, 2010, 04:04:41 PM »

Wow Phil!
That is quite a find!!!!!

Please use it and show us......something like this get's me all tingly !!

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #20 on:** May 27, 2010, 04:13:09 PM »

Here are a couple of old ones that I have never used - one of me and one for fun when I was testing it. A few weeks ago I stuck a IR filter over the front and put it out in the sun - kind of looking for your solar trace effect - I left it out for 3 hours and it was still too dark. I could just begin to see the line burned by the sun - perhaps I'll try again and leave it all day.

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Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #21 on:** May 27, 2010, 04:13:51 PM »

Naturally the tree and cat are real

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #22 on:** May 27, 2010, 04:54:17 PM »

Quote from: astrobeck on May 27, 2010, 02:45:44 PM

Be laid back and just have fun with it- you'll do great!

....my kind of gal

Thanks, Becky. I'll bear you sage advice in mind and get stuck in.

Although, having seen Phil's Land Cam pinhole mod I may just try that with one of my spare Land Cams (don't worry, Miles...there's still one left over for you).

Also, thanks to everyone else - as usual - for the feedback and info.

DS · « **Reply #23 on:** May 27, 2010, 06:10:37 PM »

@ Phil- the camera makes them look really unrealistic tho, eh?

I probably used an unnecessary degree of presicion measuring my pinholes because the calculated exposure times turned out to be complete guff even when taking the published reciprocity corrections into account. So much so that next time I won't bother wasting the time to measure the hole to the nearest nth of a millimeter in the future. This is the method I used for measuring- http://www.flickr.com/photos/davs_piccies/3354458031/. I've tested it against tiny things of known size and it seems to be pretty accurate.

I used the method I've seen recommended lots of places- take a bit of aluminium can, hit it to raise a bump, sand the bump flat on a whetstone & oilstone until the bump is gone so the metal's as thin as possible, then prick with a pointy thing, then sand off the burrs, then prick again. Seems to work...

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #24 on:** May 27, 2010, 07:22:33 PM »

If you place the camera very close you do get distortion much as you would with any very wide lens I guess. Probably why I don't use it a huge amount.

I guess wide angle isn't the most complimentary when shooting people or indeed cats!

Francois · « **Reply #25 on:** May 27, 2010, 09:21:44 PM »

You can also measure the hole diameter by using the scanner's transparency feature... very precise.

DS · « **Reply #26 on:** May 27, 2010, 10:37:06 PM »

Quote from: Francois on May 27, 2010, 09:21:44 PM

You can also measure the hole diameter by using the scanner's transparency feature... very precise.

Yeah, that works well too- I don't always have access to a scanner though

Thanks for the tip about the cyanoacrylate in the fridge!

Francois · « **Reply #27 on:** May 27, 2010, 10:41:43 PM »

No problem! Tips are made to be shared

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #28 on:** May 27, 2010, 11:18:26 PM »

OK, this is more detail than anyone here really needs, but I'm about halfway through the construction my own 'pinstant' camera (you see what I did there?

) and hope to get it finished tomorrow...or at least over the weekend. I've taken most of the front off a Land Cam 420, have recovered the shim from a cheapo 35mm pinhole conversion that La Blurstine gave me years ago and now just need to find something suitable to act as the front of the camera. Will see how I get on.

Note to self: must buy some black duct tape ASAP.

DS · « **Reply #29 on:** May 28, 2010, 09:24:33 AM »

pinstsant- I like it.

Have fun- look forward to seeing the results

Francois · « **Reply #30 on:** May 28, 2010, 03:54:09 PM »

I've already seen old 3 1/2 inch floppy diskettes used as a sliding shutter

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #31 on:** May 29, 2010, 03:26:54 PM »

UPDATE: I finished the camera last night and was quite excited at the prospect of trying it out this morning. All's not well however. Something in my construction is obviously not light-tight because all of the photos are coming out varying shades of pale blue (i.e. they seem to be massively overexposed). Some small amount of detail from the subject I'm shooting, but the rest is a beautiful, peaceful blue.

Must try harder.

Right, I'm off bowling.

Francois · « **Reply #32 on:** June 01, 2010, 10:34:48 PM »

Quote from: ed.wenn on May 29, 2010, 03:26:54 PM

UPDATE: I finished the camera last night and was quite excited at the prospect of trying it out this morning. All's not well however. Something in my construction is obviously not light-tight because all of the photos are coming out varying shades of pale blue (i.e. they seem to be massively overexposed). Some small amount of detail from the subject I'm shooting, but the rest is a beautiful, peaceful blue.

Must try harder.

Hey Ed!
I was thinking about something: did you take a picture of the camera?
Maybe it would be of some inspiration to me