Pinhole Photography

Over the past year I've been spending more and more of my time learning photography. Since I also enjoy woodworking, I've had a lot of desire to build my own camera. I'd like to design and build a 4" X 5" view camera and thought that building a fixed focal length pinhole camera was a good place to start.

This site includes several documents and drawings showing the construction of my pinhole cameras, along with some of the photos I've taken with them. I've tried to make this project as affordable as is possible. However, I did spend some extra money on two items. Since I want to eventually wind up with a 4" X 5" view camera, I designed my pinhole camera to use standard 4" X 5" film holders which cost about $26.00 locally. (They can be had much cheaper used, or from mail order companies.) I also decided to buy a set of micro-drilled pinholes from Pinhole Resource so that I could pick and choose the pinhole diameter needed to give my cameras their best possible resolution. This set of 12 different diameter pinholes cost $24.00.

Other than those two expenses, the parts cost for the cameras was very reasonable. Most of the parts are readily available at most hardware or hobby stores. I specify MDF for construction of the majority of the camera parts since I like using it, and I had half a sheet sitting in my garage, but I think that normal particle board would work just about as well. I now build most of my cameras from 3/4" basswood, which is very light and also looks nice with a good finish on it.

If you construct a pinhole camera, please send me email ( lesweb@gehman.org ) and let me know how it went. Please also send me any ideas you have for improvement.

Les Gehman

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	Building a pinhole camera

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	Using your pinhole camera

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	Stereo photography gallery

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References

• "Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique" by Eric Renner is probably the best all around pinhole photography book I've found. It costs about $30.00 and is available from Pinhole Resource . It includes chapters on the history of pinhole photography and the physics of pinhole optics. While I find most of the 'art' in the book to be uninspiring, it contains many great ideas for unusual pinhole cameras.
• Jay Bender's Pinhole Photography Kit contains a very good booklet describing the physics of how pinholes work along with chapters on construction and use of pinhole cameras. It is available for about $20.00 from Bender Photographic . The kit also contains shim stock for making pinholes along with a slide rule type exposure calculator and a method for using an enlarger to measure pinhole diameter. Jay Bender also has a Pinhole Camera Kit available for about $80.00. However I have not built his kit, so have no knowledge of its difficulty level.
• "The Beginner's Guide to Pinhole Photography" by Jim Shull is a good basic introduction to pinhole photography. This book is probably the best choice for teaching kids about pinhole photography. It cost me about $18.00 and is available from: amazon.com .

Other project ideas

• These cameras really need viewfinders. I can easily make really fragile ones from balsa wood, but I want something a bit more rugged. These cameras get tossed into bags and backpacks when I go out and they need to be able to take at least a little bit of abuse. One possible viewfinder could be made by cutting small grooves in the top and one side of the camera that run from the pinhole to the corner of the film holder. By sighting down these lines it would be possible, but slow, to compose the photo.
• Using a biscuit joiner, I can make 45 degree miter joints on the four sides of the camera which will allow me to use oak veneer MDF or solid wood. This way the body and back of the camera will be real wood, which should be much more pleasant to look at than flat black. Basswood is a good choice for construction using solid wood since it is very light.
• I've got to come up with something better than surgical tubing to hold the film holder in position. I'm working on a design using spring steel, but haven't built anything yet.
• All of these ideas can be enlarged upon to build an 8" X 10" pinhole camera.
• One of my favorite pinhole cameras is a Lubitel, which I took the lens out of and replaced it with a pinhole. The camera is very small, light weight and uses standard 120 film which is much easier to develop than sheet film. It also has a real shutter which makes it easier to use. Some of the results of my pinhole Lubitel can be seen in my pinhole gallery .