DIY pinhole panorama camera finished

BradJudy · « **on:** 6 Mar 2009, 06:50 pm »

I've been building a pinhole panorama camera using this excellent set of instructions:

http://www.creativepro.com/article/make-a-pinhole-panoramic-camera

It shoots 120 film in a 6x12 frame, so six shots with 105 degree field of view per roll. It's about f200, so very long exposure times and basically infinite depth of field. It should be fun.

I just finished building it today and here are a few build pics:

Basic frame and bolts:

With film holder, film gate and rolls for show:

Front panel and sliding shutter (a departure from the instructions):

All of the pieces painted flat black before assmebly:

The assembled camera:

I loaded a roll of B&W film and I'll shoot this test roll today and drop it off to be developed. It's likely that I'll be chasing down light leaks for the first couple of rolls, so I don't know what it will look like.

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 6 Mar 2009, 07:40 pm »

Cool project! I have to admire people that start building things and actually finish them. Although a specialized camera made JUST for taking photos of pinholes might not get a lot of use, but hey that's just me.

Here's some ideas for your next camera:

http://www.boyofblue.com/cameras.html

JohnR · « **Reply #2 on:** 6 Mar 2009, 08:55 pm »

Hey, that's cool - love the idea of the curved film plane.

BradJudy · « **Reply #3 on:** 6 Mar 2009, 09:07 pm »

Thanks guys.

Nathanm - those are some crazy cameras - well made and very dark.

I just returned from shooting my first roll. Unfortunately, I was so focused on counting out exposure times I forgot to advance the film half the time. That means three possibly good shots and three weird double-exposures. Oh well, they will probably have a bunch of light-leak exposure anyway.

Off to the shop to drop off the film. I'll be busy for a while, so I probably won't get back here for a week or two. That's why I wanted to finish it up now while I had time to get out for a few pictures.

Martyn · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Mar 2009, 09:09 pm »

Excellent! I'll add this to my list of "projects pending my retirement" (which has recently been postponed by at least ten years).

Quote from: BradJudy on 6 Mar 2009, 06:50 pm

I loaded a roll of B&W film and I'll shoot this test roll today and drop it off to be developed.

Gosh, you even use Bowers & Wilkins film!

Maybe your next challenge is to make your own emulsions...http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Emulsion/emulsion.html

BradJudy · « **Reply #5 on:** 7 Mar 2009, 01:06 am »

My local shop processed them while I waited and I just did a quick scan with no touch-ups (I need to redo them with a real cleaning).

I forgot to advance the film on two of the frames.

So two were double-exposures, but I was expecting this to be a mess of light leaks anyway and was impress with the clean results.

First shot on the roll, me at my computer in a 20 minute exposure. There is light leaking at the bottom because I was using this roll for testing the camera fitting and it was probably a bit loose in the open light before loading.

Nearby tree - I totally underestimated the field of view of this camera.

Similar photo - keeping it from wiggling on my tripod while at 90 degree was difficult.

A restaurant near my house taken from the sidewalk right in front of it.

As you can see, light leaking is minimal - much better than I expected on my first try.

S Clark · « **Reply #6 on:** 7 Mar 2009, 02:21 am »

Wow. This looks like another set of projects for my high school physic groups! Neat stuff.

BradJudy · « **Reply #7 on:** 7 Mar 2009, 02:35 am »

Quote from: S Clark on 7 Mar 2009, 02:21 am

Wow. This looks like another set of projects for my high school physic groups! Neat stuff.

Definitely fun for students. I may bring it in to the college optics class my wife teaches.

There are simpler pinhole cameras if you want projects - this one is a bit harder because of the panoramic nature. I've seen instructions online for one using a matchbox and a couple rolls of 35mm film - super small. You should be able to make a quick and simple one with an square tin box from the thrift store (the ones around here seen to have no shortage of metal boxes). I've been told it can also be done with a modified lens cap on a 35mm SLR camera (one that it care if a lens isn't connected).

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Mar 2009, 02:50 am »

Wow Brad, those are pretty cool. I'm surprised at the results from a homemade camera.
I never would have thought quality such as this would have possible.

Bob

jqp · « **Reply #9 on:** 7 Mar 2009, 03:20 am »

Wow a 20 minute exposure! I thought I had long exposures at 8 seconds...

That is so amazing I may have to try it myself! I'm sure it would be a very educational experience.

Also amazing to me is that (fairly) practical and portable photography has been around for 150 years, since the time of the U.S. Civil War. Of course they were not able to wait around for their roll of film to be developed, but the final output seems to me about similar.

BradJudy · « **Reply #10 on:** 8 Mar 2009, 04:21 pm »

Thanks guys. I did some more examining and found the couple of light leaks that cropped up. Those should be fixed now (black silicone chalk is your friend on this project). Hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post in a couple of weeks. I have another roll of B&W and a roll of color to shoot.

I've already had some lessons learned on this project and I may make a second camera. I'll definitely try a second front plate. I'm planning on ordering a precision pinhole and see what, if any, difference it makes in the pictures. One nice thing about this design is that you can have one body and several front plates with different pinholes or shutters. It's like having an interchangeable lens system.

BradJudy · « **Reply #11 on:** 8 Mar 2009, 04:25 pm »

Quote from: jqp on 7 Mar 2009, 03:20 am

Wow a 20 minute exposure! I thought I had long exposures at 8 seconds...

Yeah, the long exposures are interesting. Apparently once you get past several seconds, the chemical reaction in the film starts to slow down and you need to have an exposure chart/calculator that compensates. I found one online, printed it out and taped it to the back of the camera. It translates f8 exposure times (from another camera or light meter) to f200. An 8 second f8 exposure time would be 1 hour 25 minutes at f200. On the plus side, a minor wiggle or someone walking through the frame doesn't mean much in a 20 minute exposure.

A full sunlight photo is about 2 seconds with ASA 100 film.

BillB · « **Reply #12 on:** 9 Mar 2009, 04:27 pm »

Very cool and very nice results!

We made one of these in my high school physics class, but just out of cardboard and whatever crap we had laying around.

We called ours the fate camera because we took a pic of the 4 of us and we were halo'd by what appeared to be flames (probably weird light leakage).

Even in 11th grade we were fated to hell.

BradJudy · « **Reply #13 on:** 15 Mar 2009, 01:19 am »

A couple of shots from roll #2, this time in color and shot in Colorado.

Roll 3 has already been shot, but I need to take it in to be developed. Hopefully the third and future rolls will have better composition now that I'm getting the hang of using this camera. No viewfinder and only 6 shots per roll means some slow learning.

BradJudy · « **Reply #14 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 01:32 am »

A few more from roll #3. I'm getting closer to understanding the field of view, but I need to set up a static test and build an exact viewfinder to get better at shooting.

nathanm · « **Reply #15 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 03:05 am »

One thing that's great about pinholes is that you get perfect geometry. (Well, you do if the film is flat, although the curved film plane has its own cool effect as you can see) In today's world those nice straight verticals can seem like a big departure from the barrel distortiony look commonly seen on lensed, point & shoot digicams when you're in wide angle.

SET Man · « **Reply #16 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 04:58 am »

Hey!

That's pretty neat!

I like the film advancing scheme for 120 film.

I remembered trying pinhole cam built from a shoes box with a piece of kitchen aluminum foil with a pinhole punched in and 4X5 film taped on the other end.

Well, it works but there was too much light leak

If you like pinhole camera than you have to check out a book called "Camera Obscura"

This guy traveled the world and he would find a hotel room or whatever room he found with good view and he would blacked the window out but leave a small hole of which turn the whole room into a giant walk-in camera obscura. Just like what they did centuries back. Than he would take a picture of the room with the view from the outside projected upside down in the room!

Brilliant! A must see if you like pinhole camera.

Take care,
Buddy

BradJudy · « **Reply #17 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 04:35 pm »

Quote from: nathanm on 18 Mar 2009, 03:05 am

One thing that's great about pinholes is that you get perfect geometry. (Well, you do if the film is flat, although the curved film plane has its own cool effect as you can see) In today's world those nice straight verticals can seem like a big departure from the barrel distortiony look commonly seen on lensed, point & shoot digicams when you're in wide angle.

I may have to play with a flat plane pinhole, but I'd probably go to 6x6 for that. With pinholes it seems like you have to either compromise on geometry by curving the film or on light by making it flat. With the 6x12 negative, the f-stop is about f/200 across the curve in this camera. Flattened out, the center would stay at about f/200, but the far edge would be about f/285.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #18 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 05:18 pm »

Quote from: SET Man on 18 Mar 2009, 04:58 am

This guy traveled the world and he would find a hotel room or whatever room he found with good view and he would blacked the window out but leave a small hole of which turn the whole room into a giant walk-in camera obscura. Just like what they did centuries back. Than he would take a picture of the room with the view from the outside projected upside down in the room!

This reminds me of something I read (and a Google search couldn't supply a reference) about a brilliant scheme some Nordic country (I think Sweden) devised to mine its harbour and not jeopardize its own ships. A room overlooking the harbour was turned into a camera obscura and as the ship set the mines, its location was noted on the wall. One of their own ships could leave the harbour, guided by a set of visual signals from this room, but any approaching enemy ship would be in jeopardy. This was a two or three hundred years ago.

BradJudy · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Mar 2009, 06:20 pm »

Quote from: SET Man on 18 Mar 2009, 04:58 am

If you like pinhole camera than you have to check out a book called "Camera Obscura"

This guy traveled the world and he would find a hotel room or whatever room he found with good view and he would blacked the window out but leave a small hole of which turn the whole room into a giant walk-in camera obscura. Just like what they did centuries back. Than he would take a picture of the room with the view from the outside projected upside down in the room!

Looks like a neat book - I'll have to keep an eye out for it at the bookstore and check it out.