Pinhole information?

[Joseph Dickerson]

Hi All,

I'm interested, no good reason...just am, in doing some pinhole photography with my Sinar. I'd like to find a book that covers the process from that perspective.

I'm not interested in making a camera out of common household items and all of that.

I have ordered a pinhole in Copal #1 mount from Lenox Laser (nice folks by the way) and would like to flatten out the learning curve a bit.

Open for book or web site suggestions...thanks in advance for humoring a geezer who should have gotten this out of his system 50 years ago!

JD

[Jim Jones]

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Worldwide pinhole day is this Sunday: www.pinholeday.org/. The bible of pinhole photography is Eric Renner's Pinhole Photography. One comprehensive site is Jan Grepstadt's: http://home.online.no/~gjon/pinhole.htm. http://www.f295.org/ is another forum dedicated to pinhole photography

[Joseph Dickerson]

Thanks for the info Jim...our photography department is having a retreat to shoot pinhole images, and eat pizza on Sunday. I'm hoping the Lenox Laser pinhole gets here by tomorrow. If not I've got a Coke can pinhole I cobbled together.

I'm planning to see if it'll work with a 6x17cm back.

JD

[Peter Gomena]

Eric Renner's Pinhole Photography is an excellent resource. Cookie tins make very good cameras.

[robert liebermann]

It's a good thing I read this as I almost forgot about the holiday... I have two loaded beer-can-cams ready to go (and, at ~3x4" they just qualify as large format. I'll have to look into a pinhole lens as mentioned above for my 'new' sinar, too!

[JamesHendrix]

I'm planning to see if it'll work with a 6x17cm back.
JD

Please post back your results. I've been thinking about making the same purchase with the same size back and would like the feedback.
Thanks

[Joseph Dickerson]

James,

Actually worked great...only issue is that the gg on the Shen Hao focusing panel could really use a fresne lens. It's really dim, fine with lenses but hard to see with the pinhole.

I haven't processed the film yet, but I shot some Fuji(roid) as the day progressed and it looked pretty good, my lack of experience with the pinhole approach not withstanding.

We had a good turn out, about a dozen shooters, most using Santa Barbara Camera Co. cameras (4x5) a couple of digital shooters, and a couple of home made cameras.

I'll try to post something after I get the film processed, most of it was 6x12cm on the Sinar because of the fresnel.

I'm thinking that pinhole photography is the gateway drug to alternative processes, I'm already thinking Kallitypes.

JD

[JamesHendrix]

JD - thanks for the info.

1. I would think as small as the pinhole is you would not be able to see anything on the gg.
2. What is a frensel and what made it produce the 6x12?

I just ordered one this morning. Looking forward to using it.
Looking forward to seeing your images.
Thanks

[Peter Gomena]

I have a "focusing pinhole" with an 1/8" hole in it that I replace with an actual pinhole when it's time to make the exposure. Makes framing the image much easier.

[Joseph Dickerson]

James,

The 6x17cm back I use is a Shen Hao which has it's own focussing panel and with the pinhole (f/330 as near as I can figure) is really dim. If I use my Sinar roll film holder it will do 6x12cm on 120 film, and I use a fresnel lens over the standard ground glass.

A fresnel lens is a thin plastic lens with concentric circles molded into it to brighten the image. It will also even the image out across the ground glass. These can be purchased from many sources including a drug store where they are sold as page magnifiers. Many photographers buy these and cut them down to fit over the ground glass of their camera.

The one I have is actually from Sinar, but I think I'll try to make one for the 6x17cm back.

Peter, sounds like a great trick. I'm using a pinhole that fits a Copal shutter so maybe I can take the pinhole off and stop the shutter down far enough to accomplish the same thing. Thanks.

JD