Ilford 4x5 Pinhole Camera

[Mablo]

One Harman prep wrote somewhere that they are absolutely excited by the huge amount of interest they have seen so far. The first production batch was sold in a week or two before anyone had actually seen the camera. Now more 4x5 cameras are in the pipeline and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 8x10 version one day.

I'm going to buy the 4x5 version and would probably buy a 8x10 version too.

[jp]

It'd be fun to have an 8x10 one to shoot paper!

[Capocheny]

I find the design really interesting - in particular the way the film holder acts as a film back. Price? - Well - you get box of Delta 100 and 2 boxes of paper too. And the camera probably weights next to nothing (I can imagine that one could use it with some compact table top tripod).

In any way - kudos to Ilford. It is rare to see some new LF products actually produced in Europe.

Hi Matus,

Well put!

Like you, I'm just happy to see another camera manufacturer in the market... and, hopefully, this will cause an increase in film sales, which is good for ALL of us LF shooters!

I'll most likely look at picking one up... hope they come out with a 5x7 version.

Cheers

[cjbroadbent]

Looks just right for a plastic ready-load film holder. Less fuss.

[Lightbender]

These look like a great kit! Hopefully the price will come down a little. I'd love to donate one to a local high school here that still teaches film and had a darkroom.
Maybe as more are manufactured, the price will come down. This would be perfect at 99$. I'd buy 2.

[Once]

These look like a great kit! Hopefully the price will come down a little. I'd love to donate one to a local high school here that still teaches film and had a darkroom.
Maybe as more are manufactured, the price will come down. This would be perfect at 99$. I'd buy 2.

Your post made me think - why would somebody wanting to take pinhole camera pictures wait for the price to lower when there are plenty of different and cheap price pinhole cameras doing the same job in the first place? And why don't you want to donate a good cheap price pinhole camera to the school in the first place? What am I missing? In my opinion this pinhole camera is a gimmick rip-off for what it can do.

[Robert Brummitt]

I think Ilford is trying to market it's new direct positive paper and get folks interested in large format. I can see a high school program interested in the camera. The one I volunteer at, the instructor is always looking for a way to get her kids outside the norm.
I wish that Ilford had offered a verity of kits. One that they are marketing now. One that was strickly for film and one one that uses the direct positive paper only. I truly can see kids getting excited about wet photography with this one. I can recall my feelings doing pinhole with regular paper negatives. Watching the image come up in the developer.
Once it did, I was hooked and wanted to know more and got into film.

[jp]

Your post made me think - why would somebody wanting to take pinhole camera pictures wait for the price to lower when there are plenty of different and cheap price pinhole cameras doing the same job in the first place? And why don't you want to donate a good cheap price pinhole camera to the school in the first place? What am I missing? In my opinion this pinhole camera is a gimmick rip-off for what it can do.

Right!

B&H shows wooden pinhole cameras starting at $58.95.

Nothing's stopping me from getting one, except I live in a very humid area and would be concerned that a cheap wooden camera might not last well stashed in my car or bad-weather shooting situations.

The Ilford camera looks to be more rugged for my uses and resellable if I change my mind.