An expanding idea

I wanted to design a camera that was really easy to build, cost very little but still gave great results. This posting goes on a bit, as you will see the basic concept has almost limitless possibilities & my ideas have expanded along the way. The final design uses panels made of MD & mountboard. !sing mountboard gives me a great range of colours to choose from & adds a fun & attractive aesthetic to the design. These cameras are really cheap & I would be shoc"ed if one cost any more than say, #$ %&' !(). *f course I can+t buy materials for ,ust one camera, it is too small a -uantity but even so it isn+t a huge outlay to build these. *nce I have bought sheets of MD & mountboard there is enough to build lots of cameras & it can be -uite addictive as you will see. .ots of options begin to open up & I really en,oyed exercising my creativity with this design. The main difficulty was the top plate light trap. Due to the thic"ness of the mountboard at the point were the top cover fits, I had to devise a way of ma"ing an effective light trap. /ust fitting a recessed cover would not wor" here. I still used a recessed light trap, but additional to that I fitted a s"irt to the top plate. This simply adds another acute angle for light to travel around which aids light proofing. I drew my design & with some trial & error established a dimensional relationship between the chassis & the top cover. In other words, the top cover had to be made loose enough to fit without binding & yet be so close that light lea"s would be eliminated. 0ith a little thin"ing I realised I could choose from three formats using the same drawing 1 2x'.3cm, 2x2cm, & 4x2cm. All I had to do was wor" to three different widths of chassis & cut my %hori5ontal) panels accordingly. Mountboard is far from robust so I varnish all panels prior to assembly 1 including the edges to strengthen them. Don+t be fooled by the appearance of the following cameras. They may loo" li"e novelties but they are capable of fine pictures. The picture shows 4x2cm, 2x2cm & 2x'.3cm. All flat plane, $6mm . %based on the $3mm diameter of a film spool).

Top view showing the three different formats. The only difference being the width of the chassis %and shutter) & the position of the frame number viewing window.

The cameras shown here are 2x'.3cm designs. 7ote, in line with the +cheap+ ethos with these cameras, the top plate is retained with elastic bands. The retaining buttons are pieces of mountboard which are punched & glued together %smaller diameter on the bottom). The buttons are finished by running a mar"er pen along the exposed edge prior to varnishing.

Initially to "eep to my design brief the film winders were made using match stic"s. This wor"ed fine but wasn+t very smooth in operation so on future models I decided to use a piece of aluminium bar as a centre post. This moves away from the initial design brief %easy to ma"e) but the winder will still wor" if made using matchstic"s %I am sure this could be improved too). *n this design you can see the blac" plastic ,ac"et I retro fitted. I found that the lighter colours of mountboard were slightly lea"y so this light proof ,ac"et was added. My latest designs do not have this feature %I restrict myself to dar" colours of mountboard).

The winder "nob is made by cutting off a piece of fluted pine moulding, a length of 4mm dowel & a disc is punched out of mountboard. The "nob is then either varnished or painted blac".

An aluminium post is shown here. It is inserted into a hole drilled into the winder post8"nob.

urther thin"ing about my drawing made me realise that I could have more options with a modified drawing. This drawing would give me differing focal lengths as well as different formats. The drawing now has a table where the re-uired format is selected %2x'.3cm82x2cm84x2cm), then the chosen focal length determines certain dimensions on the drawing. I chose to build a 2x2cm design with a 39mm . %I chose this because I wanted a design with good coverage 1 I didn+t want any corner shading with this one).

0ith the shutter in the open position as shown, I demand perfect concentricity of the shutter cutouts for a really neat presentation on all my cameras.

:ere is the 39mm . 2x2cm at wor".

I was a little disappointed with the sharpness from this design. 0hilst it is perfectly acceptable, I thought a longer focal length would bring about sharper pictures. ;ut, the corner to corner exposure is good so overall I am pleased with this design.

(o far the concept is straight forward & yet still offers lots of different options. If I were to deviate slightly, complicate things somewhat & yet still follow the same basic concept, what other idea could I incorporate< (ome of you photographers have been showing some stunning ultra wide shots. Inspiring pictures. :ow could I do that & fit it into this design scheme< A redesign gave me a +staggered plane+ idea %similar to my full si5e MD camera also in this forum). This gives me a . of =4mm & a viewing angle of around =>9? %across the diagonal). The thin front panel & shutter design of these cameras actually lend themselves very well to extreme wide views. The picture below clearly shows the staggered plane & how the focal length is less than the film spool diameter. I could -uite easily have gone for a more extreme wide view, but decided to curb my over enthusiasm. Maybe the next one will be even wider.

This shot shows the frame number window, & how far the film plane is pushed forward in the chassis. I have an adhesive cover made up for this window.

The viewing window is made from a short length of $3mm pine dowel %the blac" cylindrical ob,ect shown below & sandwiched between the two panels). I the drill a centre hole & bond it to the rear panel & the film plane to give a light tight viewing window. Assembling this design is a real pig of a ,ob, although once a se-uence is established things go along nicely. As shown in this picture, I am a little unhappy about the distance between the film plane & the light chamber. 0ith the acute angle of the light at the edges, the image can go beyond the frame end & cause overlaps on ad,acent frames 1 a previous prototype had a few problems in this area. 0ith the film up close to the frame outline8light chamber this does not happen.

A set of three 2x2cm, =4mm . ultrawides. %I really li"e the pale green camera here). In each case a 9.9=9@ pinhole is fitted 1 drilled into a 9.99=@ brass sheet. In truth these would probably benefit from a smaller diameter hole, it would certainly help to ma"e exposure times more controllable. Aurrently the aperture on this camera is a very fast f63B In bright sun & with I(*=99 film exposures start at =83th second 1 unusable in bright sun. I have some I(*39 Ilford film which I will derate to I(*$3 & bright sun exposure times then start at around = second.

The great thing about seriously wide cameras is that they can ma"e the ordinary loo" extraordinary. %(hot using an early prototype not shown above).

(o what next< 0ell I don+t have a >3mm camera. A -uic" redesign around a >3mm cassette, a new winder post & problem solved.

A set of three. The blac" dot allows me to count turns of the advance "nob. %Ces I need a white dot on the advance "nob of the blac" one). Again I can stretch the design to create a different format but for these I decided on the >D$ format %utilising the sproc"et holes).

A detail of the post. This is made by running the dowel into the table saw, turning it round & doing the same the other side. The white disc is a piece of punched mountboard, varnished then glued onto the post to prevent the post going A0*..

To load the film the leader is taped to the receiving spool which is ta"en from a butchered cassette %the only sensible thing to do with the film shown in the pictureB).

The film, ta"e up spool & cassette all snugly loaded into position.

A blac" >3mm with two of its siblings %a 4x2cm & a 2x2cm superwide). The only problem with this >3mm camera is that you don+t feel li"e you have a +serious+ camera with you when you ta"e it out. It is so small & compact. ;ut it is still capable of great pictures so I am not embarrassed by it.

At this stage I was wondering how far this design concept could go. I wanted something really nice. My collection lac"s a panoramic camera with long negatives. I set myself the design parameters of a =>.3x2cm %nice compromise between long negatives & exposures per roll 1 3), a curved plane to limit shading at the frame ends & a . of 39mm. The curved plane is made by cutting a piece of mountboard 1 =39mm radius. Then a 2mm wide strip is glued along the edge to form the film guide. I also decided to experiment with the finish on these cameras. The covering is some gift wrapping paper I found in the house. It is applied to the mountboard with spray adhesive prior to cutting. And yes it too" me hours to match up the pattern on the top plate s"irt with the body of the camera. 7ever againB

(pools are retained in position %with all designs) by ensuring the spools are boxed into a tight area. 7o locating pins are used on the bottom of the spools.

This foiled paper loo"s fabulous. I did thin" about using some of that holograph type paper that loo"s li"e prisms in the light if you "now what I mean....

I regret not painting the MD blac" on these now. :indsight, it+s a wonderful thing. The hori5ontal angle of view of these is =$3?. The pinhole is again 9.9=9@ diameter in brass sheet giving me an effective f1number of f=46.

As these cameras were supposed to be simple & cheap, a tripod mount was not fitted. I actually find this limitation too restrictive to live with so here is my !TA %!niversal Tripod Adaptor). The blac" dots are instrument case feet. They are arranged as a 3 point suspension system so that any irregularities in the s-uareness of the chassis are compensated for. I have tried flat surfaces on the adaptor without any bumps & there is always a camera which is either slightly under1s-uare or over1s-uare. If the camera doesn+t rest snugly, operating the shutter causes the camera to roc" on the support. If you thin" about those 3 suspension points, anything remotely s-uare will sit firmly on the platform.

:ere we see a 2x2cm superwide ready for action. The width of the bars is such that the widest camera can be accomodated %=>.3x2cm panoramic). The tripod adaptor has been designed such that nothing protrudes any further forward than the chassis of this camera design. The last thing I wanted was to see the adaptor in my pictures.

:ere is a >3mm camera ready to shoot. The bars appear bent because of a naff lens.

(o here we are 1 a family portrait. I+ve had tremendous fun building these & ta"ing the pictures I have so far. The materials used here are D1 =) Aluminium bar %plus steel nail for cross bar) $) Mountboard >) MD ') Einhole in aluminium coo"ing tray %extreme wides need very thin brass) 3) Tape to hold pinhole down 2) Eaint8varnish8adhesive 6) Eine dowels $ elastic bands 4) (weatB

The list D1 4x2cm, 2x2cm, 2x'.3cm, superwide 2x2cm, long focal length 2x2cm, >3mm and =>.3x2cm panoramics.

A few test shots are available and there are more to come D1 2x2cm superwide D1 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='FF'F8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$==2>96'8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='F3''8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='F>498 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>26=29>8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>26=6628 =>.3x2cm panoramic D1 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='F$$$8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>639$'68 >3mm D1 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='49$48 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>6'4F6$8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'>2=2238 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'>2>>6>8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'69'$328 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'69''>28 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'69'2F=8 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$'69'6>48 2x2cm long focal length D1 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>='F6=38 httpD88www.f$43.org8Einholeforum8forum8;lah.pl<m1=$$>6399368

And finally...... I got thin"ing 0ouldn+t it be nice to ma"e an anamorph in this series< I thought about how to ma"e the film guides & came up with a new design in Autocad. or your interest I shall detail the assembly of this camera. This design differs a little in that it has a tripod mount, anamorphs are challenging enough without having a tripod mountB 7otice the four film guides %two per camera), the one at the pinhole end is a piece sliced off a drain pipe %the thin blac" rings). As I don+t have the facility to turn parts, I had to thin" of a way of ma"ing a circular guide from MD for the guide furthest away from the pinhole %the two MD rings in the picture).

I bought a cheap set of hole saws. As the drain pipe is 2Fmm diameter, I guessed I needed a hole saw of around 62mm which would have a cut approximately 'mm wide leaving a disc of around 2Fmm 1 it is the material in the middle I am interested in, not the hole cut by the tool. The centre drill in the mandrel was causing me more trouble than it was worth so I discarded that & was able to cut a disc from MD . I then found the centre of the MD disc & drilled a centre hole to produce the guide you can see. The centre hole is re-uired to a) assist with film loading & b) give clearance for the tripod mount fixings on the removable rear plate. Ces, strangely the tripod mount is on the rear panel, not the base or side plate for this anamorph design. (ome of the pictures here are over exposed, that is so you can see the detail where the interior is painted blac". This first picture shows a complete set of parts for two cameras %excluding shutters, I had not cut those at this stage).

The bac" & sides of the camera are formed from one piece of mountboard. It is punched, mar"ed up, grooved & varnished prior to assembly. :ere we can see the brass pinhole & the circular guide bonded in place. The two side guides are bonded to the side plates.

Those semi circular top sections are formed by running a saw blade down a round pine dowel.

This assembly will wor" as the base plate, a separator for the spools & also a support for the furthermost film guide.

The base plate assembly is bonded into position.

All interior parts are blac"ed. The panel edges loo" untidy but once the chassis is glued up these will not be seen. The panel to the right is the top plate with a frame number viewing window. The panel at the bottom is the removable rear panel 1 you can see the two part construction with the recessed blac" light trap on top. At this stage the winder "nob holes are not drilled & the tripod mount is yet to be fixed.

The top plate is fixed to the chassis, care needs to be exercised here, as the assembly is -uite fragile.

The side plates are lifted into position & bonded to the top & bottom plates. 7ow the chassis is robust enough to be handled. The tripod mount is drilled & assembled onto the bac" plate. :oles for the winders are drilled too. These steps are only done when the two parts of the bac"plate are assembled together to ensure perfect alignment of the holes.

The furthermost MD film guide is not stuc" into place until everything is assembled. I "new that the most accurate way of positioning this would be to offer it up to the assembled light chamber. I wanted it aligned with the pinhole end film guide as good as possible %obviously) to ensure smooth running of the film. :ere we can see a scrap film loaded ,ust to see if everything fits *G.

The shutters were cut & then bonded to the front panel. The aiming triangles were stuc" on the sides. These came into conflict with where I wanted to position the buttons so I had to rethin" the buttons.

To finish, feet were positioned on the bottom & I finally decided where I wanted to position the buttons.

Aimed & ready for a test shot 1 as yet no film has gone through these.

If you have got this far, I commend your staminaB Than"s very much for reading, I hope you en,oyed it. Tony. If anyone "nows the name Mi"e Hignall, they will "now a very clever camera designer indeed. I saw one of his designs -uite some time ago which I admired. It utilised two acrylic lenses placed either side of a pinhole. The results were -uite niceB I too" that design concept & tried to ma"e my own version. The lenses used are simple acrylic lenses with a focal length of =$9mm. They are placed bac"1to1 bac" with a pinhole between them. This results %according to Mi"e) in an elimination of any distortions from the lens & a conse-uent reduction in the focal length by half I.I. 29mm.

I needed to ma"e my own curved plane, this time e-ui1distant from the pinhole throughout the arc. To do this I used a compass card cutter bought off +that auction site+ to cut sheets of mountboard. The light chamber was then constructed using two of these & boxing it in with further pieces of mountboard. This camera%s) follows the design concept of previous cameras on this thread. ;ut, this time I decided to use a =$mm thic" baseplate %rather than 2mm) so that I could fit a tripod mount to the camera itself. !tilising the +dead+ space either side of the pinhole has resulted in -uite neat dimensions for this camera, I may ma"e another without the lenses next time. The bad news 1 during construction I failed to set the film precisely at the focal point of the lens8pinhole sandwich. 0hatever benefits I gained from having the lenses %sharpness) I have now lost to the lens being out of focus. I have thought how I would go about constructing the camera again but haven+t really come up with an idea on how to do this. I may have been a little luc"y with the camera in natural finish here though as the pictures do loo" a little sharper than you would expect from a simple pinhole design. Cou live & learn...... & learn..... This shows the lenses construction. I was a bit messy with the glue. The use of hardboard has been used to recess the lens from the front face & hence not interfere with the shutter.

Here are two light chambers contructed & blacked inside. These are ready to be mounted in the camera.

A dry run during construction shows the location of film & spools.

A pea" inside shows the inside lens.

The guides for the spools were a late addition, I felt that the spools needed to be more accurately held in place.

39mm ;inoc .ens Jiew Aam

I was impressed so much with Joe VanClea e!s "#mm $inocular lens camera shots I had to make my own. %ith a couple of cigar bo&es' an old Ile& shutter' a (&" iew screen )gi en to me by my *other+ in+,aw- 'and about . dollars worth of parts from the AC/ hardware. It will focus as close as about 01 inches to infinity. *y plan is to use mainly paper negati es. Test photos soon.

AttachmentD aprilcam023(0(.4pg

(i5eD 33.(5 6$

Hey. this is a great design. I like the way the two bo& hal es nest together. I! e had a link to the 7eorge /astman House museum in which there are lots of e&amples of old nested wooden bo& cameras' that perhaps seem to be easier for someone to craft than a camera with a bellows. 8erhaps we!ll see a resurgence of newly built nested bo& cameras. I hope to see images from this baby soon. 8aper negati es in these glass lensed bo& cameras are pretty fun to shoot. I was in my local cigar store last week' noticing the stack of empty cigar bo&es that are purchased by local school teachers. I was chuckling to myself that' as much as schools seem to emphasi9e anti+ smoking' their crafts pro4ects seem to rely on us cigar smokers for supplies. :Joe ;h' I! e done it now. I made a <.<"= & (.<"= lens camera. I! e been thinking on this one for a couple of months. I had the shutter and the lens. The glass is a plano+con e& with a focal length of about >#mm at infinity. I can get a pretty accurate focus at about 01 inches for close ups.

AttachmentD lenscam02<(3>.4pg (i5eD (1.<< 6$

Here it is without the iewing screen. I hand ground the iewing screen with al e grinding compound. It took about " minutes to make and seems to work ery well. ,ook for first test pics in the black and white lens pics forum. http?@@www.f<5".org@8inholeforum@forum@$lah.plAm+0<(3>(0"(3@s+#@Bnum0

Making Foam Core 4x5 Pinhole Cameras

1) List of materials needed
a) Metal ruler, 18" in both English and Metric b) Xacto or mat knife and extra blades c) Double sticky tape d) lack opa!ue tape e) lack foam core board "usually comes in #$" x %&" sheets) f) lack mat board, % ply "about 1'1(" thick)

2) Image of finished camera )in this case a double slit %x*+

,ote the rubber bands used to hold the film holder in place-

3) Box and x!loded "ie#s of camera$

C

5) Meas%rements
Film !anel . see /oam 0ore ack Pinhole !anel . % #'%" 1ide by ( 1'1(" long Panel &1 . % #'%" 1ide by "focal length needed plus 1'$", i-e- #" /2 3 # 1'$" high) Panel &2 . % #'%" 1ide by "focal length needed minus #'1(", i-e- #" /2 3 $ 1#'1(" high) Panels 3 ' 4 . ( 4'1(" 1ide by "focal length needed plus 1'$", i-e- #" /2 3 # 1'$" high) xtra (%!!ort (tr%ts . t1o pieces % #'%" 1ide by 1'$" high, t1o pieces * 5'1(" 1ide by 1'$" high6hese are placed underneath the film panel inside the box to help support the film panel )not sho1n abo7e for clarity+ )can also make an extra set for under the pinhole plane+

)) *ssem+l,
a) Measure and cut panels , b) Mark 1ith pencil on panels 1,#,% 1here the support struts 1ill go, c) 8ssemble panels 1,$,#,% using panel 91 to align to, d) 8dd support struts , and e) 8dd film panel -

-) Front !anel o!tions

a) :traight pinhole designs, ;oneplates and hyperfocal cameras b) Multiple holes, o7erlapped and separated c) Double slit and double ;one ,<6E= 61o front panels needed )pinhole side+- 6he second panel is recessed into the interior of the box the desired amount for the second focal length- 6he measurements of the box 1ill be based on the longest focal length used:ee Making /oamcore >its for a 0lass Dimensions for other 7ie1 camera formats?ere is the hardest part, the film plane plate= Description @idth 2ength Anside @idth Anside 2ength Distance to "slot" /rom top to inside outside to inside 1idth %x* % #'%" ( 1'%" # #'%" % *'8" #'%" *'8" 1'$" *x4 * 4'8" 8 #'8" % 4'8" ( #'%" *'8" #'%" 1'$" 8x1& 5 1'%" 11 *'8" 8" 5 *'8" 1#'1(" #'%" *'8"

A 1ould recommend double.checking these measurements 1ith an actual film holder in hand-