Pinhole Cameras

[jimmyosram]

I've been reading an article on pinhole cameras and wondered if anyone has tried them or indeed made one with any success?

[thefonz78]

No i fancy trying the technique where you put a hole in the camera bodys lens cover. Not sure what you call it the one thats in place when you buy the camera body. You get good effects. But you obviously can not leave for week long exposures etc.. Did you watch the history of photography tv series that was on a few years back? They turned a living room into a pinhole camera it was amazing to see the projection on to the wall i would love to try this too.

[amk1977]

You can purchase body caps that have the hole pre-drilled into them and some have a clear plastic cover to prevent dust getting inside.

I watched the documentary you're talking about Robert. They darkened an entire room and had some landmark (think it might have been St Paul's Cathedral or something similar), projected upside down onto the wall through a small hole. I think the effect is called "camera obscura".

[thefonz78]

Yes that right i'm pretty sure it was St Paul's too. Haven't quite got the views out of my living room.

[amk1977]

Yeah same here. I don't fancy inverted chav's with can's of Kestrel or Super T's, being displayed on my living room wall lol.

[GeoffWessex]

You could do worse than check this site out.

[jet_kit]

Yes amk1977, you are right. The Camera Obscura was the forerunner of today's cameras and predates film, wet collodion plates and even Daguerreotypes by quite some time. They were all the rage in early Victorian days, but the principals were known before the birth of Christ and such a device was used by Leonardo da Vinci.
Making a small hole in a body cap works fine as a pinhole, but you need to do some experimenting. The smaller the hole the sharper your picture will be, but the longer your exposure time. I haven't tried this on a digital camera (in fact I last tried it on a 4x5 Speed Graphic about 40 years ago!), but with very high ISO settings available today I would think you could get away with pretty short exposures.
Give it a go and post the results up here.