Pin Hole Fun

Nikolai · August 27, 2009

As it turns out, it doesn't take much to create a pin hole camera these days

#1: A camera, a patch of tin foil and sharp pin:

#2: My very first hole was too large and shutter was too long, hence not the best sharpness:

#3: With ISO cranked up to 3200 and smaller hole the results improved:

#4: ISO 25000 and 50mm Kenko tube (hence "longer focal length", much darker image, but a much better stray light control)

And if you have a video enabled body, you can make Pin Hole Movies (Warning: Heavy Accent Alert :wink )

http://nik.smugmug.com/Photography/DIY/Pin-hole-camera/9425710_pPkyi/1/#631888869_92GP7-A-LB

http://nik.smugmug.com/Photography/DIY/Pin-hole-camera/9425710_pPkyi/1/#631889259_sUJGa-A-LB

Enjoy! :thumb

The gallery is here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/Photography/DIY/Pin-hole-camera/9425710_pPky

This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

pathfinder · August 27, 2009

Nik, what size was your pin hole?

Some folks make these out of the camera body plastic lens mount cover from the manufacturer - the black thingy that comes mounted in the lens mount of a new camera body. Just drill a small hole in the center, and you're good to go!

Nikolai · August 27, 2009

pathfinder wrote:

Nik, what size was your pin hole?

Some folks make these out of the camera body plastic lens mount cover from the manufacturer - the black thingy that comes mounted in the lens mount of a new camera body. Just drill a small hole in the center, and you're good to go!

You can see it (maybe) on the first image, the pin tip points to it.
It's really tiny, maybe 0.1mm or less.

Yeah, I know about the cover trick, but I hated to ruin a good thing, plus it would require drilling. Tin foil is SO much easier to handle and hole can be much smaller.

I'm gonna play more with the kenko set and a tripod.

pathfinder · August 27, 2009

You can of course drill a bigger hole in the cover, and close it with brass or Al foil with your hole.

I wonder, can we purchase body covers from B&H, or is the only source is Canon Factory Service?

Nikolai · August 27, 2009

pathfinder wrote:

You can of course drill a bigger hole in the cover, and close it with brass or Al foil with your hole.

True, true...

Again, I'm lazy:-)

I wonder, can we purchase body covers from B&H, or is the only source is Canon Factory Service?

I think you can purchase them pretty much anywhere...

Nikolai · August 27, 2009

Decided to see if tripod helps:-) I does, but holes are still too big..

#1: Overall view of a kenko-based setup:

#2: A closeup on a ~0.1mm hole (taken with 100mm macro)

And here are tripod based, kenko 12mm tube, liveview, ISO 100, Aperture priority samples.

#3: Bigger hole (the whole pin shaft), ~0.5mm, 0.6sec exposure:

As you can see, very blurry. A hole is to big.

#4: Smaller hole (the very tip of the pin), ~0.1mm, 4 sec exposure:

IMHO, much better results (altough some extra motion blur due to the windy day and 4 sec exposure)

This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

ziggy53 · August 27, 2009

pathfinder wrote:

You can of course drill a bigger hole in the cover, and close it with brass or Al foil with your hole.

I wonder, can we purchase body covers from B&H, or is the only source is Canon Factory Service?

You can purchase body cap/lens cap combination sets from EBay. I use lots of them for my projects.

For a pinhole it is fine to use either a body cap or an extension tube to hold the pinhole. I do recommend the following method for manual pinhole creation as you need the thinnest material and then the roundest hole possible to prevent unnecessary diffraction effects:

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Pinhole/pinhole.html

Instead of brass shim stock, aluminum printing plates work well, but heavy-duty aluminum foil will work in a pinch. For blackening the hole I have used candle black, lamp black and permanent marker methods, with the permanent marker best for small holes.

Nikolai · August 27, 2009

ziggy53 wrote:

You can purchase body cap/lens cap combination sets from EBay. I use lots of them for my projects.

For a pinhole it is fine to use either a body cap or an extension tube to hold the pinhole. I do recommend the following method for manual pinhole creation as you need the thinnest material and then the roundest hole possible to prevent unnecessary diffraction effects:

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Pinhole/pinhole.html

Instead of brass shim stock, aluminum printing plates work well, but heavy-duty aluminum foil will work in a pinch. For blackening the hole I have used candle black, lamp black and permanent marker methods, with the permanent marker best for small holes.

Good info, Ziggy, thanks for sharing!

whiteagle · August 27, 2009

I don't have time to watch them right now, but the pin hole movies sound awesome.

I so just lost a couple hours of my Saturday by reading this thread. Can't wait to try it.

BradJudy · August 27, 2009

I do pinhole work on film - these are very nice given the basic hole setup.

Good home made holes require practice and super-thin materials (the thickness of the material should be no more than 1/10 the hole diameter). I made some for myself, then switched to electron microscope grids, which are 3mm diameter super-thin copper disks with precise holes (I have some in both 0.15mm and 0.3mm). They cost something like $25 for 100. I drill a hole in a piece of aluminum flashing and glue the disks to that for mounting. You can also get nicer, mounted pinholes made for optics works from places like Edmunds.

Or, you could just get a Skink pinhole cap for your camera from eBay (they sell them for several different lens mounts) - http://cgi.ebay.com/Skink-Pinhole-Pancake-for-Canon-450D-400D-40D-XTi-XSi_W0QQitemZ380143986938QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item588258e8fa&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

ziggy53 · August 27, 2009

BradJudy, I never even thought about a TEM aperture but that makes a lot of sense.

Wachel · August 29, 2009

So if you use the non-stick, heavy duty tin foil and put a red ring on it would it be a "L" lens?

Nikolai · August 29, 2009

Wachel wrote:

So if you use the non-stick, heavy duty tin foil and put a red ring on it would it be a "L" lens?

Pin Hole Fun

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