Since medium format is not big enough, and I cannot afford to buy a proper large format camera. I have decided that I shall make my own large format camera. Woohey.
Introducing Project Pinholio, my very own large format pinhole camera made of nothing more than mat boards, art gum, and possibly some felt, and copper sheets.
What is a pinhole camera? can you eat it? can I get contagious diseases with it? How is it possible that you can make a camera out of cardboard? Forget about cardboard, how is it that you can even make a camera yourself.
Well, essentially, a camera is really nothing more than a hole in front of a lighttight box that transmits an image onto a material coated with a light sensitive emulsion (read : film). However, because most cameras has got such big holes, a lense is necessary to focus the image properly. The smaller the hole, the more sharp an image becomes. Thus a pinhole camera has a hole so small, it doesn't even need a lens. Actually the hole of a pinhole camera is alot smaller than a pinhole itself.
Now with that very informative lesson in science over. Allow me to elaborate on my working methodology for Project Pinholio. After contemplating various materials, i.e. paper, wood, jello, glass, etcetera, I've decided to settle with hard mat board (wood was high on the list, but since realize that I lack the dexterity to craft wood) purchased from the local framers. To increase the strength of the mat board, I decided to glue two layers of mat board together to create a super strong, super thick mat board.
Oh yeah, the reason for utilizing large format film is because I am too lazy to devise a film advance mechanism for a medium format system. This would however mean that I will have to deal with the inconvenince of loading and unloading film in a changing bag after every photo I'll take. But then again, how often does one get to shoot large format.
That is followed by planning out the size of the camera so that I can accurately draw the outline of the individual surfaces of the camera for cutting. I decided on a 135mm focal length, which translates to about 45mm on 135 format film. Could have made it a bit wider, but I'd prefer a focal length that emulates the perspective of the human eye.
After much measuring, cutting, and gluing. I ended up with this...
Front, notice in the background, the front board for where the pinhole is is still not attached. I am yet to make the pinhole.
Back
Leftovers... notice the Olfa mat cutter. Been wanting to have that for years, I finally decided to just buy one today. It's uber cool. It cut boards at a 45 degree angle, this allows me to mount my photos in the future nicely. For this project what it does is that, with angled edges, I get a stronger joint when I put the camera together.
Oh well... that's it for today. I would say that the camera is about 40% done. After this, I'll have to hunt for a copper sheet fof the pinhole, and get some felt to further lightproof the camera. Then I'll have to build a film holder, followed by an outer shell for further strength.
Woohey! and this Sunday, the large format film will be coming from Singapore. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a photo with this camera within this month.
1 comment:
good luck dude. i have just granted you the right to take a pic of me as your first photo.
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