This is my very first pinhole camera and very first picture taken with it. I am planning on 3D printing a larger 4x5 pinhole camera but it is often a good idea to start small so as an experiment I built a small pinhole camera using 35mm containers I had laying around. First I drilled a 5mm hole in the middle of the container. To make the pinhole I used a piece of aluminum from a soda can and carefully poked the hole with a needle. Thenn the pinhole is attached over the hole of the container using black tape.
In the darkroom, I loaded the container with a piece of black and white photographic paper. The paper size is approximately 40x70 mm. The paper is warped inside wall of the container on the opposite side of the hole. Once the container closed, I added a piece of black tape on the pinhole to make the "shutter". My first test exposure is a picture of the house. The light was quite dim so I made a 5min exposure. I quickly developed and fixed the result. The picture is under-exposed but I am impressed with the sharpness and details. I did not expect that this small camera could give such results!
On the left is a picture of the developed paper. The image is a negative and mirrored. On the right is a scan of the image which I have inverted, mirrored and I adjusted the contrast to pull the details from the shadows. Clearly I could have exposed this one a bit longer to get more details but I am already amazed by how much details have been captured.
Images gallery
To be able to take multiple shots, I have now built 4 of these camera. Here is a gallery of images which I will grow as we play with them.
Conclusion
There will be more experiments with pinhole cameras, that is for sure :-)