Saturday, May 12, 2007
My second pinhole camera experiment.
Since my first was a bust, I decided to try a new camera with a much smaller pinhole. I made it out of a box of test strips, which are little strips I pee on to test my blood sugar. Just kidding. I actually prick my finger and bleed on them. But the box was the best I could find laying around the house. Not too big, but not quite as small as I wanted. It’s a bit wide but I think it’ll be ok. Maybe.
First I colored the inside all black with a Sharpie:
Then I made a pinhole in a piece of aluminum foil, which I taped to a frame of slim cardboard, made from the back of a tablet:
I cut a whole in the front of the box and taped it onto it. Then I made slits on each side of the box to run the film through:
I’m using a reloadable film canister to take up the film. Then I taped it all good and light-tight (hopefully):
I’m reusing the same shutter aperatus I built for my first camera. I just pull up that piece of cardboard sticking out and expose the pinhole, and voila! A photo is born.
Just got the film back and the entire thing, sprockets and all, is over-exposed, so I must not have had it light-tight.
Wow, that looks like fun. I want to try it. You know, you & your kids would probably get a kick out of the Maker Faire in San Mateo next weekend…
And the “My Husband’s Whole Family is Autistic” post… really? I hadn’t noticed.
when you say overexposed - in what way? did you colour the back of the tinfoil black as well? sometime light will leak through the tinfoil itself, so you may want to tape any excess tinfoil with the black tape. the 400 film speed may be causing some problems as well.
do you live near where the make fair is taking place? you should go and take a look at the bigger than life mousetrap(as in the game) that they have there.
I didn’t color the back of the tin foil. Hmm. I wasn’t sure I had the film canisters taped on securely enough to prevent light leaks either.
I don’t live near where the Maker Faire is, but Cathy and Earl do. They’ve been before.
I love that you are doing this. There is a bunch of photos from them on flickr. We have three around the house made from the round oatmeal boxes. They all took good pics in their primes. Good luck, can’t wait to see the pics!