So last year I made the gorgeous “rustic” pinhole camera. As rough as it looked, it did work, but this year I wanted to make something a little less rustic and a bit more “sophisticated”…if anything I could make might be classed as such. This year World Pinhole Photography day is on 28th April.

At some point last year, I made basic camera plans using PowerPoint on a macbook. I looked online at some multi-format pinhole cameras for inspiration. Yes, I would be going MULTI format this year. I looked at how they worked and wondered how, with my limited skills, I could make one. I measured, prepared, and ordered materials. I wanted to use plywood for the body and balsa wood for the dividers. This sophisticated version would not be made of scraps found in the garage junk bin.

Then the rain came and never went away. This is important as I would be working in a garage that has a leaky roof and no heater. Finally, a few weeks before the day, there was a dry spell, just a weekend, but it seemed long enough to get started.

I printed out the plans and got started. The plans were not to scale, but luckily my past-self had put measurements on the plans.

With those plans, a bit of determination and dry weather, I got started sawing and sanding. Everything went quite well with the cutting side of things, but when attaching the parts together I came across a problem. The tacks that I had were just not holding the pieces together. When I nailed in one, then tried to nail in another, the first popped out through inertia. I had used wood glue too, but it just wasn’t working so I decided to switch to screws. I looked around the garage and finally found some that were just about small enough to work. I should have ordered some slightly smaller ones, but I didn’t want to wait any longer.

At this point, I realised the balsa wood was not an ideal material for the dividers. This would be where most of the stresses might occur and the balsa wood was very soft. I chose it initially, as I thought I could sand it smooth and not create scratches on the film. It didn’t work, it was too soft for me to sand. So I went back to the plywood and ended up covering the film end with backing paper as that is made not to scratch film. I used post-it notes cut to the three sizes, layered on top of each other, to place the divider guides. Now all that was done and put together, I had add the winder holes and magnets to keep them in place, paint everything black, add the light seal foam to the back, cut the film number holes, add red plastic, and finally add the pinhole…not much then.

I got the winders from MIA Pinhole Cameras. After the problems with the rustic winders, I thought it was a wise investment. I used pinholes from the pack I bought from RealitySoSubtle, this time the 2mm one. I waited to add that until the very last moment as I didn’t want to damaged it.

And YATTA!!!

It’s not perfect, but it is mine. It was made by me from my plans and is definitely better looking than the rustic. So now to test it.

I loaded a roll of Kentmere 100 and used the 6×12 guides. I figured, if the 6×12 shots came out ok then the 6×9 and 6×6 would be fine. I was mainly checking for light leaks and coverage. Here are the results. The exposures were about 1 minute or 3 minutes with reciprocity. I used the Exposure Assistant app and loved it. It has many films and a timer, perfect. I also worked out that I should use only the even numbers on the backing paper through the 6×6 hole for 6×12. I should get 6 shots…I didn’t.

Well it worked, but it needed adjustments. It was light tight, but the wooden hole for the pinhole needed more bevelling to gain better coverage. I removed the pinhole, resanded the hole on either side of the wood, repainted the exposed wood and returned the pinhole.

But why only 4 shots?? Well, when I wrote the silver sizes on the backing piece…I did it upside down. I painted over my writing and rewrote the information in the right place, oops.

Now the second test, this time with Fomapan 100 so the reciprocity meant longer exposure times…and it was raining again. Avoiding the rain, I took the first exposure in my car while waiting for it to stop. The rest were taken just outside the carpark at a nature reserve.

There was still some wood visable in the corners, so I removed the pinhole once more, sanded once more, painted once more, and then decided that was it…done! I realised at this point that I needed a tripod mount of some kind, so I hunted through my junk box for one I had taken from a camera. I then screwed that onto a spare piece of plywood. I attached it to the camera with the same elastic bands I used to keep the back on. That way I could use a tripod or the bottom of the camera for stability without any more drilling.

I took the camera into Leeds when I went to see my contribution to the Photo North exhibition. I wandered about with the camera while waiting for friends to arrive, then I took the final shot while chatting with a friend after the event.

I think the inside shot was about 15 minutes long. You can see from the negatives that the red window is now prefect. Here are the results from the Rollei RPX 100 film, I am basically using up my 100asa 120 film with this project . There is still a small amount of cornering, but I am fine with that.

Yatta!! I did it, I made a 6×12 pinhole camera, the last thing to do was to try one of the other sizes otherwise, why make a multiformat version.

I had run out of 100asa film, so loaded aroll of expired Ilford HP5 and rated it at 200asa for exposure times. It was a bright-ish day when I took the set up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and it meant the exposures were all around 10 seconds, which caused an issue. The shutter style I had made was very difficult to use with short exposure times, there was no way to avoid camera shake. The tripod mount I had made wasn’t perfectly stable either. The results show this problem and in future I will have to use low asa film at all times.

As the sign says, I love this camera. I can’t see me buying another pinhole camera or making another. This one worked as I wanted it to and it is multi-format.

I was all set up in time for world pinhole day this year!!

And….

My knee was hurting on the trip tp YSP, very painfully at times. But the next day, I could barely walk. I went to the doctors and he has recommended an MRI to check what is going on, plus physio. So at the moment I am not going out for world pinhole day this weekend. I am not sure when I will be able to go out for walks on anything other than flat ground with a small bag. No hikes with a big bag of cameras for a while.

Oh well, life could be worse…as least I have a smashing multi-format pinhole camera 🙂