Having very limited experience shooting pinhole photography myself, I found this advice useful and the results quite impressive. In this video, the 25th installment of Mat Marrash's Large Format Friday, Marrash introduces us to two different 8x10 pinhole cameras. One of which he takes along on a day of shooting different scenes in a Midwestern town. The results of his outing were far more fruitful than my previous experience with pinhole. Granted — I've only really tried it once and that was with 4x5 in Atlanta, GA. In fact, I would go so far as to say my results were so disappointing, I haven't once considered doing it again.
Still being quite the novice to 4x5 that I am, I cannot imagine trying pinhole again so soon but admittedly, it does look pretty fun. There's no fidgeting with focus or movements or choosing the right lens, or anything else other than exposure time. And given the very extreme fixed aperture, all of the exposures, even in broad daylight, are still quite long and suffer from reciprocity failure. Still though, that is part of the charm I suppose.
What about you? Have you ever shot pinhole photography? What were your experiences?
props dude, that’s a good looking homemade 8x10 pinhole camera!
I have a beautiful Zero 2000 pinhole camera that shoots 120 film. I've also made pinhole "lenses" for my Nikons and am about to make one for my Canon M6. Results vary depending on placement and lighting, but the 'infinite dof' can make them pretty cool. It's important that the pinhole be as small as possible.
I’ve been shooting a lot of pinhole lately. I have two “lenses” from Thingify, one a 40mm and the other a variable aperture 50mm. The 50 apertures are .1mm, .15mm, .2mm, .3mm, .5mm, .7mm, and .8mm. I shoot mostly on a 5D4; there are native mounts for Nikon and Sony, too. I love it. Brand new, they’re around $80 each.
At .8mm, the image looks faintly out of focus. Around .35mm is its sharpness sweet spot. But real magic happens at .1mm. So dark, you have to slow your shutter and crank your ISO, which combined with the pinhole effect and extreme vignetting makes everything in the frame gel in a special way.
I have done a lot of pinhole over the years. Mostly 120 with the Zero2000 and the Holga wide pinhole. Always a joy to see what you get. I did make a 4x5 out of foam core that I found instructions for online about 20 years ago, I would need to repair it to use again. Around the same time I made an 8x10 one out of wood. The larger ones are pretty hard to walk around with, so these days I mostly use the Holga.
Yeah...exactly - why not? f264? So what? As long as your calculations are correct - do it. My biggest problem is that I always, ALWAYS question whether it is exposed properly. Which leads to another topic.....Trusting Your Meter. Can't tell you how many times I worried about my meter giving me the right exposure readings. And they did. Every time. Has anyone else gone through worrysome issue? I just can't be the only one.