New Large Sensor Camera built by UK Developer - 60x "full frame"

I spoose I should have posted this in the projects/repair forum really, but all you can hear and see there is a tolling bell and some tumbleweeds blowing through ... so, for completeness, and much against my general principles of not talking about technicals, here we go:

It is made from 5mm black foam board. I found the Stanford pinhole instruction sheet, but found them only partly useful. It seemed easier just to start by taking one of the DDS and build the rest around it. The only other materials are double-sided tape and black duct-tape. I didn't use silver duct-tape as it is so terribly terribly démodé

The 10x8 darkslides are stupidly expensive in Europe and it took me over a year to find two on eBay at a lucky BIN price - not at all a bargain, just barely acceptable. They are ½ the price in the US.

Making it took me about 2 hours including tea breaks and wouldn't have taken that long had I not made a basic error of measurement and had to find a way to rescue myself from it. Or had less tea maybe.

Almost the trickiest bit was making the "groove" in the backplate, but I also found it very hard to cut all the board so that the cut edges are 90° to the plane surface.

It's surprisingly rigid (although I did end up adding an extra layer of foam board as part of my rescue tactic, so that probably helps), very light, but also slightly off-balance once the DDS is in - needs a bit of extra weight at the front to sort out the moment.

The bungees to hold the DDS in tight are made from scrunchies tied together, and the pinhole from a can of Dr. Pepper someone had thrown over my garden wall. I used the "press on the metal with a ballpoint pen until it dimples then sand the dimple 'til there's a hole" method.

Pinhole is ~0.57mm (measured with my enlarger), focal length is ~150mm, so ~f/260.

The next mod will be to epoxy a couple of 3/8" nuts to pieces of board, made flush with more foam board and glued to bottom and side, so I can use a tripod.

It's enormous. I can't imagine walking down the street with it under my arm ...
 
One of the plus points about the construction method I used is that it requires almost no tools - just a sharp craft knife and a steel rule :)

ReD said:
So exposure time on the dark slide / paper is ?

(I'll have to catch up on WTF these are)

well ... because this particular paper is variable contrast (you'll have to look that up as well :D) the speed can be a bit variable in the "real" world where there are all sorts of wavelengths pinging around in the aetherial substance.

Modern VC paper, and fresh to boot, so as a first try I metered for EI 6, but it could be as low as 3 or as high as 25 depending on what you're photographing. That indicated an exposure of 8 minutes at the start of the exposure, but as it got brighter part way through when the sun came out, I closed the shutter at about 6½ minutes.

I've also got a stack of ageing graded fibre papers which are not much good for printing, so I'll use for negatives & will likely be much slower.
 
Paul, mate, you got me thinking now. I just 'inherited' many meters of A0 rolls of well expired but still unwrapped printing paper. I wondered how I might use it all but now….:hmmm: how big a pinhole is possible.

This is exciting….I have my distraction for the day thinking this one through. Thanks (y)
 
You could sell it to the Oz APUGgers Mark ... hehehe

The thing is, the flatness of the sensitive material is not remotely critical in a pinhole camera, as not only is depth of field effectively infinite, but so is depth of focus.

If you're a handy chap in the workshop, I expect it shouldn't be too hard to knock up backs for paper negatives that are both light-tight and don't cost the Earth. One would simply have to think creatively about design and materials. I haven't searched myself, but I'd be surprised if others haven't come up with film or paper holders for homemade LF cameras already.

As A0 is a rectangular size, I presume you must mean you have rolls either 33" or 47" wide? Whichever it is, that is one big negative. Think of the resolution! The only problem would be building a trough and filling it with enough developer (you'd need to see-saw it through, or brush it on, plus handling wet paper that size would be a challenge.)
 
A0 print paper - basically used as contact prints in Architect offices
Ammonia based developer?


Not sure of the fixing


Architect I worked with in Cyprus told me they used to put the plan & neg under glass carry it out into the sunshine & let it print

Edit = would be interesting to see how a standard projector would work with this
 
You could sell it to the Oz APUGgers Mark ... hehehe

The thing is, the flatness of the sensitive material is not remotely critical in a pinhole camera, as not only is depth of field effectively infinite, but so is depth of focus.

If you're a handy chap in the workshop, I expect it shouldn't be too hard to knock up backs for paper negatives that are both light-tight and don't cost the Earth. One would simply have to think creatively about design and materials. I haven't searched myself, but I'd be surprised if others haven't come up with film or paper holders for homemade LF cameras already.

As A0 is a rectangular size, I presume you must mean you have rolls either 33" or 47" wide? Whichever it is, that is one big negative. Think of the resolution! The only problem would be building a trough and filling it with enough developer (you'd need to see-saw it through, or brush it on, plus handling wet paper that size would be a challenge.)
Paul this is so much food for thought I'm stuffed at the trough already. I'll do some more research this weekend. Of course I have the option of cutting the roll up anywhere along the width or breadth…but you're right imagine the resolution of a pinhole made from an old fridge box (I have one actually), or an old fridge (got a few of them too), or a Mini or the such like, I got a lotta stuff lingering around the farm that I could certainly put to better use to make that camera obscura :laugh1:
 
Can't wait for "The best bag for this model" thread :)

Bag??? What about the STRAP? Good lord, a wrist strap just isn't gonna cut it. Even a sling is asking for trouble. Might need to jury rig one of those two camera harness slings that Black Rapid makes to have both sides connect to this beast.

I hadn't clicked on this thread because I feared it was just another amazing engineering project I didn't have any interest in unless and until it hit the market and I could possibly get some benefit from it in somebody's product line. And now to see that, in fact, that's kind of what it IS, but it's sense of style is so overwhelmingly impressive that it requires a good hard look. You can bet that Apple is all over this and I can just see the "simulated electrical tape" that will show up on the exterior of the next Mac models.

But seriously, that photo in the third post is technically every bit as good as a LOT of the stuff I shot with back in the film days and it has Paul's always nice composition adding a whole mood and meaning to seemingly unremarkable subject matter.

If you can just work out a good strap for it, I think you've gotta take this to market...

-Ray
 
stillshunter; said:
Must ask did you start sober from the left and then commit yourself a shot of something steely with each strip to the right?

Ah mark, sorry to shoot down your theory but you've forgotten I don't drink alcohol ...
 
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