Pinhole gear...

There are a number of commercially made pinhole cameras available throughout the world...

- Zero Image

- Leonardo

Are just two but there are many more, just do a search. As much as I dream of being creative with my hands and making stuff from scratch I went with buying a new camera for my first attempts.

I chose the (beautifully built) Zero Image - Zero 45 Deluxe as it has a well designed shutter and three box sections that offer focal lengths (35mm equivalent) of 25mm, 50mm and 75mm with an adjustable dial that has various pinhole aperture sizes and zone plates for each focal length. This was the first camera I had owned in 4x5 and learning to use double darkslides, sheet film and dark bags was all part of the fun.

Being the tech nut that I am I bought a Fuji PA45 instant film back, a few double darkslides and a Horseman 6x9 roll film back for it as well. My logic was that if I was going to shoot 4x5 then I wanted to get a view camera as well eventually (it came sooner than expected) so I should get the film options I wanted for both cameras.

Then came the developing tanks for black and white film. I already had a light meter and the Zero Image camera came with an exposure calculator to make adjustments for the tiny apertures needed for (relatively) sharp pinhole images.

One day I'll make my and use my own pinhole camera... I may even design one myself as there are lots of resources out there to make pretty much any type of pinhole camera you could desire...

Next time: Exposure calculations...The art of working it all out...