AMc
Distinguished Member
Inspired by this thread over at the e-group
Pinhole digital photography - Olympus UK E-System User Group
which links to this article
How to Take Pinhole Photos with a Digital Camera
I ordered a body cap with a view to ruining it to make a terrible lens
My body cap arrived this morning, 99p bought me a body cap and a rear lens cap! (eBay item number: 253527086294)
Ordered on the 20th took 10 days from China. My experiment costs 49.5p + my time.
First thing was to find the middle of the cap.
I rubbed a bit of paper over then inside of the cap to trace out the inner cap diameter, cut that into a circle and test fitted it inside the cap.
That gave me a template which I folded into quarters then used the join to indicate the centre.
I then marked through the paper to give the drill a centre.
There's probably a better way to do this so feel free to make suggestions.
I drilled a 3mm hole - very simple using my knock off dremel like tool.
Then the fun begins...
I decided to try electrical tape to begin with as faffing with drinks cans sounded like it would be fiddly and slow.
Getting the smallest possible pin hole and trying to get that hole perfectly in the middle was a challenge.
Once you've stuck the tape down it's not really practical to peel it off and move it.
Ironically my first attempt was the best of the tape versions, I then tried several more goes with less success!
I tried tape on the inside and the outside, supporting the tape with a cork or a guitar pick to try and get the smallest hole.
Then I decided to try a cardboard cut out pushed into the cap.
I then held a guitar pick behind that and pushed the pinhole from the front.
Finally using the rear screen I was able to rotate the card so there was no interference from the 3mm hole.
In certain versions there were shadows that were clearly the edge of the drill hole.
It is possible to see a blurry image on the rear screen with the body cap on and no pin hole.
Now I think about it it might be a way to align a "perfect" tape pinhole.
Something for another day.
The kit
Bodycap adapted for pinhole photography by AMcUK, on Flickr
Pinhole Bodycap Close Up by AMcUK, on Flickr
My 'lens' is about 25mm (50mm equivalent) based on framing the church with the kit lens.
The E-M10 Mkii does a very impressive job of boosting the EVF/Screen to show you what you're likely to get so it's not quite "shooting in the dark".
As the weather is rotten today I just propped the camera on the window for the church shots.
Shooting in manual ISO 200 some of my shots went to 30 seconds but they weren't any better than the 3-5 second versions.
The gorilla and selfie were hand held in P mode - so a max of 1 second and ISO 3200.
JPG Straight out of camera - resized for the web
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Digital Pinhole Portrait - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Gerald Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Auto adjusted in Lightroom
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
Digital Pinhole Portrait - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
Gerald Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
So a fun experiment for 50p. If the sun comes back I might go out and see what else I can do with it.
Any thoughts or questions feel free to chip in
Pinhole digital photography - Olympus UK E-System User Group
which links to this article
How to Take Pinhole Photos with a Digital Camera
I ordered a body cap with a view to ruining it to make a terrible lens
My body cap arrived this morning, 99p bought me a body cap and a rear lens cap! (eBay item number: 253527086294)
Ordered on the 20th took 10 days from China. My experiment costs 49.5p + my time.
First thing was to find the middle of the cap.
I rubbed a bit of paper over then inside of the cap to trace out the inner cap diameter, cut that into a circle and test fitted it inside the cap.
That gave me a template which I folded into quarters then used the join to indicate the centre.
I then marked through the paper to give the drill a centre.
There's probably a better way to do this so feel free to make suggestions.
I drilled a 3mm hole - very simple using my knock off dremel like tool.
Then the fun begins...
I decided to try electrical tape to begin with as faffing with drinks cans sounded like it would be fiddly and slow.
Getting the smallest possible pin hole and trying to get that hole perfectly in the middle was a challenge.
Once you've stuck the tape down it's not really practical to peel it off and move it.
Ironically my first attempt was the best of the tape versions, I then tried several more goes with less success!
I tried tape on the inside and the outside, supporting the tape with a cork or a guitar pick to try and get the smallest hole.
Then I decided to try a cardboard cut out pushed into the cap.
I then held a guitar pick behind that and pushed the pinhole from the front.
Finally using the rear screen I was able to rotate the card so there was no interference from the 3mm hole.
In certain versions there were shadows that were clearly the edge of the drill hole.
It is possible to see a blurry image on the rear screen with the body cap on and no pin hole.
Now I think about it it might be a way to align a "perfect" tape pinhole.
Something for another day.
The kit
Bodycap adapted for pinhole photography by AMcUK, on Flickr
Pinhole Bodycap Close Up by AMcUK, on Flickr
My 'lens' is about 25mm (50mm equivalent) based on framing the church with the kit lens.
The E-M10 Mkii does a very impressive job of boosting the EVF/Screen to show you what you're likely to get so it's not quite "shooting in the dark".
As the weather is rotten today I just propped the camera on the window for the church shots.
Shooting in manual ISO 200 some of my shots went to 30 seconds but they weren't any better than the 3-5 second versions.
The gorilla and selfie were hand held in P mode - so a max of 1 second and ISO 3200.
JPG Straight out of camera - resized for the web
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Digital Pinhole Portrait - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Gerald Digital Pinhole - Out of Camera by AMcUK, on Flickr
Auto adjusted in Lightroom
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
St. Mary's Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
Digital Pinhole Portrait - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
Gerald Digital Pinhole - Lightroom by AMcUK, on Flickr
So a fun experiment for 50p. If the sun comes back I might go out and see what else I can do with it.
Any thoughts or questions feel free to chip in