How to Make a Pinhole Lens for Your SLR Camera

How to Make a Pinhole Lens for Your SLR Camera

Body cap pinhole lensWith many devotees, pinhole photography is
the art of taking photos in a "lensless" fashion;[1] instead, a
pinhole is placed over the usual lens, in order to create soft,
"artsy" images. You can make your own pinhole lens for your SLR
(digital or film) from the camera's body cap, using simple
materials and tools. Doing this will even improve the effects on
older, less capable cameras and you'll capture some neat effects
on film.

Be aware that pinhole lenses don't ever produce an extremely sharp
image, especially when used on the very small image sensors of digital
cameras, but the artistic effect is definitely worth the loss of
sharpness. Here is how to make your own pinhole lens at home.

!! Steps !!

Find the center of the body cap.

* Mark a dimple in the center of the body cap with the center punch
tool.

* Using a nail or similar tool is also effective.

Drill a hole measuring approximately 1/4" /
6.35mm. Using the center mark that you created
in the previous step, drill a hole in the body
cap.

* Use something under the body cap to protect your working surface
if needed.

Cut a square piece measuring approximately
3/4"x 3/4" / 1.9cm x 1.9cm (approximately)
from the aluminum sheet.

* Using a soda can with the top and bottom cut off, cut a 3/4" (1.9
cm) square to 1" (2.5cm) square piece. The size does not need to
be exact nor exactly square, however the size must be small enough
to fit flush inside the body cap yet large enough to hold while
sanding.

* Round the corners of the square piece for safety.

Make a dimple in the center of the aluminum piece. Take a sturdy
sharp needle, and slowly use a twisting motion with gentle pressure,
to make a dimple in the center of the aluminum.

* Go slowly and steadily so as not to create a hole that is too
large.

* The dimple should be just visible on the underside of the aluminum
piece.

* Do not push the needle all the way through; there shouldn't be a
visible hole at this point, only a dimple.

* Sand the dimple. Using very fine grit wet/dry
sanding paper (emery cloth) of 600-800 grain or finer, gently sand
the dimple flush with the surface of the aluminum surface.
After the dimple has been sanded away, a small
hole should appear in the aluminum. Use the
needle once more to gently round out the hole
(both sides).

* The optimum diameter of the pinhole depends on the distance from
the pinhole to the film surface (digital sensor). For most (D)SLR
cameras that is somewhere around 50mm. Using a pinhole
calculator, the optimum pinhole size is apx .3mm. A #13 sewing
needle should pass through a .3mm hole but a #12 needle should
not.

* The size does not have to be exact at any rate, any hole close to
.3mm will work just fine.

* If the hole is too small, gently use the needle again to enlarge
the hole and sand both sides smooth.

* If the hole is too large, try the lens to see how well it works,
or discard the piece and cut a new one.

* What is important is to make the hole as round as possible and to
keep the edges smooth and flush with the surface. Jagged edges
will cause diffraction effects and show up on the final image.[2]

* After you have sized the pinhole correctly, clean the aluminum
piece and the pinhole with rubbing alcohol and blowing through the
pinhole. Doing this is important since residue can get in the
pinhole and cause image distortions or worse the residue can get
on your camera sensor and require a cleaning.
Apply adhesive. Using a toothpick, or
something equivalent, sparingly spread the
adhesive around the edge of the aluminum
piece, being careful not to get any adhesive
near the pinhole.

* Use silicone adhesive as you can easily remove the pinhole from
the body cap and remove the adhesive from the body cap if you ever
need or want to.

Carefully place the aluminum piece into the
center backside of the body cap. Make sure to
center the pinhole in the drilled hole in the
body cap.

* Try to be exact when positioning the first time, in order to keep
the adhesive from getting all over the body cap and possibly into
the pinhole.

* Tape the aluminum piece in place while the
adhesive dries. Do a final check to make sure the pinhole is still
centered on the hole in the body cap.

* After the adhesive dries, carefully remove
the tape.

* Cut a very small square piece of tape and
cover the pinhole.

* Mask the body cap. Leave the aluminum piece
exposed so it can be painted black.

* Spray flat black paint over the aluminum
piece. This will greatly improve the image quality.

* Remove the small square piece of tape covering the pinhole.
Using a black permanent marker, dot the
remaining aluminum surface so it is black. The
ink sticks better when dotted onto the surface
rather than wiped because the aluminum surface
has no tooth for the ink to adhere to.

* Be careful not to dot over the pinhole. This area does not have to
be perfect as it will not reflect as much light as the entire
aluminum surface would.

Remove all the masking tape and do a final
cleaning.

* Attach the body cap to the camera body.

Put your SLR in manual mode and set the
shutter speed to 2 seconds to start. Take a
photo. Look at the histogram. If the graph
indicates that the image is over-exposed (the
histogram will show data bunched to the
extreme right) or under-exposed (histogram
data is bunched to the left), adjust the
shutter speed to compensate.

* Once the exposure is set you can use this exposure while shooting
in similar light conditions.

* Depending on how bright the scene is your exposure time may vary
from several seconds to just under a second. The yellow flower
photo shown here was exposed for 1/2 a second at ISO 400 in full
sun.

* The sun through the leaves photo was exposed for 1/15 of a second
at ISO 400.

* If your scene lighting changes, recheck the histogram and adjust
shutter speed to compensate.

!! Video !!

!! Tips !!

* Use a tripod or place the camera on a stable surface. Since the
aperture of the pinhole lens is so small, the shutter speeds are
longer and motion blur will be a problem.

* Using a higher ISO setting will allow faster shutter speeds.

!! Warnings !!

* Make sure you thoroughly clean the body cap from construction
residue before attaching it to the camera body. Failure to do so
will cause the residue to get inside of the camera body and
ultimately it risks being deposited on the image sensor.

* Pinhole lenses by their nature may cause an accumulation of dust
on a digital camera's sensor; this requires periodic cleaning.

* Pinhole lenses will show dust on a digital sensor that would not
show up with a normal glass lens. This is due to the very small
aperture of the pinhole. This is completely normal and is not
cause for alarm. Spots are easily removed by using digital imaging
software.

* A cold camera from indoor air-conditioning will fog the image
sensor when taken outside on a warm humid day. Allow the camera
time to acclimate before taking photos.

!! Things You\'ll Need !!

* Body cap that fits your camera

* Soda can for aluminum sheet

* Silicone adhesive

* Flat black paint / large sharpie marker

* Large sewing needle

* 1/4" (apx) drill bit

* Drill (optional)

* Heavy duty scissors

* Paper scissors

* Tooth picks (or similar)

* 600-800 grit sanding block/paper

* Center punch (optional)

* Tape (to hold aluminum while glue dries and mask body cap during
painting)

!! Related WikiHows !!

* How to Make a Pinhole Camera

* How to Find Suitable Places to Take Motion Blur Shots

* How to Have a Spa and Photo Shoot Party

* How to Create a Film Artwork Design Using Photo Pos Pro

* How to Square up Artwork Using Photoshop Elements

!! Sources And Citations !!

* Original source of article,
http://photographyrulez.blogspot.com/2010/09/digital-pinhole-anyone-part-1.html
– shared by blog author who is also the initial author of this
article

* http://www.flickr.com/photos/florida_sail_ham/sets/72157624906289397/with/5023401086/
– source of images

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