im making a mini pinhole camrea out of silver for my jewelry class is it true there has to be 3-6 inches from the pinhole to the paper/film

[megan_griffith]

<p>hello, i am making a mini pinhole camera out of silver for my jewelry class, i like to incorperate my photography and my jewelry, is it true there has to be 3-6 inches from the pinhole to the paper for it to work??</p>

[rnt]

<p>No... I've seen matchbox sized pinhole cameras. It's true that the shorter the distance the smaller the ideal size for the pinhole, but there's no practical limit on the focal length. Eric Renner's book, 'Pinhole Photography' is a good reference for odd pinhole cameras (seashells, mouth, etc) as well as pinhole photography in general.</p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>http://pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/<br>

http://www.mrpinhole.com/wiz.php</p>

<p>I've never made a pinhole camera, nor do I know specifically how small of a camera you could get away with but these two links may help you a bit.</p>

[matt_needham]

<p>How about those Altoid tin pinhole cameras. Those can't be much thicker than 1/2". http://www.merrillphoto.com/pintoids.htm</p>

 

[rjjackson]

<p>megan,</p>

<p>it will work with a very short focal length. one limitation will be that as the area of your film/paper gets smaller the resolution diminishes. another challenge will be to expose for long enough and get as sharp an image as possible (assuming you want to expose while wearing the jewelry). you can find creative ways to work around these or to incorporate them into your image. you could enlarge the negative to such an extent that the grain is as much a part of the image as the shapes they form...</p>

<p>if you're just scaling the whole thing down, perhaps you could build into the piece some tiny feet and a tiny shutter so you can hold the camera stable on a table or something while making the exposure.</p>

<p>rj</p>

<p> </p>

[cametacamera]

<p>A pinhole camera can be ANY size. The distance from hole to "film" will determine the legnth of the exposure. The shorter the distance, the quicker the exposure can be. But... the shorter the distance, the smaller your image will be.<br>

Have fun!</p>

[carnagex_carnagex]

<p>Lomo sells a 110 film pinhole, I dont thing you can get any closer to the film then that.<br>

<img src="http://shop.lomography.com/products/smi_a.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="318" /></p>

[j_flash]

<p>Kodak had a set of directions for making a pinhole camera using a 126 cartridge and a nickel to wind the film. I had a student scale it down for a 110 cartridge.</p>

<p>We also made cameras out of film cans with some ortho film taped inside. Interesting images. </p>

<p>Regards, John</p>