Month: February 2023

January Pinhole Camera

8 sided Christmas tin

Came across this in the Dollar Store and thought it would make an interesting camera. I am going to put a pinhole in each of the sides and a circular core in the center to hold a 3.5 x 6 inch strip of photo paper.

Holes drilled in each side of the tin.
Hole drilled in the bottom for the tripod mount and to attach the central core.
Central core made from a piece cut from a plastic caulking tube.
A piece of wood cut to fit inside the tube. It has a 5/16 in hole drilled to accept the T nut.

The T nut is driven through the bottom of the can and into the hole in the center core.
The interior showing the central core mounted in place.

Painting the interior of the camera black. I used two coats of flat acrylic paint.
Making the pinholes out of a beer can. I calculated the focal length to be 35mm and a .26mm pinhole was required. The camera will be f135.
Mounted a pinhole in each of the 8 sides of the camera.
The finished camera.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4

I am glad that I built the 8 sided camera but it is not something I will use regularly. The camera is really fiddly to load and I don’t find the resulting images all that exciting.