Pinhole Camera

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Notice the 'easy to build' logo on the packaging.

I have wanted a pinhole camera since I was seven.  This Christmas my sister gave me one.  I was super excited and could not wait to put it together and start using it.  So, with my paint brush and glue in hand I got busy.

I am a fairly smart individual, but the directions were deplorable.  It took me two hours to put this camera together and towards the end I had to scrap some of the directions all together and use my own ingenuity and the little bit I know about camera's to finish this project.

Ooh!  I got the fancy zebra print one.

So, now all I needed was 35mm film, but in this high-tech new world we inhabit where everything is digital (& considering the small town I live in), it took me a week and a half to find film.  But I did!  (Thank you CVS on HWY 49 for being the only place in town to offer one package of CVS off-brand film & one package of Kodak for my perusal - oh it's just so sad!  anyway...)


I wait a few days for the overcast to go away and the sun to come out.  I insert the film into the left side compartment; pushing the springy part down and slitting my film between the wooden stick and the black cardboard that was glued to it.  Then I used the top portion to wind the film around.  Check and check!  Now to put the back on.  

Hrmm....  the back didn't seem to fit.  Actually the film canister didn't seem to fit entirely into the left side compartment like the picture in the instructions insured me it would.  They did not express that I had to be in a darkened room and have only film to wind in there; normal 35mm film in it's casing would do.  Everything (including the film) from the left side compartment is popping out every time I try to get the back on.  I finally make sure the film is properly in there and tape the back on, making sure no light will get in.  

Now, it's time for picture taking!  How fun!  Lots to do.  I have to wind three times (hrmm... a tad bit difficult), I have to have the shutter open, hold the camera completely still for 4 seconds on my shot (which was my sister and her boyfriend in front of the house), then open and close the shutter a few times to make the exposure.  Then it's time for another turn (Why is this not turning right?).  

I run back inside, un-tape the back to give the film side a bit more room, hastily tape it back on the side and run back out to stand in front of my sister and her boyfriend for 4 more seconds.  The next turn is OK.  Take a picture of some holly, turn and stick breaks!

Without that stick, the whole show is over.

Three photo's and my pinhole camera experience is over.  Which actually takes a load off my mind as I really had no idea of a place in town that actually sends film off anymore.  They seem to only have kiosks where you slip in your sim card and print your own digital pictures (because they are too lazy to even do that for you?  Even though they have someone working the film counter?  Why?)

From left to right: Maternal grandfather, me, my sister, my mother and then my father's camera's.  
I put the camera back in the house and we go on our merry way for eating out and running errands, for I will deal with the camera situation later.  Luckily we have one 35mm camera left in our arsenal, even though I have several camera's in my collection (see above).  The one I chose my father picked up at a pawn shop in the 1970's.  When he was finished with it, he gave it to my sister who basically used the hell out of it in the 1990's.  This is what we're working with...

If you wanted 'manual' this is the one!
A mid-1970's Yashica FRII.  This baby has all the bells and whistles.  There's a crucial knob missing, so you have to pry your fingers around this small metal rod and pull up (which is not that easy) to open the back.  You have to load your film and hope for a miracle that it catches.  If you wish to see the light meter you must push this bar to the right side and hold (because it no longer stays in position).  And for the big finale.  The little rod that the knob is missing off of (remember how I said it was crucial?)?  Back in the good old days you could have just wound that knob for a bit and all your film would go right back in it's casing.  Now?  You must go into a pitch dark room, pry that rod up with your fingers to pop open the back and by feel alone, wind all of your film back into its casing by hand.  Huzzah!

No, but seriously, that's not anything I can't handle and should be fun.  Also, I had to open my pinhole camera in almost total darkness to transfer the film to the new camera and while in almost total darkness had to hope it would catch in the new camera.  But from what I could see (but how little film was used - basically... none), I probably didn't get a thing from the pinhole camera.  I will be sad.

Even though the actual project was a bit of a bust, I'm still glad I actually, finally got to experience it.  And I'll finish this role with the Yashica and hope for the best when I get the photo's back, which of course I will post them for all to see their grandeur/horridness!

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