Re: Panoramic Pinhole Plans

----- Original Message -----
From: "Benno Jones" <bennoj@qwest.net>

> I recently came into possession of a 5x7 dark slide that has been cut in
> half to give to approx. 6x17 exposures on a 5x7 piece of film. I have a
> fairly decent 5x7 camera (Kodak 33a) and would like to use the setup to
> make some pinhole panoramas. However, once I fashion a pinhole
> lensboard, I'm worried that falloff towards the edges will result in a
> sort of 'half-dome' effect on the photos that won't look so hot
> (especially on the bottom half of the film. So my plan is to make the
> pinhole off-center on the lensboard and flip it for each exposure. As I

In principle that idea would work. The idea is that a normal from the
pinhole to the film plane should lay right in the center of the 1/2 5x7
frame. This may be unattainable just by flipping the lens board, it may
require recurring to raise/fall movements, also.

> am very inexperienced at making my own pinhole cameras (even as limited
> as this - I use a Zero2000, a Leonardo and a Nikon pinhole body cap), I
> feel a need for outside input. This leads me to ask the group for any
> comments. Are my falloff fears fraudulent? Anything else I should take
> into consideration?

Fears may or may not be unfounded, it depends on the focal length of your
set-up. If you don't want fall-off (or much of it, anyway), aim for an
image angle of 120 degrees or less.

Guillermo
Received on Sun Jun 17 23:52:17 2001