Cheapie Pinholes, from Russia with love

Well, I got my little cheapie 35mm cameras yesterday from Freestyle. $12
each. I got two so I could rip up one. So, it just so happened that the
first one I opened had a problem with the shutter. It would cock, but not
fire. Maybe I manhandled it too hard before I read the directions, or maybe
there's no quality control. That made it just the candidate to convert to
pinhole. Though I wanted to keep a shutter in place, I just went ahead with
it because I was going to keep the other one as is.

So I disassembled it, and removed the lens and shutter assembly. Then I
took the plastic ring that held the lens and secured it down into the body,
and then glued a Series V filter ring into it. All my pinholes are mounted
into Series V filter rings, so I can switch them from camera to camera.

Today I took some shots, but I've only seen the negs. I'll get the prints
tomorrow. The transport mechanism works fine. Evenly spaced 35mm frames.
It winds then stops, and the only way to get it to wind to the next frame is
hit the shutter release. This is the shutter button's only function now
since I have a plastic lens cap in place for the shutter mechanism now.

The original lens was 40mm. The pinhole I'm using is 48mm. Due to the
truncated pyramid they use inside the camera to isolate the light path from
the rest of the camera, I'm constricted in what focal lengths I can use. I
did a quick diagram and it looks like I could put up to a 60mm focal length
before vignetting would occur from that truncated pyramid getting in the
way.

My description of this truncated pyramid probably doesn't make sense. Its
the same shape, and function, as a bellows that is the size of the negative
at the large end, and the size of the lens opening at the other. It just
doesn't flex. Its plastic, and formed into the body.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something good to show for it. I took some
closeups of some stacks of pumpkins and assorted squashes at this farmers
field. The colors in the negs looked luscious, but I'm not used to looking
at negs and reversing them in my minds eye. Well see. Luckily it was
somewhat overcast, so the colors won't be washed out by direct sun.

I think this camera could be adapted to keep the shutter in place and
functioning. It just didn't want to cooperate on the one I tore into.

The shutter speeds are B and 1/250 thru 1/15. However, holding the button
down for bulb might create a problem. It has a tripod mount too, but its
plastic and formed into the body, so can't be too rough.

Dwight
Received on Thu Nov 1 22:17:34 2001