Re: best viewfinders for close-up work

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Heidt" <heidtsarah@hotmail.com>
>
> My younger brother does woodworking and has generously offered to build me a
> large format pinhole camera. He even bought a set of micro drills for his
> Dremel (are these small enough, I don't know!)

Nothing like the love of a brother!

As for the micro drills, they come in "wire gage sizes", here is a table:
http://www.labenson.com/jobbers%20drills%20hss%20wire
The "Decimal Dia" is the diameter in inches, you need that to calculate the
focal length (distance pinhole to film) the holes made by the drills are
"optimum" for. To find the focal length, just divide the drill diameter by
0.0073 and multiply the result by itself, that will give you the focal length in
inches. I have seen specs for microdrill bits of up to #97 wire gage size, the
table above only has up to #80, which is good for about 90mm focal length, a
good focal length for a very wide angle 8x10 camera, I'd say.

> All I have to do is give him the plans. (Don't give me grief about not
building
> it for myself--I'm a busy mom of two little girls, and shy of power tools...)

Oh, the joys of parenthood!

> I am not sure whether to
> go 4x5 or 8x10. I don't have film holders. So should I purchase a wooden
> film holder first on Ebay and then have him build the camera to accomodate
> it?

If you don't have a 4x5 enlarger (bro could build one too I guess :-) I'd
recommend to go with an 8x10, you can contact print the negatives and have a
nice size result.
Yes, buy the holder first, it'll help your brother.

> I have the book "Primitive Photography" by Alan Greene that shows very
> detailed plans for making a large format camera (with lens!) and I was
> thinking of giving the book to him and letting him use that as a guide. Any
> other ideas or plans that are online I could send to him?

Give him the book, tell him the most important part of the camera is the back.
Show him also Bender's pinhole page, so he gets some additional ideas. Here is
the site:
http://www.benderphoto.com/pincam.htm

Here is an excellent view of a good back design:
http://www.enteric.org/810/images/17.jpg

Hope it helps,

Guillermo
Received on Fri Apr 19 09:46:28 2002