why not make it?

Panoramic Pinhole Camera

Having been really happy with the results of my NASA-style pinhole camera (see link and my pictures here) I decided to try making my own design, but this time to make a panoramic pinhole camera. 

Taking components of the NASA design - Make a Pinhole Camera - NASA Space Place

and a panoramic design - Make a DIY 35mm Panoramic Pinhole Camera on the Cheap

I wanted to design something made of cardboard so it is pretty much free to make, with 120 degree horizontal viewing angle and width of more than two normal 35 mm film images. Here are some sample images - nothing very exciting since test taken on a grey day in the rain, but at least the camera works in a technical sense! Not much light fall off at the edges due to the curved focal plane and no evidence of light leaks. Full instructions below…

To make this panoramic pinhole camera, you will need:

An empty film spool with just a few cm of film on it (you can get them for free from film labs e.g. Snappy Snaps.)

35 mm film (unused - to expose)

Some tape - clear and electrical

Cereal box

Cardboard (preferably quite thick)

Small piece of tinfoil

Pin

The template for the camera is like here, in two pieces:

Step 1: Save each image and print on a sheet of paper each, check that the test box is exactly 1 cm inside (along all of the sides) and use the numbers ‘1’ and ‘2’ to match up the two printouts so that it looks like this:

and cut all the pieces out of a cereal box, except the spacer. Cut two spacers out of the thickest cardboard possible, rounding off the wiggly edge (I just couldn’t draw it straight!) If you only have thin cardboard (as I did) cut four and stick them together in pairs. Solid lines are cut lines and dotted lines indicate folds. The round holes on the top should be measured to ensure they exactly fit the film spool tops.

Step 2: Take the old film top off (e.g. using a beer bottle opener), turn the spool upside-down, push the film through the opening and put the top (now the bottom) back on so that the end that sticks out is now at the other side. Stick the two films together using clear tape like this:

 Step 3: Insert the guide in front of the film:

Step 4: Tape the spacers on to hold the film and film guide at the correct curve:

Step 5: Push the winders through the top of the box and mark on the wind and rewind directions:

then tape the box shut putting the flaps inside and taping all the edges with electrical tape. I taped pretty much the whole box to try to make it as well light-sealed as possible.

Step 6: Make a pinhole in a piece of foil around 2 cm or 1 inch square. Make it as small as possible and hold it up to the light to  make sure it is round (might take a few attempts.) The smaller and rounder, the better the quality of the images. Tape it onto the front of the box in the centre of the square hole: 

Step 7: Put the shutter in the shutter guide, put the shutter cover on top and tape it down, holding them all in place: 

Step 8: Use your pinhole camera! Wind on 1.5 turns between images near the beginning of the film (wind on using the old film but look at how much the new film turns) and 2 turns near the end of the film. When you open and close the pinhole, just using the shutter will make it shake and make the pictures blurry so instead put your finger in front of the pinhole before opening/closing the shutter and the exposure will start when you take off/put over your finger.

Here’s a table of exposure times that you can use as a guide but they are very approximate - you will need to experiment! With the first film try taking at least two exposures of each scene, e.g. for a cloudy scene with 100 ISO film try one exposure at 15 s, one at 30 s and one at 1 m.