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How to make the worlds cheapest lens :-)

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thomas1973

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Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))

Here are some examples. Not very interesting, but just to show that it works, and the image quality you can expect:





I'll try to shoot something more interesting later, and maybe some of you guys can contribute too? :-)

Thomas.

===================================
Some explanation and advice:

I made the hole by placing the tinfoil on the table, and just pricking the tip of the needle through the tinfoil - not the whole needle, just the tip.

The size of the hole is not critical, neither is the positioning over the lens mount. Just allign it as best you can.

The hole you made, is your tiny aperture, and because of the tiny size, it also 'focuses' the light. The smaller the pinhole, the longer the shutter speeds, but the sharper the images you get. So you have to find your own balance here. You can always make a new one :-)

You need long shutterspeeds, because of the small hole. Put your camera in M mode. Just try it out, and watch the result on the LCD. You probably need a shutter speed of several seconds.

BTW, the black dots on the images are the dust bunnies on my sensor. Because of the small aperture, they turn out very clear.
===================================
 
To be honest, the second picture looks better than a lot of camera-phones out there!
--
Dave H
 
That's pretty creative :). I made a pinhole camera during my student years and it was actually quite a lot of fun experimenting with it. I gotta try this one out sometime :).

Cheers,
rami.
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))

Here are some examples. Not very interesting, but just to show that
it works, and the image quality you can expect:

I'll try to shoot something more interesting later, and maybe some
of you guys can contribute too? :-)

Thomas.

===================================
Some explanation and advice:

I made the hole by placing the tinfoil on the table, and just
pricking the tip of the needle through the tinfoil - not the whole
needle, just the tip.

The size of the hole is not critical, neither is the positioning
over the lens mount. Just allign it as best you can.

The hole you made, is your tiny aperture, and because of the tiny
size, it also 'focuses' the light. The smaller the pinhole, the
longer the shutter speeds, but the sharper the images you get. So
you have to find your own balance here. You can always make a new
one :-)

You need long shutterspeeds, because of the small hole. Put your
camera in M mode. Just try it out, and watch the result on the LCD.
You probably need a shutter speed of several seconds.

BTW, the black dots on the images are the dust bunnies on my
sensor. Because of the small aperture, they turn out very clear.
===================================
Click to expand...
 
Err, I hardly dare to ask this seriously:
1- why are they blurry
2- what is the focal lenght of a pinhole lens?

Thanks for your answers.
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))

Here are some examples. Not very interesting, but just to show that
it works, and the image quality you can expect:





I'll try to shoot something more interesting later, and maybe some
of you guys can contribute too? :-)

Thomas.

===================================
Some explanation and advice:

I made the hole by placing the tinfoil on the table, and just
pricking the tip of the needle through the tinfoil - not the whole
needle, just the tip.

The size of the hole is not critical, neither is the positioning
over the lens mount. Just allign it as best you can.

The hole you made, is your tiny aperture, and because of the tiny
size, it also 'focuses' the light. The smaller the pinhole, the
longer the shutter speeds, but the sharper the images you get. So
you have to find your own balance here. You can always make a new
one :-)

You need long shutterspeeds, because of the small hole. Put your
camera in M mode. Just try it out, and watch the result on the LCD.
You probably need a shutter speed of several seconds.

BTW, the black dots on the images are the dust bunnies on my
sensor. Because of the small aperture, they turn out very clear.
===================================
Click to expand...
--
==========
Regards, Julien

D70 / nikkor 50mm f1.8 / nikkor 70-210mm f4-5.6
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 / Sigma 15-30 f3.5-4.5
SB-800 / Manfrotto tripod
 
French connection said:
Err, I hardly dare to ask this seriously:
1- why are they blurry
Click to expand...
Because there's no lens elements to focus. All you have is your aperture. If the aperture was smaller, the images would be sharper. But then you'd also need a slower shutter speed (because less light reaches the sensor).

The blurriness can add to the atmosphere, though. If you chose the right subjects, pinhole photos can have a great mood. Search on google, and see what you find.
French connection said:
2- what is the focal lenght of a pinhole lens?
Click to expand...
I don't know. I guess it depends on the distance of the pinhole to the sensor (I'm not sure, but I have the feeling that moving the pinhole closer would give you more wide angle, and moving it away would give a tele lens?). The feeling I get from the images I've shot, is that it's roughly equivalent to a 50mm on the D70.

Thomas.
 
The sun actually came out for a minute :-), so I got outside to try my new, homemade "lens". I bumped the ISO to 1600 to shoot handheld, and I was able to get shutter speeds down to around 1/20 sec. The shots look about as sharp as the ones from the tripod indoors, and I guess any small camera shake just gets soaked up in the lens blur. The main thing was to try and see if it was possible to get decent handheld shots - and it was :-)

So here are a couple of shots from outside my house:





Thomas.
 
Just to clarify: By the "aperture", I mean the pinhole.

You just attach the tinfoil to your camera body - without any lenses. All you have is the tinfoil with a tiny hole. That's your "lens", so it will be blurry. It's no 70-200VR, lol! On the upside, you're guaranteed not to get any moiré :-)

Just tape the tinfoil over the lens mount on your camera, and you're ready to go, set the camera to M mode, and you're ready to go.

Thomas.
thomas1973 said:
French connection said:
Err, I hardly dare to ask this seriously:
1- why are they blurry
Click to expand...
Because there's no lens elements to focus. All you have is your
aperture. If the aperture was smaller, the images would be sharper.
But then you'd also need a slower shutter speed (because less light
reaches the sensor).

The blurriness can add to the atmosphere, though. If you chose the
right subjects, pinhole photos can have a great mood. Search on
google, and see what you find.
thomas1973 said:
2- what is the focal lenght of a pinhole lens?
Click to expand...
I don't know. I guess it depends on the distance of the pinhole to
the sensor (I'm not sure, but I have the feeling that moving the
pinhole closer would give you more wide angle, and moving it away
would give a tele lens?). The feeling I get from the images I've
shot, is that it's roughly equivalent to a 50mm on the D70.

Thomas.
Click to expand...
 
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))
Click to expand...
For those people who don't want to tape tin foil over their lens mount, there are a number of places you can get laser cut pinholes mounted in body caps. Didn't find the relevant link just now, but

http://www.pinholeresource.com is a good place to start.

In the UK there is:

http://www.pinholesolutions.co.uk/

They will convert a body cap for £25 including an exposure calculator. You need to supply the cap.

--
Andy
 
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.
Click to expand...
Hey Thomas,

The pictrure with the flowers reveals what could very well be a backfocus problem! Maybe you should send the foil, the needle, or both back for repairs :-) You did keep the receipt for the warranty, right?

Seriously, that's pretty cool. Used to do this with cardboard boxes eons ago, but I never thought to to try it with a D70. My only concern would be to expose the D70's insides to dust...

Daniel
 
A couple of years ago a saw a web page where someone built a 8 Gigapixel (if I did the math right) digital pinhole camera using and old flatbed scanner.

Now that you woke up this memory I feel I must test that, since i now have got a flatbed scanner (which i didn't have then).
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))

Here are some examples. Not very interesting, but just to show that
it works, and the image quality you can expect:





I'll try to shoot something more interesting later, and maybe some
of you guys can contribute too? :-)

Thomas.

===================================
Some explanation and advice:

I made the hole by placing the tinfoil on the table, and just
pricking the tip of the needle through the tinfoil - not the whole
needle, just the tip.

The size of the hole is not critical, neither is the positioning
over the lens mount. Just allign it as best you can.

The hole you made, is your tiny aperture, and because of the tiny
size, it also 'focuses' the light. The smaller the pinhole, the
longer the shutter speeds, but the sharper the images you get. So
you have to find your own balance here. You can always make a new
one :-)

You need long shutterspeeds, because of the small hole. Put your
camera in M mode. Just try it out, and watch the result on the LCD.
You probably need a shutter speed of several seconds.

BTW, the black dots on the images are the dust bunnies on my
sensor. Because of the small aperture, they turn out very clear.
===================================
Click to expand...
 
Just kidding, of course! :-D

That's a very cool idea Thomas - thanks for sharing. I've seen it done before where people drill a little hole in the plastic mount cover but I never liked the thought of doing that. The foil works surprisingly well - I'll have to try this sometime!

Cheers,

Stephen
 
dumbo said:
A couple of years ago a saw a web page where someone built a 8
Gigapixel (if I did the math right) digital pinhole camera using
and old flatbed scanner.
Click to expand...
And I thought the tinfoil lens looked a bit geeky!?! :-))
dumbo said:
Now that you woke up this memory I feel I must test that, since i
now have got a flatbed scanner (which i didn't have then).
Click to expand...
I'm looking forward to seeing the results - but I'll prefer a downsized image, lol!

Thomas.
dumbo said:
thomas1973 said:
Take a piece of tinfoil from the kitchen, prick a tiiiny hole
through the middle with just the tip of the needle, then wrap the
tinfoil around your lens mount, with the pinhole as centred as
possible.

YOU HAVE JUST MADE YOURSELF A LENS! :-))

Here are some examples. Not very interesting, but just to show that
it works, and the image quality you can expect:





I'll try to shoot something more interesting later, and maybe some
of you guys can contribute too? :-)

Thomas.

===================================
Some explanation and advice:

I made the hole by placing the tinfoil on the table, and just
pricking the tip of the needle through the tinfoil - not the whole
needle, just the tip.

The size of the hole is not critical, neither is the positioning
over the lens mount. Just allign it as best you can.

The hole you made, is your tiny aperture, and because of the tiny
size, it also 'focuses' the light. The smaller the pinhole, the
longer the shutter speeds, but the sharper the images you get. So
you have to find your own balance here. You can always make a new
one :-)

You need long shutterspeeds, because of the small hole. Put your
camera in M mode. Just try it out, and watch the result on the LCD.
You probably need a shutter speed of several seconds.

BTW, the black dots on the images are the dust bunnies on my
sensor. Because of the small aperture, they turn out very clear.
===================================
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the links, Andy! The tinfoil lens is definitely not the best fashion statement, and I don't think I want to be seen with it in the streets. I guess the pinhole isn't a circular and sharp as a laser cut one either... However, it's a nice way to experiment with the world of pinhole photography, and then move on to a 'real' pinhole lens if you like it.

And your lens is about 1000 times more expensive than mine ;-)

Thomas.
Andy Taylor said:
For those people who don't want to tape tin foil over their lens
mount, there are a number of places you can get laser cut pinholes
mounted in body caps. Didn't find the relevant link just now, but

http://www.pinholeresource.com is a good place to start.

In the UK there is:

http://www.pinholesolutions.co.uk/

They will convert a body cap for £25 including an exposure
calculator. You need to supply the cap.

--
Andy
Click to expand...
 
Daniel said:
Daniel said:
Seriously, that's pretty cool. Used to do this with cardboard boxes
Click to expand...
eons ago, but I never thought to to try it with a D70.
Click to expand...
I've been thinking about doing pinhole photography for years when I had my film SLR, but never got around to it. Too much of a hassle, especially with the exposures, and waiting for the film to get back to see if I just screwed it up, or they came out good.

With digital, all the guessing is taken away, as you instantly see if your exposure is right, and if your pinhole is working. So at last it's easy to adjust the exposure right.
Daniel said:
My only concern would be to expose the D70's insides to dust...
Click to expand...
I guess that is a concern, but with the tinfoil in place, it's only the pinhole that is 'open', and that hole is too small for significant amounts of dust to enter. Anyway, I've stopped worrying about dust, and change lenses whenever I want. And I've got the dust to prove it, lol!

Thomas.
Daniel said:
Daniel
Click to expand...
 
That F/950 aperture makes for a fine way to characterize one's accumulated dust.

Interesting shots. Looks like a good rainy day project (and you know I'd be doing it if I had bought the body only and was waiting for my lenses :) ).
 
Add your teleconverter by using your papertoilett tube (or what the name is)!
Vajraphat said:
That F/950 aperture makes for a fine way to characterize one's
accumulated dust.

Interesting shots. Looks like a good rainy day project (and you
know I'd be doing it if I had bought the body only and was waiting
for my lenses :) ).
Click to expand...
--
Thomasis
 
Thomasis said:
Add your teleconverter by using your papertoilett tube (or what the
name is)!
Click to expand...
Hehe, I was acually think of that myself, after answering the 'focal length' question in this thread. But I felt stupid enough as it was, with tinfoil wrapped around my camera :-) Maybe I'll try it another rainy day if I'm bored.

Or how about you testing it, and reporting back to us with some shots - with and without teleconverter! :-)

Thomas.
 
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