Pinhole photography is one of the earliest forms of the art and involves being truly creative about looking at scenes. It often involves an extremely narrow aperture of f162 or even narrower along with a long exposure time to capture what’s in the frame. Depth of field is determined by using composition techniques and often the cameras don’t have a lens or focusing of any sort.
Many folks tend to DIY their own pinhole cameras using things like beer cans and much more. But if you’re not the type of tinker around with tools then here are three pinhole cameras that are very worthy of note.
Ilford Obscura Pinhole Camera Kit
If you’re looking to start out with Pinhole photography, Ilford has a great option in the form of this special box. Inside the Obscure Pinhole camera, you’ll load up 4×5 film and shoot using an f290 aperture with a magnetically locking shutter. The camera also shoots with a very wide angle field of view, so you’ll basically get anything you want in front of you in focus.
Ondu 6×12 Multi Format Pinhole Camera
When it comes to working with medium format pinhole work, Ondu wood cameras may be exactly what you’re looking for. They’re small, beautiful, and handcrafted from wood. Specifically with their 6×12 multi format camera, you can shoot in 6×6, 6×9 and 6×12 formats. Like other pinhole cameras, you’ll also have a manual shutter mechanism. But what’s really cool here is that you’ve got dual winding knobs like other 35mm and 120 cameras for advancing the film.
If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, this may be the camera to get.
Ilford HARMAN 4×5 Pinhole Camera
The Ilford HARMAN TITAN camera is a 4×5 camera with a very well built body. The camera is made with an injection molded Polymer for better stability and durability. It has an exposure calculator, spirit levels, and has an f206 aperture that is bound to get most of the scene in focus. We strongly recommend using this with black and white film because color pinhole images aren’t always the most appealing. What’s really cool is that you can change out the cones, which essentially replace the lenses to go from 72, 110 or 150mm. When talking about the large format perspective, these are wide angle to normal field of views.
