Atelier Bonryu(E)
pinhole photography
Laboratory Pinhole Photography
Taking Pinhole Photographs
- Pinhole Photography by DSLR -
Pinhole Photography by DSLR: After I began to take pinhole photographs a long time was not necessary before the age of silver film cameras had changed to the age of digital cameras. Though I was using SLR cameras of the Olympus OM series, the series went out of production and I switched to digital cameras. I am now using Olympus E-series Digital SLR cameras(DSLR), E-300 and E-510, for the pinhole photography. By using these cameras I found that DSLR is quite a suitable SLR camera because one can look at taken photographs on the moment, one can take photographs again and again until a satisfactory picture is obtained, and no cost for film and development is necessary. Of course it spoils the pleasure in a dark room to wait the moment a picture appears.
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Olympus DSLR E-300 with a ”pinhole-lens”
Of course, there is a weak point in the digital pinhole photography. An image sensor of DSLR which corresponds to a film is generally small. As the resolution (*5) of the image depends on the size of the pinhole and the focal length, a small sensor cannot attain a high resolution even if the number of pixels is large. In the case of a do-it-yourself pinhole camera one can use a large film or a large contact paper as an image sensor to take a sharper photograph but it is not possible in the case of a digital camera. Especially the Olympus E-series DSLR which I use regularly has an image sensor of the FourThirds format, which is the smallest format among commercially available DSLRs. The reason I use the E-series DSLR in spite of this defect is that the dust reduction system of these cameras is excellent and I can change the ”pinhole-lenses“ frequently without worry.
