Newly Made Camera (1980s)

This is a pinhole camera made of cardboard that takes real pictures. The camera holds a single sheet of 4-by-5-inch film, so it can take only one picture at a time. It must be loaded and unloaded in total darkness. The lens cap serves as the shutter. A pinhole camera is a dark box with a tiny hole at one end and film on the other end. There is no lens to focus the light. Instead, the pinhole projects a dim upside-down image on the film. I built this camera back in the 1980s. It's a scale model of my favorite camera at that time, the Pentax MX 35mm SLR (single-lens reflex) camera. In 2005, burglars broke into my home. Looking for valuables, they ripped open my cardboard camera. Fortunately, the damage was not too hard to repair, and the camera is again in working order. The near-loss of my camera prompted me to write this description and post it on the Web. Design of the Camera Construction of the Camera Using the Camera Questions or comments about the Pentax MX pinhole camera? Go to the Dog Daze Guest Book I led a workshop at the Maker Faire Bay Area in 2019 on making a camera obscura out of cardboard. This was my first workshop, and things did not go as smoothy as I would have liked. Still, most participants were able to finish the camera. Those who commented said that they liked the project and thanked me for leading it. I've posted the project instructions at Build a Cardboard Camera Obscura      More cardboard construction: Detachable cargo/carry box for bike rack

More Paper and Cardboard Pinhole Cameras

In the photo below, the two smaller cameras in the foreground are small paper models of the real Pentax MX camera behind them. You can download and print the paper models as flat sheets and then fold them to make the camera bodies and lenses. For details, go to the Stonefield Colog-Nifty website. Alas, these fold-up cameras are not meant to be used as pinhole cameras. However, with a little extra work, you might be able to modify them to work that way. A pinhole camera is just a light-tight box with a pinhole in the front and film in the back. See How to Make and Use a Pinhole Camera by Kodak.

What you see below is not a real Hasselblad camera. It's a cardboard model and a working pinhole camera built by Kelly Angoof, a professional illustrator and prop designer. Ms. Angood sells pinhole camera kits at the Pop-Up Pinhole Camera Company.

To see some more paper and cardboard pinhole cameras, go to TheCoolist pinhole photography web page. For those less inclined to build a pinhole camera entirely "from scratch", several kits are available from Amazon.com. Gray Chang Guest Book ©2003-2012 Gray Chang