Hi fellow photographers, I am currently building a home-made camera and need your help. Home-made cameras are fairly simple, but this one is not. It will not be a typical pinhole camera. Instead of making a pinhole lens, I will be using an element from a broken Canon 50mm 1.8 (the rear element to be exact). This way I will have sharp, focused light without having an aperture of ~ f/200. I will find out what the focal length of this lens is and then get its hyperfocal focusing distance (assume I can somehow fashion an f/8 or f/11 aperture. I realize there are flaws with this lens design. It will have a fixed focus and I will only be able to shoot things at certain distances. However, hopefully with the aperture I will still have something usable... I am hoping that lens design and calibration will be the easy part. What I am having considerable trouble brainstorming is the shutter mechanism. How would one be able to fashion their own mechanical shutter? Something like 1/125 or 1/60 of a second would he preferable, allowing me to negate camera shake (well, I guess that depends one we find the focal length). Can any one think of a good mechanism that could make this work? The typical slot-shutter design of pinholes wouldn't work because this camera's aperture would be significantly larger..... By the way, I am thinking of using an altoids container for the body - it is light tight as far as I know (and is conveniently hinged).. If anybody has any suggestions that would be great, really, any help would be appreciated...
I haven't a single idea as how to make that work. I wish you the best of luck though. If and when you figure it out, I look forward to seeing a couple of the shots you get out of it.
[quote name='"TROLLHUNTER420"']Get a real fuckin job[/quote] Shut up dude. If your not gonna say anything helpful just get off this forum. As for you OP this is an interesting challenge your are presenting yourself with. I would say something with a mirror for the shutter( if that's not obvious). Good luck!
The irony of your name is too much. Sounds pretty sweet colt, but like chocobo i couldnt give any advice whatsoever haha. Cameras have always been kinda magical to me... possibly one of the reasons i like them so much. Definitely interested to see the end product though!
Why would a mirror be necessary? This camera won't be an SLR, if any thing I will have the degrees of the focal length displayed on the top of the camera as a way of composing. It probably won't have a viewfinder.
Maybe fashion something out of a mouse trap or use the mechanics behind the mouse trap in your design.
I like this Idea. I was thinking of possibly buying up some more cameras to use as parts cameras and adapting one of their shutters to this body. It will probably have to have a spring, will only have one shutter speed, and will be extremely crude but I figure once I make this first model I can always improve upon it.
I found this the other day, thought you might be interested in it. The lenses don't see very good, like they're depth of field is super short, but nonetheless. Build Your Own Lenses | DIYPhotography.net
you are going to have a lot of trouble making a shutter mechanism which will archive those speeds reliably and efficiently your best bet is going to be to get one out of an old camera. look at picking up an old folder style, and just remove the elements from in front and behind the shutter this will also give you a working diaphragm. Be aware that a single element out of a modern lens may not actual be capable of focusing light, as it is intended to be used as a part of a much more complex optical design. one more thing if you wind up using an Altoids box which will probably create minimum flange distance issues. u will need to seal it with electrical tape because it will not be light tight on its own. I'm not trying to discourage you, but you have a lot of obstacles to overcome with your initial plan, best of luck.
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