Collapseable Pinhole Camera

Pinhole cameras are the simplest cameras. Wouldn't it be great to own a collapsible one you can put in your pocket? Here's how to go about making one.

Designing a collapsible box can be done by studying natures way of collapsing a box when it is squashed. So a chocolate truffles box was purchased to study how it would collapse. Of course the contents had to be consumed first (very nice they were too). Then it was squashed flat, noting the lines of the folds. It was unsquashed and the lines made more defined. These lines would be used in the construction of a collapsible pinhole camera made from Aluminium sheet.

The prototype had a pinhole lens added, with tape used as a shutter, the inside painted black and black tape added to the corners. The prototype was complete and ready for testing.

Step 1: Taking a Photo

Photographic paper was added into the box while in a darkroom. It was then fitted to a tripod and a photo taken by removing the tape from the pinhole lens for about 30 seconds. After developing, an image could be made out quite clearly. Things were looking promising so on to making the aluminium version.

Step 2: Aluminium Build

Aluminium is lightweight and it's light proof attributes are put to good use in beverage cans. So take a beverage can, cut the top and bottom off, cut down the resulting loop and flatten by moving it against the edge of a table - what an easy way be make inexpensive aluminium sheet.

Take an aluminium sheet and cut it in the shapes shown above. Place duct tape across them so they all hold together and form a box side. Do the same to make the other box side.

Step 3: Box Construction

Having made the 2 sides, the bottom is made from a single sheet of aluminium while the top is made from 3 rectangles. The ends are made from 2 squares with a pinhole made in one of them.

Step 4: Light Proofing

To ensure the box is light proof add some black tape along all the folds. A piece of tape is placed over the pinhole to be a shutter- controlling the length of time the photo is taken. Spay paint the inside black.

As the box has been made light proof with plastic tape it is also almost airtight. Thus a vacuum is created when the box is collapsed making it a bit difficult to expand. Add on some tape handles to the sides so they can assist expanding the pinhole camera from when it is flat.

Step 5: Capturing an Image

The pinhole camera shouldn't be moved while capturing an image so fix it to a tripod with some tape. Remove the tape over the pinhole lens and expose the photographic paper you have put in the camera for a period of time. How long depends on the amount light.

After using the collapsible pinhole camera for a while, I found I went back to using my beverage can ones as they are better: easier to load the photographic paper and make light proof. They also give better images.