To the Cameras   Why Pinhole Photography   World's Pinhole day   Dutch Pinhole Ring

Introduction or primer... I like to imagine that the pinhole camera was the third imaging system invented. First was the window, which is perhaps half-a-million years old and was invented for looking through walls. (This is the origin of the old joke, "Did you hear of the person who invented a device for looking through walls?' "No, what is it called?"...) The plane mirror was, I assume, invented just after the beginning of the bronze age, about 6000 years ago. A little reflection will show that its function was for looking at yourself. If modern practice is anything to go by, the inventor was a teenager. The Greeks apparently understood the principle of the pinhole camera and developed convex mirrors and burning glasses as well. The Greeks, however, are not remembered for their ability to putter around, so the pinhole camera waited in the wings for almost 1500 years. Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), whom D.J. Lovell 1 called the greatest authority on optics in the Middle Ages, lived around + 1000 on the Gregorian calendar, invented the pinhole camera, and explained why the image was upside down. He also studied the optics of the eye and used the Arabic word for lentil to describe the lens of the eye. Indirectly, therefore, he gave us the modern English word, lens, which is the Latin word for lentil. Leonardo da Vinci may have used the pinhole camera in the 1500s for his studies of perspective. 2 Around 1600, Della Porta reinvented the pinhole camera. 3 Apparently he was the first European to publish any information on the pinhole camera and is sometimes incorrectly credited with its invention. Della Porta's pinhole camera was a large, dark room with a fairly sizeable hole in one wall. He may have coined the term camera obscura, which is Latin for dark room. Our English word camera, therefore, derives from the Latin word for room or chamber. Della Porta also enlarged the hole and used lenses to cast a sharper, brighter image, though he was probably not the first to use lenses in this way. "Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as these? What tongue will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none! This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things. Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!" Leonardo Da Vinci's comments on the "Camera Obscura" Despite its antiquity and apparent simplicity, the pinhole camera offers several advantages over lens optics, particularly when resolution is not especially important. These include Complete freedom from linear distortion Depth of field from a few centimeters to infinity Wide angular field The pinhole's light-gathering ability is poor, but this is largely offset by the high sensitivity of modern films and television cameras. In addition, pinholes can be used in the ultraviolet and x-ray regions of the spectrum when reflecting or refracting materials are not readily available.

PTG MODEL I Pinhole Camera
&
Hal Pinhole from Barcelona

PTG Model I

Hal Pinhole

Click on camera for detailed views...

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Reading my Newspaper ...

Of course we grabbed the opportunity to post an Image. This is a unique happening around the world, people making their images with home-made cameras or cameras made by third parties like Leonardo, ,Santa Barbara,Zone Zero, Rigby, Finney and of course PTG Model I.(Till now one entry from the Netherlands) So this was our entry, click on the thumbnail to see a larger Image John D's entry was titled: "Will the last one make a Pinhole Image..and turn off the lights". Specs: Camera PTG Model I Film: Polaroid Tungsten 64Iso Exp Time: about 2 minutes Location: JDP office, Driebergen-R Date 29/04/2006 WPPD GALLERY Selfportrait taken by Christien Jaspars at John D's place after ample instructions...! Polaroid Type 56 Sepia exposure 16 sec f512 Camera used: PTG Model I Dutch Pinhole Ring Zou je mee willen doen en je opgeven voor de "Dutch Pinhole Ring"? Op dit moment onderzoeken we de belangstelling voor dit medium De bedoeling is om kennis uit te wisselen, ervaringen etc etc Spreekt dit idee je aan? Stuur E-mail met je naam, E-mail en je ervaring en verwachtingen vande "DPR" Klik hier Of surf naar "Dutch Pinhole Ring" en zie een voorproefje van onze Site in aanbouw!