Pinhole Camera

A very basic home-made large format camera.

 
 

Pinhole camera made from a mooncake tin

(Color photos on this page were made with a Nikon F, 55mm f/3/5 Micro-Nikkor-P.C, and Portra 400.)

 
 

The pinhole camera

I made a pinhole camera from a mooncake tin. Other containers could also work. But mooncake tins and cookie tins are extra good because their lids attach with a smooth, light-tight, metal-to-metal fit.

My pinhole camera consists of:

  • Camera body: Mooncake tin, inside painted flat black, with a 1.5 cm hole.

  • ‘Lens’: Actually there’s no lens. Instead, there is a piece of aluminum foil in which a hole (the ‘pinhole’) has been made with a sewing needle. It is taped in place over the hole in the body.

  • Shutter: Cardboard flap attached with tape.

  • Camera back: Mooncake tin lid, inside painted flat black.

 
 

Pinhole camera interior and back

 
 

Making the picture

In a film changing bag, I taped a 4x5 sheet of Arista 400 Edu film onto the inside of the lid, and attached the lid. I set up the shot by propping up the camera on a chair, made the exposure (several minutes), developed the film, and made a print:

 
 

Dieffenbachia houseplant. Negative: Mooncake tin pinhole camera, 4x5 Arista Edu 400 film, 2024. Print: Platinum-palladium from original camera negative, 2025.

 
 

Discussion

I’m a beginner at pinhole photography. To make more predictable and refined photographs, the next step would be to calculate the pinhole diameter for the focal length (that is, the depth of the box, 6cm). Making the edges of the hole smoother would also help.

I also have another cookie tin that is deeper, for a longer focal length. I plan to try that as a next step.

Further reading

For this project, I searched the topic on the web and skimmed through several YouTube videos. I was also inspired by this book:

Morell, A. 2004. Camera Obscura. New York: Bullfinch Press.