Saturday, April 1, 2017

Pinhole Making Resources

When designing a pinhole camera, I use a Windows app called PinholeDesigner. It also runs well on Linux under WINE. I don't know how to run it on iOS.  LINK

There is a setting for Constant that is "Lord Raleigh" by default. I have been advised that the square root of two (1.41), or 1.51 works better. Then I round down.

On a wide angle camera, the aperture is going to be "too small" for the distance from the pinhole at the corners. If you see crazy color effects or weird diffraction effects, your aperture is likely too small. 

To drill my pinholes, I use this methodology:  LINK

I use brass shim stock, 0.001 inch thick for my pinhole stock. This is a lifetime supply for most people:  LINK

Finally, I check my apertures for diameter and roundness with a digital microscope with a measurement tool, like this:  LINK

I make a LOT of pinholes, and I strive for 0.01mm accuracy. I achieve that about 25% of the time, so I have of extra pinholes that are just a little too big or small for my applications, but I save them and hand them out to people building cameras. Let me know if you need a pinhole, and I'll dig in my box of brass. 
This is a digital microscope view of a 0.30 hand-drilled pinhole in 0.001 inch thick brass shim stock.

 0.18mm pinhole "drilled" in 0.001 inch (0.0254 mm) brass shim stock, 150X