[LIST][*][URL="http://dpnow.com/forum2/blog.php?b=290"]See my update on my pin hole camera development[/URL].[/LIST]

I've been meaning to do this for ages - mess around with a piece of aluminium foil in place of a camera lens to create a simple digital pin hole camera. It was sunny today, so I brought some foil with me to work, carefully punctured the centre with a pin and then placed the foil over the throat of an Olympus Pen camera and secured it with sticky tape. I tried my best to ensure the pin hole was central and that there were no light leaks. In future I will probably modify a camera body cap by drilling the centre out and fixing the pin hole foil to that.

[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25437"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/DSC_00016.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[I]The camera (an Olympus Pen E-PL3) clad in its aluminium foil 'lens'![/I]

I then went outside, with the camera mounted on a tripod in anticipation of long exposures. I had set the camera to ISO 800 but to my surprise I was able to get exposures of 1/10th and 1/20th using ISO 200.

[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25432"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/P1270344.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Above was my first attempt using manual exposure with settings based on what was displayed on the camera's screen. The exposure is quite good, I think. But there is very poor sharpness because the pin hole, despite my efforts, is clearly too large.


[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25433"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/P1270346.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

My second shot was taken using aperture priority auto exposure. Again, the sharpness is disappointing but the scene is certainly recognisable.

[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25434"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/P1270347.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

And above is shot number three. One thing that struck me was how little vignetting there was compared to what I was expecting and this is confirmed in the next shot of the same scene, taken with the cameras lens this time

[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25435"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/P1270349.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

This is the same viewpoint as the previous shot but taken with a kit zoom lens and the focal length adjusted to match the field of view of the pin hole 'lens'. I was quite pleased to find that the focal length I ended up with was 19mm, which is almost exactly the same as the flange/back distance (from the lens mount plane where the pin hole was situated to the sensor plane) which is what it should be in terms of optical theory.

[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/25436"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/547/P1270349b.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Finally, the Olympus Pen E-PL3 has a pin hole effect Art Filter mode and this is what you get with it.

I'm sure I can improve on the sharpness, so I'll probably be back in the not too distant future to share more experimental digital pin hole camera results!