Pinhole lens on a DSLR

Pinhole Camera Day

Today I found out that today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. I didn’t have a pinhole camera handy, so I hurried to make one by making a pinhole lens for my Nikon D90. I used a short extension tube for the base. I covered the end with metal tape, and put the pinhole in the metal tape with a small straight pin. I had trouble with a light leak, so I added the gaffer’s tape in the course of sorting that out. (In the end the light leak was coming from a release lever on the extension tube.)

pinhole lens image

pinhole lens image

The result was not all that great, I’m afraid. I got images easily enough using manual mode with trial an error. However, the images were not sharp. I think it is because the pinhole edges were not smooth enough. Looking through the lens with my eye I could see the rough edge. Perhaps it was the tape adhesive. Clean pinholes areĀ a common challenge for pinhoIe photography. I understand the small sensor of the camera makes this problem worse, because the blur is less noticeable if using a bigger piece of film. Some more troubleshooting is in order. I was also landlocked on a rainy day, so my options for blurry subject matter was limited. Anyway, I had fun building it and was happy to participate in Worldwide! Pinhole! Photography! Day!