I wanted a way to demonstrate, at the 2014 Seattle Mini Maker Faire, how a pinhole camera projects an image onto film. The PINH5AD is a large format pinhole camera I designed to work with a 4X5 sheet film holder. This frame replaces the film holder for the purpose of visualizing the (inverted and rotated) image formed through the pinhole. Because the image will be faint (pinholes are, by definition, small apertures), some kind of hood or drape will be necessary to block ambient light. My testing suggests that only the brightest light sources are resolved using a pinhole. Alas.

For an example of what this looks like, see the "MAKES" section. -->

You've seen old-time "view cameras" in movies - this is exactly how the "view" is composed before the film is exposed after swapping the ground glass for a loaded film holder.

This will fit any camera that uses a standard 4X5 film holder. The glass plate is held precisely 3mm from the face of the holder, duplicating the position of the film. In a pinhole camera there is no one focal distance, but for lensed cameras, maintaining correct focal distance is crucial for composing and focusing the scene you want to capture.

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