For many digital photographers, it is hard to believe that it is possible to make images with a simple paper camera and a pinhole. What they may not know is that the act of shooting with a pinhole camera is both fun and educational.

Personally, I find the HOLE idea, (excuse the pun) absolutely amazing. Pinhole is magical in that it requires no sensor, no mechanical parts and no lens. While it is possible to use a pinhole in place of a lens on a digital camera to take pinhole images, a tiny hole in a simple box with a piece of light sensitive material inside is far more impressive.

It is also pretty cool to take a photograph with something you build from scratch.

There are a few paper camera designs out there that you can download from the internet, print on your printer, cut out, glue together and actually use them to take pictures. Probably the first paper camera designed for shooting film was the Dirkon.

“During the 1970s, magazines published in Communist Czechoslovakia were controlled by the state, like the majority of other enterprises. Very few good magazines were available and were difficult to get hold of, so people would borrow and exchange them when given the opportunity. This also applied to magazines aimed at young people, which was probably one of the reasons why almost everyone from my generation, when we get on to the subject of pinhole cameras, has fond memories of the cutout paper camera known as Dirkon*, published in 1979 in the magazine ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců [An ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists]. Its creators, camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera. It may not be the most practical of devices, but it works!” – David Balihar

The basic idea is to make a camera from basically nothing more than paper.

I happen to love the layout template for this camera as a design object. I think it would look cool printed out and framed.

Of course you would also need to load a roll of film to actually take pictures. This camera can take approximately 36 pictures on a single roll of film.

Dirkon Pinhole Camera

For complete instructions please have a look at:

• Dirkon†The Paper Camera†[pinhole.cz]
• dirkon_en.pdf
• Images made with the Dirkon can be found here: Slideshow
• Here is a similar camera called the Rubicon Paper Camera and the pdf Rubikon

Between now and WPPD, look for my posts about pinhole cameras that you can make or purchase along with some great pinhole images taken with them.

Links:

This is a poster that I created for the WPPD event.