This is probably something I had been working on for the longest time (just like trying to quit smoking). The original plan was to make an instant pinhole camera using a dead old Polaroid EE100 but after some initial disappointment and some headaches trying to remove the parts off the camera … I decided to work on a totally different DIY instant pinhole camera.
The mess I got from trying to modify the EE100 into an instant pinhole. LOL! I couldn’t remove the part where the original lens used to be and just slapped the Lomo MPO ‘lens’ onto it … thus the ‘frame’. Hahaha!
Dug out an extra instant/Polaroid back for the Fujifilm FP-14 camera and wondered if I could ‘plant’ it into the LC-A+ box that has also been sitting on the shelf for the longest time. I dusted off the film back and the LC-A+ … stared at them for a while and then it all didn’t seem to difficult (I hoped). The next headache was … how do I make a small enough pinhole and also have the best ‘mechanism’ to open and shut the little pinhole. Hmm. Then the Lomo MPO (Multi Pinhole Operator) came to mind. That cammie has a very easy to use mechanism to open/shut the pinhole(s) and best of all … I will get to play with 1 … 2 … or even 3 pinholes for some crazy fun (loooong exposure) shots.
It took me about an hour to roughly measure and mark how I want to have the LC-A+ box cut/sawed … and then with some small saw (that ain’t really suitable for such task), I managed to get some rough sawing job done and then sandpapered it a little. It got very exciting at that stage. I couldn’t wait to see if it will work but there was still much job to be done. I gently hammered in the instant/Polaroid back into the back because I didn’t do a good job at sawing … and then taped the MPO’s ‘lens’ to the front of the box.
Job almost done but I had to make sure no light except for those going in from the pinhole(s). Hmm. I could seal up all the gaps with black silicone but I wasn’t sure if I’ll need to dismantle the whole thing if I need to do any fine tuning. So the ever handy electrical tape and a roll of gaffer tape was called to help keep the parts in place and at the same time make sure no gaps are left in every side. It was quite funny when I had to put the camera to my face and looked thru the square hole in front (where the MPO ‘lens’ was supposed to go) and tried to detect if I could see any light going into the box. I did patch up a few areas by doing that though. 😀
So I was down to the last few shots on the pack of FP-100C that was given to me by a friend (thanks Cyanwater!). Too bad I screwed up with estimating the exposure time and ended up with some crap. Well at least they proved that the pinhole cammie works!
Underexposed! Waited so damn long and it was still under! Hahaha! That’s because I took this around 5pm and not much light was coming in from the window. Should have waited longer. Grrr!
This was the first photo that came out of the cam. I was really happy (that it works) despite the fact that it is just a crappy shot from my window. 😀
The 1st shot from a pack of FP-100B that I loaded after the color pack finished. Argh! Overexposed! I was on my way to fetch Fitzand from the childcare and it was maybe about 5pm. I exposed this shot for 8 minutes.
This was the last shot from the color pack. Damn. Underexposed!
The following are the ‘better ones’ that I managed to get from this cam. It was already dinner time and I was still desperate to get few proper (or at least a bit proper) test shots, so I had to make do with darn long exposures indoors.
The same scene (from the overexposed & underexposed ones above) but this time … 6 minutes exposure.
Luckily after a 2 hour wait … this one above turned out pretty okay. Phew! I hate long exposures … zzzzz.
Trying out the 2 pinhole mode. This one … I halved the exposure time (from the one before) to 1 hour. Still … zzzzz
Triple pinhole mode! This time I didn’t have to wait that long because it was only exposed for about 45 minutes.
I’m keeping the rest of the shots in the pack of film for some day time tests … hopefully bright enough for a few seconds of exposures instead of having to keep me standing there like a fool … waiting for the loooooong exposures. Oh by the way … it was pretty worrying when I was doing the test shots at the void deck below my block. Just imagine a quiet place … a guy taking out a strange looking box, place it carefully … turn on some switch … then walk a few steps away and starts looking at the stopwatch on his phone. Hahaha! I was a little worried some clowns might call the cops!
I know the cammie is butt ugly now … but I’ll try seal it up with black silicone, remove the tapes and maybe dress it up with some cool material. 😀