Canon QL25 - good victim?

[Andre Reinders]

Last year a co-worker gave me a Canon QL25 (her grandfathers?). The shutter button does not trip the shutter...I was just wondering if this would be a good candidate for a pinhole - and where to start...

I see a few TINY screws around the focus ring on the lens...

[ImageMaker]

If you hold the release for a LONG time, does the shutter eventually trip?  If so, a shutter CLA should fix it up -- that's caused by either congealed grease in the mechanism, or lubricant migration to the shutter leaves.

[jake]

There would be a lot of gizmos to destroy before you have something pinholy. And I would choose a medium format camera before I would choose a 35mm camera. The real estate of 120 film gives you the full effect of the pinhole's swirled or streaming perspective - especially 6x9.

A favorite target is the Agfa Clack. You can remove the lens fairly simply, and then stick the pinhole behind the shutter (if you have been careful and not done damage to the shutter's innards whilst evicting the lens.) The shutter has a "B" setting, so you can use a locking cable release or similar to get the 1 sec. or longer exposures. And the Clack is 6x9 in a package the size of a small softball.

Mike Conneally picked an Agfa folder for his 6x9. I had an old Zeiss Ercona folder with a cracked lens that I trashed. My solution copied Mike's, in that we both took the shutter and removed the glass, then removed the folding bed and stuck the shutter on the front of the camera with a pinhole inside using a sort of fabricated lens board of sorts. Makes for a focal length of about 50mm, which means nice and wide for 4x5.

S. Liu uses a (modified?) Holga with a pinhole instead of the lens. I think his came pre-modified from Holga-mods, but I can't remember if he has added his own modifications. I carved my Fujipet into a pinhole camera, but only because the shutter was rusted solid. 6x6 is nice as you get 12 shots per roll and the distortion of a pinhole works pretty well in a square, but go for a wide for sure.

Other cameras that might be good pinholes - Agfa Isola, Billy, any of the Photax derivatives that take 120 film (the Czech Pionyr springs to mind), the Czech Druopta, Lubitel TLRs, folders with bad lenses/shutters, etc. Oh and if you can get one for cheap, one of those big Mamiya Press backs makes a great template upon which to build a pinhole. Makes it sort of like taking a photo without a camera attached.

[SLIU]

Before I learned to remove the lens from a Holga, I bought my pinhole Holga from

http://holgamods.com/pinholga/pinholga.html

What I have is the $29.95 economic model modified from 120S. I didn't do any further modification on it. What available now is the new $19.95 economic model modified from 120N, which doesn't look as elegant as mine. :-) .

More than half of the photos on my blog were shot with that pinhole, the rest were shot with regular Holga 120N or Holga 120N + my Macro lens.

I agree that pinhole works better on medium or large format cameras. On cameras with removeable lens, an easy way to make a pinhole camera is to use body cap (premade or self modified).

[Andre Reinders]

hmmm.....I have some descisions to make.

I have a Click II - but don't use it that often.

The pinholga is about $30-35 CDN after shipping and exchange.

hmm....

[jake]

The Clack is also very stable. Sort of like a babushka of a camera without the head scarf. Anyway, here is a page that details the conversion process. Worth a read so you don't yank the wrong thing. I think the directions should work for the Click as well. No "B" shutter though, unless your click is different from mine, but removing the light weight return spring on the shutter might give that effectively. And you can always just remove the entire shutter assembly and use a snug fitting cap as the shutter.

http://kosara.net/photo/lochlomo.html

And as far as the pinholes go, I spent actual money on mine. Pinhole resource sells the set I got, and they sell individual sizes as well.

http://pinholeresource.com/

If you are steady with a needle, you can make one out of aluminum foil. Sam made a pinhole camera from cardboard and a Polaroid back using a tinfoil pinhole that was nearly as sharp as my commercial pinholes. There are a lot of pinholes in a roll of Reynolds Wrap!



Good luck!

[sandeha]

Jorn paid way over the odds for his Bencini Koroll S :p, but you could try to find one of these ...

http://nelsonfoto.com/v/showthread.php?t=3275

Just unscrew the lens and insert your pinhole.

[jake]

Hey - one from the archives. I had forgotten that your camera was a Koroll. Cool enough.

Yeah, I just figured that my price was part of the import "duty". All the Korolls seem to be overseas.