As many of you know, April 24th, 2016 was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD). I am not a professed pinhole professional, but I have this Ondu pinhole that I have used a few times and I thought I would take her out for a spin again. A couple specs on this lovely little wooden camera are as follows: 1) it has a 115 degree field of view 2) It has a 25mm focal length and 3) It takes 120 film and produces a square negative. Here is the actual camera on Ondu's website. They also come with a handy exposure guide.
A little background on the company itself is that they boast that they are the first durable and simple to use pinhole that can be passed on for generations. After having used mine a few times, I have to say that I agree. These cameras are beautiful in their simplistic design. The cameras are easy to use and are held together with high quality magnets and made with high quality wood. I have the older version, but their MK II is being released as we speak and includes everything from a pocket 135 edition to a ginormous 8x10 large format! The newer cameras also have more magnets and they have laser engraved a field of view on each camera to help with framing and the panoramic ones come with a built in level to help you make sure to keep those horizons straight :) There are many other improvements on the newer models, so I suggest you snag one for yourself for next year's WPPD.
One thing that always blows my mind after I've developed the film is the field of view. I forget that this camera has such a WIDE field of view and wide angle. Here are a few snapshots from WPPD showing just how wide the field of view is.
I probably would have gotten better results on the other images, but, like an idiot, I accidentally metered at 100 instead of 400 and then had to compensate in developing to make sure that I got halfway decent photos.
Overall, I love having this little beauty in my collection. It's fun to pull it out and experiment with it and I'm always blown away by the results. Here are a couple from my very first roll with it from last year in Florida.
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Aimee Lower is an Ormond Beach, FL-based film photographer. She sold her last digital camera in 2014 and now shoots film exclusively. Follow her on Flickr and Instagram.