need help loading 120 film into pinhole camera

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Scott Speck - 23 Sep 2006 14:05 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I know this is a digital photography forum, but I realize that a lot of you
have extensive film photography background, so I'm posting this "how
to" question.

I've been a digital photographer for the past 3 years, and, before that, I
only shot 35mm film that was very straightforward to load. Now, however, I
have a Zero 2000 pinhole camera that takes 120 film. So I loaded in a roll
of Ilford b/w iso-50 120 film this morning. As I turned the winding knob on
the camera, I saw a black vertical bar move through the little red circular
window on the back on the camera, followed by the "tail" of an arrow, then
the point of that arrow, and finally a dotted black circle that is now
centered in the window. Is this "frame 1"? There is no number in that
circle that I can see, so I'm not sure if this is "frame ZERO" (meaning,
keep winding until I see a "1" appear), or whether I'm ready to take my
first exposure.

Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

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John Bean - 23 Sep 2006 15:26 GMT

>Is this "frame 1"? There is no number in that
>circle that I can see, so I'm not sure if this is "frame ZERO" (meaning,
>keep winding until I see a "1" appear), or whether I'm ready to take my
>first exposure.

Keep winding until "1" appears - you're nearly there ;-)

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John Bean

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Scott Speck - 26 Sep 2006 02:56 GMT

John,

Thanks very much! I kept winding and eventually got to "1" enclosed in a
dotted circle. We took 4 different pictures, with bracketing on all 4,
hence 3 exposures per "picture" and thus 12 exposures total. The film is
currently being developed... I metered with a Nikon N80 loaded with the
same ISO film as in the pinhole camera (Ilford 50 speed b/w), and I set the
wide angle lens on the N80 to f/22. Because the pinhole camera is f/138,
and 138 / 22 is roughly 6.27, and because the exposure time should go as the
square of the f-number, I basically multiplied the N80-metered exposure time
by the square of 6.27 (roughly 39) to get the pinhole camera exposure time.
My fingers are crossed, and only time will tell if we took some interesting
pictures of old rusty boilers and crane winches! :-)

Scott

>>Is this "frame 1"? There is no number in that
>>circle that I can see, so I'm not sure if this is "frame ZERO" (meaning,
>>keep winding until I see a "1" appear), or whether I'm ready to take my
>>first exposure.
>
> Keep winding until "1" appears - you're nearly there ;-)

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Craig M - 23 Sep 2006 15:50 GMT

Refresh my memory, what is a "pinhole camera" the 120 film size is familar,
but not the camera type.

> Hi Everyone,
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> Thanks,
> Scott

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G.T. - 23 Sep 2006 19:06 GMT

> Refresh my memory, what is a "pinhole camera" the 120 film size is familar,
> but not the camera type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera

You can also experiment with a DSLR if you use a body cap with a pinhole
in it. Fun stuff.

Greg

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Craig M - 23 Sep 2006 23:02 GMT

thanks for the trip down memory lane, had not seen that since boy scout
days, made a box with a pin hole that attatched to the cartraige of 120
film, it did work pretty well as I recall.

> Refresh my memory, what is a "pinhole camera" the 120 film size is familar,
> but not the camera type.
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> > Thanks,
> > Scott

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DP - 23 Sep 2006 23:48 GMT

Anybody make one with TTP* metering?

*Through The Pinhole

> thanks for the trip down memory lane, had not seen that since boy scout
> days, made a box with a pin hole that attatched to the cartraige of 120
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>> > Thanks,
>> > Scott

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