Rob, The very first pinhole camera I ever made (back in the mid-1970's) was just such a contraption. (The Polaroid SX-70 was very popular, and I was making a pinhole version.) I used a Simonize car wax can which had a screw-on lid. The film was mounted inside the lid of the can with a couple of magnets. The pinhole was in the bottom center, and near one edge of the bottom I drilled a 1/4 inch or so hole. Over this hole I caulked a metal 35 mm film can (which film came in in those days) with its bottom removed. Inside the film can I placed three circular pieces of automobile gasket material which had offset holes in them so as to make a light baffle. Developing chemicals could be poured into and out of the baffles, being careful not to let any liquid slosh over to the pinhole. The cap could be screwed back onto the film can to be sure that no light leakage would fog the negative during exposure or as the camera was being transported.
This all worked pretty well. I made a wooden platform to hold the can on top of a tripod, and after each shot went into the kitchen and developed the negative in room light. Today it is easy to find flexible magnetic strips which seem to have an organic exterior that will not react with the photo chemicals as my ferrous magnets did. I like your idea of making a series of such cameras and then developing the images in sequence as the chemicals are poured from one to the next. An excellent exercise for WPPD 2002. Good Luck, Bob -------------------------------------------------------- Rob Duarte wrote: > Has anyone made a pinhole camera (maybe out of a paint can or something) > with a light trap on the top that would let developing chemicals in? > Basically something that would work just like a developing tank with a > pinhole in the side? > > I'm just curious because it sounds like it'd be pretty easy to make a camera > like this and it might be a way to make WWPD really accessible to > non-pinholers. > > eg: what if you made a bunch of these cameras (with the paper in them > already) and had a group/class/etc take pictures with them (you'd already > have an idea of what typical exposure times would be since they're all the > same focal length and pinhole size), then gather everyone back together and > pour developer in the first one, dump that developer into the next one and > replace it with stop/water in the first one, and so on like a daisy chain. > > Seems like the easiest way to have a group take pictures and have developed > negatives without a darkroom. > > I know some people have developed paper negatives in a can camera but I'm > guessing they do it in a darkroom. The light trapped hole on the top might > be a good addition. Has it been done already? > > Rob
