Experimentation with Lenses

To start with I worked with the smaller lenses from the slide viewer to see what results I could get. The first thing I noticed was the image tended to be sharp in the middle, but very soft towards the edges. This effect looked interesting and Dan Duran liked it initially. However we decided a vignetted look was clearer and introduced a piece of tube to the front of the lens to control the light. Essentially we only wanted to use the center of the lens.

The first images I achieved worked, but where too small. The focal distance from the lens to the image plane was very small, meaning the image plane had to be very close to the back of the lens, creating a small image. The picture bellow was taken with ambient light leaking through - but an image can clearly be seen, which was a vast improvement on my earlier experiments with just a hole in tinfoil.

I then set about testing the overhead projector lens using the same vignetting tube effect. I placed the lens on the front of the box I had constructed and then sealed out any ambient light.

I now felt very good about the filmable pinhole camera system, and positive a good result could be achieved for the shoot that had now been scheduled. The next thing to do was test the depth of field issues created by introducing a lens to the system and also to finalize the actual shooting set up incorporating the digital film camera.