Camera Obscura – build a camera – it really works!

This is a project inspired by the past times. It uses parts of X-ray film. The housing for this device is a cardboard box tightly covered with a tape. A hole was cut in the box. The result is shown in the following picture:



Then in the darkroom the X-rays film was pasted on the opposite side, the whole sealed, the hole plugged with a finger. You should then go out the darkroom and uncover the hole for a while (about 1 second), then go back to the darkroom and put the film into the processor (for the automatic darkroom for radiographs – optimax).
After that, the film showed the outlines of the room. Everything was very blurry and pale.



The conclusions:

• poor sharpness, because of a large hole
• pale, because of a short time

So the next step was to exposure a piece of X-ray film, invoked in order to have a piece of rigid black film. A small hole about 1mm was made in it, sealed with a tape on the spot of a large hole and so the Camera Obscura was created.



The time of exposure should be extended approximately to 10 seconds.



The picture of a computer had so good sharpness, so you can see the image on the monitor. Further conclusions were such – the camera was too big (the film too far from the hole) which results that you can see only a small portion of the photographed room.
So the housing was changed to a box from the mobile phone (Nokia 3310). It was sealed as previously and the small hole was made.
First photo – open with the film (of course, already overexposed):



The next picture, closed but not wrapped around the lid:



The film was loaded, set on the box so not to hold it in hands, the hole was uncovered, then you have to wait 10 seconds, cover and invoke the picture. Effects can be seen below (taken picture of the picture on a laptop as a SAD so hence these lines – you can see pixels of the matrix):



Subsequent experiments with increasing time gave very good results shown in the following photos:



Unexposed X-ray film should be then put in the darkroom, a negative on it, and with hand as far as possible, flash for a moment with a LED flashlight.



Images look very well, they are terribly climate (artefacts on the film, darker on the sides and lighter in the middle), with surprisingly good quality.

And at the end, the principle of operating of the Camera Obscura:



Link to original thread (useful attachment) – Camera Obscura - zbuduj sobie aparat fotograficzny - to faktycznie działa!