well, i had a few hours, andrew and i have been exchanging thoughts about an "omniscope"-type camera that could be owned by us downtrodden billfold-clampers, so i sez, self- just make one. ran out of time today, but a couple of hours got me this far:


this shot shows the raw parts roughly milled.  3" pvc pipe cut to length, a slot cut in one for the film to enter image chamber.  other piece lopped off and angled to provide abutting case for spools.  wood parts cut from 1/4" poplar, including a few that have ended up on the editing floor.

this one shows the top and bottom assemblies underway, circles glued to allow a channel for the film around cylinder, and pins glued in place to hold spools.  winding knob from old polaroid 620 body in the top piece. will move forward tomorrow after work...

Nice work, Steven - show us more photos of the progress. All camera building posts show me something that I had not seen before.

And then (this goes without saying) go shoot some film.

had even less time today, so i spent it backpedaling, remaking some rethought aspects.  i continue to have serious doubts about the film path complexity so i changed the channel guides to slipperier pvc rings (this also gave me the chance to lengthen the upper channel- i forgot to modify camera height after an earlier design change.  i will problably broaden the throat into the image chamber to ease the transport, too.  finally, i added a second knob to allow for rewinds and film tensioning (if this blasted thing ever works!), and drilled the opening for the pinhole mount.

i guess that's why its a prototype, and i can only blame myself for the absurd complexity of this project (by my standards, anyway - i must be the "stupid" referred to in "kiss").  still, if it works it will be worth it all.

loaded with film and ready for a test drive.  before painting (some adjustments to allow the film to travel with less resistance), the insides painted ultraflat, and the outside cadmium orange.  the mechanism seems to work, but light leaks and flares still a concern:

the next:

and last.

staft, I am fully impressed... I even like the Balmain footy team colours.

so if it looks that good.... when you gonna go shoot some film???

it look fery wel I am intresed into your resulds thank you willem

The orange color speaks of foreboding, danger, hazard.

Or are you like me and need it to find things around the house?

Sorry about the silly question... but how does it work?

mu, the color was an attempt at reverse psychology- if i leave something so obvious lying on the floor in a public building, it is less likely to cause a security meltdown than a weird black thingy with knobs and buttons.  hmmmm- we'll see...

perez, the 120 film spool is loaded on the left, the film passes through a slot and is then guided by  rings around the inside of a cylindrical chamber, and passes through a second slot to the take-up/winding spool.  the pinhole is perpendicular to the film plane.  the shutter is just tape until i've tested it.  who knows how well it will work?  unfortunately i can't develop my own film, and the lab won't be open until monday.

Steven please can you make a simple drawing howe the film run in to the spaceshuttle pinhole camera Willem I am intresed in it

Quoted from Perez

Sorry about the silly question... but how does it work?

Look here:
http://www.abelsonscopeworks.com/

willem, it is quite simple- here is a diagram:

the first test shots are posted in the b and w thread.

Thank you Steve!

The cloud lifts. Between your diagram and the link I see what's happening.

Hmmmm...........going to Phoenix next weekend for vacation........better take along some graph paper ;)!

it's exactly like a can with some paper/film, a pinhole in the top, except you've got a separate chamber for the rollfilm, so you can make four images. sterling effort staft, thanks for showing your work.

I recommend a try at anamorphic images, it is easy to simply use a cylinder, but I bet steve's construction is a joy to use.

Quoted from Josh_Banks

it's exactly like a can with some paper/film, a pinhole in the top, except you've got a separate chamber for the rollfilm, so you can make four images.

and a long way to have to go for those of us who can't do their own processing...  but why should the paper film people have all the fun?  now i want to make a 35mm version to use what i learned and make the process even cheaper.

Steven thank you it looks intreting fore me I am looking forwards the 24x36 version willem

some of you asked to see what the anamorphic cameras are doing to the scene.  although these are not exact, the photos show the bridge shot with digital and minnie-morphic from approx. the same place, the same rainy twilight.

and more

so how does the film stay in a loop?  is it held in place somehow, does it rest against something?
i have tried to make a camera like this and have had no luck, there seemed to be too much tension on the film going around the loop.  i would be curious to know how to make a working onmiscope clone

steven, looks like you're getting the hang of aiming the beastie...

timeruinsbelief, staft's cam is here:
http://f295.tompersinger.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-cm/m-1139032455/s-all/

oh, and smaller minimorp here:
http://f295.tompersinger.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-cm/m-1139688507/s-new/

Thank you! Very infomative!

Bino

both andrew and i have posts in the camera thread with detailed photos of our solutions.  i used ring slices from pvc pipe top and bottom to guide the film.  andrew added brass to reduce friction.  with both my 120 omni-clone and 35mm minnie-morphic cameras, the trick was to minimize the sharp curves of the film entering and leaving the circular chamber.  abelson scopeworks uses rollers on their commercial version.

Thanks for the side by sides. I have tried to explain to non-pinholers (normal people) how this worked but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words (two or three thousand of mine).

just another very small thought for future camera designs:

one of my problems ... [yes there are many] ... is visualising the final result because the camera "sees" in a large arc over quite a wide angle of view

if I was going to make another cam I might try putting the film at the end of a longer cylinder... this would restrict the angle of view to something easier to get my head around and still give a very distorted image. Similar but different...

These are great - and very illuminating, thanks!

Another demonstration that might be helpful for folks would be a display of the impact of holding the anamorphic cam at different angles relative to the scene/horizon.  

90 (vertical), 60, 45, 30, and 0 (horizontal) - or something like that.

I can't see a film counter on the omniscope - do you count revolutions of the film winder instead?

good question... how about it steven ?

i think it is 4 rotations per frame-  oops, better use it soon before i forget!

and if you haven't seen it yet, andrew made a simple but effective viewfinder to help aim these tricky cameras.  here is a link: http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl?b-cm/m-1140167729/

and, he (Andrew) did a very cool mod by installing a lens:

http://www.f295.org/DIYforum/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?b-camCon/m-1141944390/

Stupid me!!! It is the same posting, but reading the first page, posting a comment on that page, will send you to the bottom of the last page.
So, please ignore my previous 2 postings (and this one also).

Still, I would like to see more amorphic images.

bert, this thread goes back a ways, so it is tough to find more samples.  here is one:
http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl?m-1139280283/s-0/highlight-anamorphic/#num0
and one from the minnie-morphic 35mm version:
http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl?m-1139755363/s-2/highlight-kayak/#num2

but in my opinion these don't show what the cameras can do as well as the images taken by others on this forum, including andrew (a similar camera) and bino (a can camera), and be sure to check out the latest post by stormy with his tiny canister anamorphs- this could go places!

I'm not sure about that o-range co-lor...

Does 'Photon Recorder - Do Not Open - Property of &WR*YPFS
>Classified<

sound scarier than an Ugly-Cam?

I'm the guy who makes the 'commercial' version of this camera-- the Omniscope. I like this DIY version. It's possible to incorporate a film count window on the film plane tube so that you do not have to count revolutions of the wind knob. Use rubylith or similar as a light block. The 'commercial' version (have to laugh) incorporated rollers and slip bearings to get the film to travel along the convoluted path.

Welcome sneebot!

I read that first line & my blood ran cold for a sec' - I've seen what happens on photo.nit when someone posts a homebrew Polaroid 4x5 conversion & gets patent threats :O)

Murray

Do you have plans for this that I can download?  I am an excellent woodworker as well as photographer and I would like to take a shot at this.