Been mucking about with the ONDU 4x5 Pinhole Camera.  This is a beautifully built wooden camera, I love its simplicity no aperture, no shutter, no viewfinder just a small hole.  Photographing with this camera completely slows you down, the aperture is f/217 so you need to use a light meter and then their conversion chart to figure out your exposure.  Framing your shot is guesswork, the camera has a field of view guide on the top to help, but it is still guesswork. Online some people suggest using a second camera to frame your shot, but that spoils the chance element for me.  The camera’s 65mm equivalent “lens” is wide and using 4x5 film cropping can be done after the fact is your framing is off.  Honestly though the beauty and fun of this camera is it’s lack of control and unpredictability. 

Not sure exactly what I want to do with this sweet little wooden cam butafter photographing with the 8x10 Deardorff using an even more rudimentary cam is something that peaks my interest.  My initial thought is to do portraits, having the subject’s face fill the 4x5 frame.  The cam’s sharp but not completely sharp focus is beautiful and film’s unique quality makes this even more attractive.  

One thing I know it is not good for is photogrpahing people who like to move, Abby, was not standing still ffor the 45 second expsure to the right.  But she did look pretty cute using the camera after to "take pictures" of papa,  grandma and the rest of us for about an hour, see below.  

My students in the Algonquin Photography Program have access to a 4x5 ONDU, I highly recommend that they give it a try.  If they need film come see me, and I can help you load the film too.  GPCLabworks in town will process the film for $4 a sheet and I can also show you how to scan the film.