The Season Turns

Now that the autumnal equinox has passed, we are having to adjust to days being shorter than nights. It's always alarming to see how rapidly the hours of daylight shorten at this time of year, and it will be even more noticeable after tomorrow, when our UK clocks revert to GMT.

However, the dark nights bring pleasures of their own, as long as we have food and warmth and enough light to work by.

Late last night I went to put my dustbin out for collection. Although it was moonless, high in the sky above me was one bright star, far brighter than anything else in the sky. Because of light pollution from the town, nothing else was visible, though as my eyes adjusted to the dark a few other stars started to appear.

Curious to know why this one object should be so bright, I Googled for answers when I got back indoors. Astronomy Central's The Night Sky with Binoculars Tonight and the National Schools' Observatory's The Whole Sky at Ten O'Clock Tonight both confirmed it was not  a star I'd seen, but the planet Jupiter. 

Jupiter

Astronomy Central said that with good binoculars I should be able to see Jupiter's moons, but that advice didn't take into account an unsteady hand and less than perfect vision. My compromise was to stick my digital camera onto a tripod, point it in the general direction and click away at a few different exposure settings in the hope of getting some usable images. The two images posted above were among the most successful. The upper image clearly shows the spherical shape of the planet, while the lower one (taken with a longer lens and longer exposure) shows two of Jupiter's moons quite distinctly visible on the left. Neither image would satisfy an astronomer – but for me, getting any sort of image at all from my chance encounter was a positive result.

The Pinhole Camera: A Shoebox Reimagined

One of the ritual Autumnal activities for new students is building pinhole cameras. The studios become littered with the dismembered or reconstructed remains of a variety of cardboard and tin containers, their new function clearly indicated by the liberal application of black gaffer tape.

Though these simple devices generally make no attempt to look good, they can produce some surprisingly attractive images. How successful they are seems to be largely a matter of chance. Some carefully crafted creations seem to frustrate their makers' attempts to produce a decent image, while other cruder cameras produce a sharp image every time. Control over the size of the pinhole and the thickness of the material it's made in are critical factors.

Shoebox pinhole photo by Gemma S

 This year, I decided I wanted to have some objective standard of construction and performance to judge our home-made efforts by, so I decided to get hold of a commercially made camera. It was also going to be useful to have one that would take regular film rather than paper negatives. A clear favourite was one of the Zero Image series of cameras; made in Hong Kong and sold by Silverprint in London.

The model I chose was the 6x9 multi-format camera, which takes 120 roll film. It is a significantly expensive camera – a lot of money for not a lot of wood, but it is undeniably beautiful and carefully hand-made. It's an eye-catcher wherever it goes.

It comes nicely packaged, wrapped in tissue paper inside a simple card box with a few extras. The photos below give a better idea of what the camera is like and how it works.

The viewing frame in the foreground allows you to estimate the field of view of the camera's various negative formats from 6x4.5 to 6x9cm. There is also a lanyard, good instructions and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

The three round windows on the back of the camera are protected by a sliding cover. They enable you to see the frame markings on the back of the film as you wind on between exposures. The sliding cover carries a rotating exposure calculation dial and this model comes with the optional bubble level.

 

To load the camera, the top and back plates are removed and the film loaded in the usual manner. It's fairly simple and straightforward.

As I've had the camera less than a week, I haven't yet had a chance to use it myself, although I've loaded it with colour transparency film to use later. In the meantime, a second year student (Jody B) took it out for an hour and shot an old roll of FP4 with it.

Sadly, I hadn't read the instructions thoroughly and misinformed her that she should base her exposures on an aperture of f250 when it should have been f55.  However, reciprocity failure came to her aid and overexposure did no harm at all to the ancient film, as the above shot of the South transept of the cathedral shows.

Steep Hill, Lincoln. Fujichrome Provia100F film. Pic by Jody B

What I hadn't realised when I was buying the camera was that there was a difference between the Zone Plate and Pinhole versions. What I had inadvertently bought was a Zone Plate rather than a Pinhole camera. The effect of the Zone Plate is noticeable as the hazy, soft-focus glow in the above image. It's a charming enough effect, but not what I want in every shot. It's a pity that the Zone Plates and Pinhole can't be swapped as I'm reluctant to start trying to modify or hack the camera about just yet.