Thanks to alspix for the 35mm pin hole camera idea and instructions for creating the camera. The shutter, not the camera was my idea. Any positive criticism is welcome, and if you've spotted a similar shutter elsewhere, please let me know, I genuinly haven't stolen the design.
I made the camera following alspix design, but being a novice I only had limited knowledge and 400 b&w film to hand. After reading the comments on the alspix blog site I decided to make a shutter that would allow me to keep the times to under 2 seconds whilst keeping movement to a minimum.
This is the finished prouct (not yet taped to the camera body). You can of course vary the length of time you allow light in and you may wish to colour the aliminium black with a permenant marker. As for keeping the camera steady, I'm sure you'll think of something.
THIS HASN'T BEEN TESTED YET SO I CAN'T GUARENTEE GOOD RESULTS! OH, AND KIDS! CAREFUL WITH SHARP THINGS!
Ingredients:
1 soft drinks can (aluminium)
Scissors
A craft knife/scalpel
Ruler (for resting against when cutting)
Black sticky tape
Hole punch
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To make this...
Cut a strip of aluminium (from the drinks can) around 10cm long and 1.5cm wide. Don't hole punch it yet! Round off the corners using the scissors, and sand paper all the edges to take the sharp edge away.
To make this...
Cut two squares of aluminium about 2cm x 2cm in diameter. Tape the to sqaures together on top of one another, tape the edges only, this is a guiding rail and will allow the long strip to slide in between the two sheets. Round off the corners and sand the edges to take the sharpness away. Don't hole punch yet!
Once you have created these two bits, slide the long sheet in between the to squares and tape the edges so that it is a perfect fit, don't allow the long strip to move from side to side. See below.
To make this...
Hole punch all three layers together, make sure you punch the hole in the centre on the long strip. Try and keep the layers (tape, aluminium) as thin as possible so that when this is taped to the camera it sits flush with the aluminium facia containing the pin hole. You will need to tape everything up so that prevents as much light leak as possible (or not, as the case may be).
I haven't processed the film yet, and am not likely to soon (busy busy!). If you do try this, let me know how it went.