PINHOLE CAMERA Sarah Christine Schulz
PINHOLE CAMERA
“Wenn in der ganzen Ideologie die Menschen und ihre Verhältnisse wie in einer Camera obscura auf den Kopf gestellt erscheinen, so geht dies Phänomen ebensosehr aus ihrem historischen Lebensprozeß hervor, wie die Umdrehung der Gegenstände auf der Netzhaut aus ihrem unmittelbar physischen.” Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Die deutsche Ideologie, MEW Bd. 3, S. 26
PROCESS
GENERAL I wanted to create a camera which would be stacked together only. With the use of MDF it should be possible to create a complete camera which would include a box would include a strap to take out and put in; a tripod which could be inserted and stored; could be used with a 35mm film role and would have an overall appealing design. This is with what I started:
film 35mm front 22mm
total 47mm till lid 42,7mm
100/4,9 100/4,8 100/4,7 100/4,6 100/4,5 100/4,4 99,9/5 99,8/5 99,7/5 99,6/5 99,5/5 99,4/5
DATA 100
MDF tickness 4,6mm
100,1
100,2
100,3
height 47,6mm
Lasercutter takes 0,225 mm away --> Offset 0,28mm --> 50mm is 49,5mm -->4,6mm is 4,15mm height
MEASUREMENTS First of all I collected all measurements for the insight of the camera, so that I understood the thickness of the MDF and the offset for the lasercutter. I was trying several sizes to see when it perfectly matches and doesn’t ruin the material. It was important that the material fit perfectly, so that no light would come through the box, but also that it was possible to put it together without breaking it. After, I used the collected data to create the inner box of the camera in which the film could be inserted and taken out. Also here it was important to have exact measurements, as the film shouldn’t move while taking pictures, but that it could be taken in and out.
RHINO
ITERATIONS It took several iterations for the pinhole camera until I found the best shape and size. As well it was important to prototype and lasercut, only then I could see and try the handeling of the camera. If it made sense what I sketched down and what I had in mind. I started with a size of 130mm diameter for the round outer shell, in the end I could narrow it down to 115mm with offset included. I wanted to have at least 3mm between parts, so the material wouldn’t to easily.
IMPROVEMENTS While prototyping camera after camera, the design of the camera could be more and more improved. The round shape became the design language for all parts which would include the handling of the camera itself. The technical parts which include the stacking of the camera became squares. 1. the part of the spool with which you turn the film 2. putting in and out the strap 3. spool for film 4. spool for film
3D DESIGN What made my process a little easier in that sense was the fact that the 3D design would become 3D when put together. The parts itself where created layer after layer, in that sense all the 6 inner parts + front and back (total 8), I put one by one together. The hardest part for the design was the fact that it had to be stacked, I worked a lot of the shutter and thought of how its best to open and close them easily. I had to incorporate the handling, wearout and the visual language. The spool took several approaches too, as by changing the any hight or distance, the spool would be have to changed too.
LASERCUTTING
MACHINES Machines are supposed to work for us, well, that didn’t work out with the lasercutter machine. Finding out the exact measurement for the stacking and putting together of the 3D model, didn’t mean the measuring came to an end. The smallest errors and mistakes on the bottom where the MDF would lay on, would be presented in the outcome. The cuts where crooky, sometimes they didn’t go through on every part of the MDF. It took a while to find out the lacks of the machine, to work around it and manually change things (for instance: left upper corner works perfectly, middle part of the machine doesn’t cut through at all).
OUTCOME