Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras [Paperback]

John Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Photography is driven by technological innovation, but "Adventures with Pinhole and Home-made Cameras" strikes off in a radically different direction. Featuring the images of renowned artists and photographers, it describes a variety of imaginative approaches, using camera construction techniques which range in sophistication from precision engineering with state-of-the-art lenses to piercing a pinhole in a beer can! Visual aspects of the book are complemented by an extensive practical section, including guidelines on image formation and step-by-step procedures for exposure control, as well as diverse methods of building and adapting camera bodies. John Evans is a photographer and writer who has been making cameras and associated equipment since the 1960s.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Evans is a photographer, writer and lecturer who writes regularly for the photography press, often on the subject of making original or adapting existing equipment. He has made several cameras himself.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: RotoVision (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2880467144
• ISBN-13: 978-2880467142
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #818,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the wanna-be-adventurer, February 11, 2006

By 

Luscher (Goyim City, Wisconsin, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras (Paperback)

I was NOT disappointed with ''Adventures With Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras'' because it demonstrates a variety of radically different approaches to photography with unusual cameras. This book offers brief sketches of their making - exactly what I wanted. There is no need for blueprints as I have no desire to follow EXACTLY where others have already trod. ''Adventures'' is the first word in the title, after all. This book is eminently practically for the photographic tinkerer who wishes to think for him/herself and has no need to be led by the hand.

Thankfully, even the most sophisticated designs in the book are explained in at least a cursory way. Detailed plans, step-by-step instructions and parts lists are not what this book is about : you will not be spoon-fed stock design instructions. Detailed descriptions and breakdowns of real home-made cameras are unnecessary as builders will make use of whatever materials and techniques are available to them!

The book also offers tired old ideas, like using glass as an improvised lens (see ''Weegee's Creative Camera'', 1959), which may be a boon for the uninitiated. There is also a section in the back with information on making pinholes, calculating exposure times, etc. Most of this information, of course, can be easily found on the Internet (or your local library), the many details of which will be greatly expanded upon. Free interactive pinhole camera design software can easily be located online as well.

I bought this book as an educated photographer with an interest in building some unusual designs, so I have no need to copy existing camera designs ... how unusual would such a camera be? Thankfully this book makes no claims which it does not fulfill. Allow me to point out the first word in the title again : ADVENTURES. Blaze your own trail! This book will inspire all but the insipid, and will encourage even the timid to try.

Don't allow one bad (badly reasoned, I might add) review to delay your purchase as I had done.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for the adventurer, May 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras (Paperback)

I was disappointed to discover that "Adventures With Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras" amounts basically to a coffee table book of photographs, with frustratingly brief sketches of the "who and how" of their making. It is not a practically-oriented book for the photographic tinkerer.

Even the most sophisticated designs in the book are explained in only a cursory way. Helpful diagrams and hints to construction techniques are rare. Detailed descriptions and breakdowns of real home-made cameras are missing altogether!

The book does offer a some clever ideas, like using a wine glass as an improvised lens. There is also a section in the back with information on making pinholes, calculating exposure, etc. These are only a precious few pages, however, and most of the information can be easily found elsewhere.

I bought this book as an educated photographer with an interest in building some unusual designs. I don't think that owning this book would have brought me any closer to that goal. My money would have been better spent on a pair of tin snips.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring blend of artistic visions and practical aspects, February 1, 2005

By 

Lukas Werth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras (Paperback)

Ever since I own this book, I find myself picking it up again and again. It is divided into two parts: one containing an interesting array of very diverse photographers, united only by their use of non-readymade equipment. Personally, I find the way in which the hyper-sharp pictures of Alistair Thain, taken with precision-engineerd cameras of his own design, reveal their disturbing aspects as inspiring as the monochrome pinhole pictures of Walter Crump whose equipment is reduced to bare bones - and there are other very interesting artists. If there is an artistic message emanating from this part, it is about the relativity of technical aspects in photographic art: personal aims, a distinct individual perspective matter so much more than the reliance on the latest technological advance.
The second part deals with practical aspects of tinkering one's own equipment: it includes very useful hints and tables for making pinholes, zone plates, lenses, shutters, different sizes of film, camera bodies, focussing helps and view finders. While by no means exhaustive, these tips should be seen as a jumping-off place to develop one's own design - which may very well lead to much more satisfying results than buying the latest gadget.