How to make a camera obscura with your own hands: two detailed lifhakas

Camera obscura, pinhole camera, - the prototype of the camera known for several hundred years to mankind. In this article, we will not only get acquainted with its history and the principle of action, but we will also discuss how to make a camera obscura with your own hands from improvised materials in several ways.

What is a camera obscura

Camera obscura (lat camera - " room", obscura - " darkened, dark") - the simplest optical device, the prototype of the camera. It can be either a box or a box, on one of its walls a small eye-hole is cut out, and instead of the other, a screen of translucent material is stretched, and a dark room with the same small eye and screen.

Another name for this device is a pinhole camera (" pinhole camera ").

The operating principle of the pinhole camera

Before you make a camera obscura with your own hands, you need to figure out how it works. Her work is based on the law of the rectilinear spread of light rays known from school. A lot of narrow light beams pass through the hole-eye of the camera. Each of them leaves a light spot on the screen of the opposite wall, equal in size to the eye. Such specks of many rays are superimposed on each other on the surface of the pinhole camera screen, thereby creating an optical reflection on it-a copy of the object or panorama before this peculiar apparatus.

Human eye and pinhole camera

The obscura camera, by the way, resembles the principle of its action the human eye - the image on its screen also gets through a small hole and upside down. This is due to the fact that light enters both the eye and the apparatus at an angle - the rays reflected from the top of the objects are directed downward, and the rays reflecting objects close to the ground are directed upwards. Inside the camera, they intersect, so the image on the camera screen turns upside down. In our body, the picture is returned to the correct position by the brain, and in the camera - a mirror.

The History of the Pinhole Camera

How to make a camera obscura with our own hands, and thought our distant ancestors - the first time this phenomenon noticed Aristotle in the IV. BC.

The legendary Leonardo da Vinci was the first to describe the algorithm and the mechanism of its operation. His invention in the Middle Ages enjoyed the artists - a camera obscura helped them make pictures-copies of certain objects.

On how to make their own hands a camera obscura in a more "advanced" version, scientists thought later. In 1568, the principle of the pinhole camera was improved - Venetian inventor De Barbaro replaced the screen with a plane-convex lens. This innovation significantly improved the clarity and saturation of the image. The device was called a stenop chamber. It also became a step towards a modern camera.

How to make a camera obscura with your own hands out of the box

To make your own pinhole camera you will need:

• Cardboard box from under tea or juice;
• Thin translucent paper - perfectly suitable tracing paper or parchment;
• scissors;
• glue;
• Scotch.

So, how to make a camera obscura with your own hands out of the box from tea, juice, etc.:

1. Cut a small window on one of the box walls.
2. Using glue or tape, cover the hole with a suitable piece of paper, turning it into a screen of the future camera.
3. In the middle of the opposite wall make a hole with a diameter of not more than 1 mm. Use for this purpose a needle, a pin, a clerical button.

That's the whole instruction that tells how to make a camera obscura with your own hands out of the box. Use your invention in a darkened room - point it at a bright and contrasting light source - for example, a burning candle. Its inverted image should be reflected on the paper screen.

How to make a camera obscura with your own hands: a camera

In this lifhake we will analyze the creation of a more complex but more interesting pinhole camera, with which you can get real photographs. First, collect the necessary materials:

• Aluminum can;
• Piece of plastic;
• Matchbox;
• 2 "barrels" for photographic film;
• The film itself is 35 mm;
• Black paint, brush;
• Stationery knife;
• insulating tape;
• needle;
• scissors;
• Ruler;
• pencil.

How to make a camera obscura with your own hands, read on:

1. Cut out the window in the inside of the box. Its recommended size is 36x24 mm. Its edges can be left carelessly torn (this will give an unusual effect to the future picture), and smooth with a file or a stationery knife.
2. Inside the box, paint it completely with black paint. Use matte, not glossy dyes.
3. Take a piece of plastic, sharpen its end. Glue to the "barrel" with an electrical tape, as in the photo, and with a sharp tip, hook the hole of the film previously inserted into this container. When you rewind, you will hear clicks - to create a new frame you need to scroll the film for 8-9 clicks.
4. Return to the outer part of the box - strictly in its middle, cut out a rectangle of 8x5 mm.
5. From the aluminum can, cut out the square 15x15 mm. In its middle, make a hole in the needle - the smaller it is, the better.
6. Now paint with black paint and the outer part of the box, and the aluminum box.
7. Glue an aluminum part to the outer part of the box with an electrical tape.
8. Make a shutter - cut out the cardboard, make a hole in it for the "lens", glue it to the "camera". Take a strip of cardboard 10x30 mm, completely paint it in black, insert this improvised bolt into the device, as in the example.
9. To rewind the film inside the "barrel", make such a pen made of cardboard and tape.
10. How to make a camera obscura with your own hands made of cardboard? Here, finally, is the final point. Insert the film between the outer and inner-hole for the matchbox screen. That the used film did not hang, it is possible to attach to the other side of the chamber the second "barrel" for its winding. Secure all parts with adhesive tape.

So we have analyzed two ways, suggesting how to make a camera obscura with your own hands. In the latter, it is better to use a tripod for shooting, and to open the shutter for a certain time - in sunny weather for 6 seconds, in cloudy weather - for 7-8 seconds.