Quote Originally Posted by NedL View Post
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But. Recently I've had to catch myself making things too technical and complicated. So I pulled back from all of this. I don't want to mess up the simple joy of finding the picture, placing my pinhole coffee can or cardboard box, and then watching the magic of the image coming up in the developer. To me the idea that the light from the scene landed directly onto the paper to make a permanent captured image is just wonderful. So these days I'm trying to keep things more about "play" and less about the technical part. Not that the technical part can't be fun, but there is a balance to reach!

So my advice: build the camera and have lots of fun making wonderful pinhole pictures with it!
Yes, especially so with pinhole stuff; I take the view that it's all pretty much a compromise and you'll get something interesting from almost anything! That said, most of my pinhole shooting has been one day a year, the WPPD festivities. I do, as a compulsive tinkerer, manage to suddenly decide I need a new camera for it every couple of years. I sold my sheet metal equipment a while back, but I still have woodworking stuff, so these cameras can get quite "involved." It's like one of the approaches to model railroading where the energy goes into designing and building layouts, not running the trains!

(And last B&H order I picked up a Canon EOS body cap that might put a pinhole on my bit-zapper SLR. Most of what I've seen from that on the pinhole day galleries has been lackluster and I'm curious to learn if it's an inherent limitation or weak craftsmanship. )