Chroma Camera: New 135 Pinhole Camera

Chroma Camera, maker of the Chroma Carbon and Snapshot 4x5 cameras, has added a fourth camera to the stable: the 135 Cube pinhole camera.  This camera offers a lightweight (156g) compact camera that can be picked up and carried easily at all times.  It features an 0.2 mm pinhole, about f/150, on a 24x24 frame.

This is about 3.2 stops more than f/16, so sunny 16 would indicate a shutter speed of 9.4x slower than the desired film speed, e.g. about 1/40th of second for ISO 400 in broad daylight.  The shutter is a magnetic shutter plate that slides, perhaps the thing sticking out on the right in the product photo.  There is a nub visible in the product photo the left side of the camera.

The camera does come with a tripod socket and a level built-in.  The winding mechanism is a sprocket counter mechanism, that allows lining up the frames by a marker.

Click here to buy from Chroma, and read more at Kosmo Foto.

LFF: Can You Save Money Developing Film at Home?

Wait, wait!  This is for all formats of film!  Large Format Friday has a piece on DIY film development vs. sending film to the lab.  He prices out the rough cost of developing film and uses a simple metric to figure out how many rolls of film to the breakeven point of DIY vs. the lab.  If you shoot more film than the breakeven point, DIY savings are in the bank!

Of course, if you want to develop and print your own film for the full, immersive experience, that is a valid choice as well.  This is simply an exercise of figuring out the costs for those that want to save a buck.  

View on for more details:

First Fresh 220 Format Film Rolls Out

If you are hungering for 220 format B&W film, fresh stock is coming from Shanghai Shenbei. There have been complaints about emulsion quality in the past, so exercise caution before stocking up.  There should be no backing paper problems though, 220 only has paper at the ends.  It is said that the factory in China has changed hands and is being advised by an established producer of film.

Shanghai GP3 in 220 format was reported on Pentax Forums by the user, Diskonnect.

The Talk Photography forum previously reported that Nik & Trik in the UK has a supply of Shanghai GP3 film in 220 format.  At time of writing, £9.69 Inc. vat a roll. Not bad for double the length of 120.   Also available in 120, 127, 620 and 35mm formats, and in sheet film up to 20x24.

Also available at the official GP3 store. 

YouTube: The Sunny 16 Rule with Cinestill Film

Here is a video on the Sunny 16 rule and its variants, with some practical examples from a shoot with Henry J. Keith.  Check it out, well worth the time.

It is possible to even get good results shooting slide film just using Sunny 16.  Between the hour after sunrise to the hour before sunset, it holds well.  Once you are used to it, an all manual camera can be operated outside without a meter no problem.