P5 MUTO Wide Angle 4X5 Pinhole Camera

thingiverse

The MUTO is an evolution of my earliest 3D printed camera designs, the PINH5AD (AKA P5). I've been thinking about a super wide 4X5 camera for a long time and I'm happy to finally publish this in time for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, 2016! This camera's pinhole placement (and subsequent perspective) is designed to be easily altered, thus the name: MUTO. This design is very versatile, intended to be used with various films and formats. 4X5 film or paper can be used, as can 120 roll film with an appropriate film back. Recently, NEW55 started manufacturing a new 4X5 instant film. I haven't had any luck shooting pinhole with NEW55 yet, but it looks promising. You will want a Polaroid 545 film back for the New55 instant film. This camera features an adjustable pinhole plate, 25.4 mm (1 inch) from the film, that can be rotated in 60° increments, altering the perspective of the captured image. The very wide field of view requires clearances inside and outside of the camera, to avoid eclipsing part of the image at extreme angles. In lieu of bolts, Gaffer Tape is used to secure the pinhole in place and affix the hexagonal plate to the front of the camera. Any film back or film holder you could use with this camera will have a dark slide, so adjustment of the pinhole position can easily be done in the field between exposures. Additionally, the shutter on the plate is mostly to protect the pinhole, but can be used for timing your exposure. An alternate hex plate is included lacking the shutter stops and bolt hole. A finger over the pinhole is a time-tested pinhole technique, and for very long exposures, the dark slide may be used quite effectively. If shooting a full 4x5 frame, expect extreme optical vignetting at the perimeter of the frame. Photographers who use this technique often aggressively crop the resulting image to exclude underexposed portions of the frame. Featured sample photos were shot using a Graflex 120 6X9 film back, held in place by clips (included in Thing files), with a 0.20mm diameter pinhole, metered at f/165, a rough average for the 6x9 frame. The center of the frame is slightly overexposed and the margins are obviously underexposed, with a pronounced color shift. For best viewing, enlarge images to full screen. All future photographs made with this camera will be shared HERE. The flexibility of this camera design lends itself to much experimentation, and a separate hex plate is included if you want to cater your pinhole choice to your exposure and/or perspective. A smaller pinhole (0.20 as shot in sample photos) is going to exacerbate the underexposure at the edges. You absolutely want to use the most opaque filament you can obtain for this project. PLA is notorious for being translucent, so it's a good idea to get some Shaxon or MakerGeeks black PLA to make sure your camera turns out well. Both are very affordable also! Post-assembly, you will need a pinhole sized 0.15 - 0.35mm in diameter (optimal pinhole diameter is a function of the distance from the film, but owing to the very wide angle of this design, that distance varies significantly from center to edge). I use THIS APP to make these calculations. Assembly is easy: you will need qty 1 -3mm panhead bolt, 8mm long, and lock nut for shutter pivot; qty 4 - 3mm socket head bolts, 16mm long, and 3mm nuts to attach selected tripod mount; qty 2 - 1/4-20 flanged nuts for standard tripod attachment. You can use self-adhesive velvet or foam/rubber gasketing material to light-proof the film holder bracket. I used super glue (Cyanoacrylate) to attach the film holder bracket and MUTO plate to the body, as well as attaching the hex plate to the front of the camera body with Gaffer tape. It's also a good idea to give the inside of the camera body a coat of flat black paint to minimize internal reflections on sometimes-shiny PLA.