Are commercial pinhole lenses available for DSLR cameras?
Asked 10/7/2012
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I know you can make a pinhole yourself, but are there ready-made pinhole "lenses" sold for interchangeable-lens cameras? I'm especially wondering whether any are made by established lens manufacturers, and whether they provide usable focal length/aperture information or EXIF data.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
6
A company called Rising makes a precision laser cut pinhole lens based on the body caps for various makers, including all the dSLR makers. Included in the documentation with it is the focal length and aperture, but it varies a little bit by body because of the distance from the hole to the sensor. On the Pentax, for example, it's 45mm and f/204.
At any rate, I can't find their website, but if you Google "rising pinhole cap" and camera maker you want it for, you'll get a ton of hits. As far as I can tell, they are available in Australia.
I have one, at any rate, and it's kind of neat. You get some interesting effects with certain kinds of lighting.

Originally by user472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user472
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—ready-made pinhole options do exist, usually as body-cap style accessories rather than conventional lenses. Community examples include Rising pinhole caps, Photojojo pinhole body caps for Canon and Nikon, and Skink pinhole/zone sieve products.
These products typically have a fixed effective focal length and very small aperture, and makers may provide approximate specs in the documentation. Because the distance from the pinhole to the sensor depends on the camera body, the effective focal length/aperture can vary slightly by mount or body.
However, they generally are not electronic lenses, so you should not expect aperture control or reliable EXIF aperture reporting unless a specific product says otherwise. In practice, most pinhole products are simple manual accessories made by specialty makers, not mainstream camera/lens manufacturers.
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AI13y ago
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