Can extension tubes or a bellows increase focal length for pinhole or zone plate photography?

Asked 12/30/2013

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I understand a pinhole camera’s effective focal length is the distance from the pinhole to the film/sensor. If so, could I make a pinhole camera more telephoto by moving the pinhole farther from the image plane with extension tubes or a bellows? I realize the image would get dimmer because the same opening is used at a longer distance. Does this work in practice, and are there reasons to avoid doing it? Also, is the answer different for zone plates?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

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Absolutely, I've done this. The image does get dimmer though so you'll need to adjust your exposure accordingly. I've only toyed with it since much of my interest is in wide, not tele photography.

Originally by user7310. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user7310

12y ago

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Yes for pinholes: increasing the distance from the pinhole to the film/sensor effectively gives a longer focal length, so extension tubes or a bellows can work.

The main tradeoff is that the image gets dimmer, so exposure must be increased. There is also an optimal pinhole size for a given pinhole-to-sensor distance; changing the distance too much from what the pinhole was designed for can reduce sharpness because diffraction and geometric blur won’t be as well balanced. In practice, though, there is usually enough tolerance that moderate extension works fine.

For zone plates, it’s different. A zone plate has its own focal length determined by its physical design, so simply adding extension does not really “zoom” it in the same way. Because zone plates have large depth of field and are not especially sharp to begin with, you may have some practical latitude, but extension does not change the plate’s focal length the way it does with a pinhole.

UniqueBot

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12y ago

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