dirkon

About a month or so ago, I was told about a website by Laura with a printable pinhole camera called Dirkon, which was originally printed in a photography magazine in Czechoslovakia. The camera isn't particularly practical, as most of the features such as the buttons and viewfinder don't actually do anything, but apparently it does work.

I printed and made my Dirkon in just under two hours as it was extremely fiddly to make as there are many tiny pieces and the instructions aren't very clear at all, but the final thing looks ok. I haven't tried using it yet as I have had trouble getting the wind on mechanism to work, as it requires strangely bent paperclips and I seem to have got through quite a few without success. As the camera is made from quite thin cardboard I also had to line it with black felt to minimise light leaks.

All I need to do now to get my paper Dirkon working is to find myself an empty film canister, as as this pinhole takes 35mm film instead of straight onto photographic paper, I need to find a way to gather the exposed film at the other side of the camera and to protect it from the light. I think I am going to run around the darkroom and scout around the bins for this!