Now is the time…

It often seems that the art and craft of photography is being swept along on a tsunami of technological innovation. Never has the process of creating technically flawless images been so accessible to so many. Not a bad thing at all, mainly, but the effect of social media can also encourage new ideas and innovation to become predictable and ultimately mundane.

The 10(+)-stop neutral density filter has a lot to answer for. Join any landscape photography group on social media and, if you’re like me, you’ll probably emit an audible groan when you see the same old honey-pot location treated the same old way yet again….and again. Photography as art and creative expression is also about pushing your own creative experience and boundaries.

When you feel like that about a lifetime practising a genre of photography and a process you love, for myself, it’s time to step back and think about doing something new and breathing fresh air into my photography.

….for something completely different

My recent headlong dive into pinhole photography is about as extreme a knee-jerk reaction against popular long exposure practice as it’s possible to make, but it’s an itch I’ve wanted to scratch for quite a while.

As a practice, pinhole photography has been around for a very long time, probably as long as 500BC. For a comprehensive history, it’s best if you visit Jon Grepstad’s informative website Jon clearly knows his onions and I won’t usurp his knowledge and research, so I’ll concentrate on the subject of this review.

Ondu

I was aware of the Ondu Kickstarter campaign when I first started toying with the idea of getting into pinhole photography and I liked the look of the simple but elegant wooden box. Since the successful launch of Ondu, I have returned numerous times to the website and eventually decided to buy an Ondu Rise 4x5 pinhole camera. It’s a refinement of the original 5x4 in that it has two additional pinholes that can be used to move the image up or down by a third, after the camera has been levelled. Each pinhole has a seperate manually-operated shutter.

A magnetic filter holder is sized to take a Cokin A filter. It covers all three holes and can be orientated for portrait and landscape format.

I chose the full walnut version but there is a choice of wood and they can be mixed. The precision fit and finish of the components is excellent and a testament to the attention to detail, design skills and craftsmanship of Ondu Founder, Elvis Halilović.

The pinholes on the Ondu Rise 5x4 are sized to give an effective aperture of f166. Pretty extreme when you’re used to using lenses that open up to f1.4, on sunny days (in the UK) with 100iso film you can expect exposures of around 4-9 seconds

Each camera comes with a laser engraved exposure calculator that tells you to set your meter iso to match your choice of film and then meter for an exposure at f22.

If your meter says that your correct exposure for 100iso is 1/30th second shutter speed at f22, the Ondu exposure calculator will tell you that you need an exposure time of 4 seconds to compensate for the f166 aperture of the pinhole .

The potential variable with long exposures is the effect of reciprocity failure, which is the inability of the film to maintain consistent reciprocal exposures beyond a certain exposure time. With colour films, reciprocity failure can also introduce unpredictable colour casts and both colour and black and white films will need much longer times than the exposure calculator indicates.

Some films will display reciprocity failure from 1 second exposure whilst others are more tolerant. For this review I used Fomapan 100 and found it to be quite good with my guesstimate system of allowing for reciprocity issues.

I made no compensation until the exposure calculator said I needed a 9 second exposure, so I stuck a wet finger in the air and doubled it to 20 seconds with no adverse problems with highlight or shadow details on the negatives.

Pinhole images are inherently technically imperfect and the key to enjoying pinhole photography is to embrace this. You know you aren’t going to produce razor-sharp images and composing is not completely precise, but you will create images with a recognisable aesthetic and artistic quality that more sophisticated cameras and lenses cannot easily replicate.

The point of Ondu pinhole camera photography for me is about the enjoyment of making images with a simple but beautifully crafted camera that leaves me free to concentrate on the interplay of highlight and shadow without unnecessary technological distractions. It is a simplified process of contemplative creative expression.

The pinhole and the exposure calculator are extremely accurate in their respective functions. It all works so well, the exposures are good and the images are more defined than I expected them to be.

With the Ondu Rise 5x4 I get all the charm of glowy pinhole images with a surprising degree of tonal and detail fidelity. The camera also has the added compositional benefit of rise or fall, all on sumptuous 5x4 film. Above all, it’s a fun way of creating interesting and artistic images!

There are three standard 1/4” thread tripod sockets, three bubble levels and three pairs of laser-engraved field of view indicators to aid image composition for portrait and landscape orientation.

This meticulous attention to detail has clearly been researched thoroughly at the design stage and makes the experience and ease of using this camera a pleasure in the field.

Conclusion

Elvis Halilović has put a great deal of thought and effort into his pinhole camera designs which range in format from 35mm - 10x8. Everything fits perfectly and the workmanship is flawless.

All the development and design work has resulted in cameras that are a joy to hold and use. Pinhole photography is liberating, it is photography in it’s most basic form and a pinhole camera can be as basic, amusing, impractical or unusual as you wish.

There are no design rules beyond a light tight box with a pinhole in it, but if there is a benchmark pinhole camera then Ondu have created a range of options that set a very high standard in workmanship, form, function and user enjoyment.

If you’re contemplating trying pinhole photography or upgrading your current pinhole camera, treat yourself and your creativity to an Ondu pinhole camera!

Pinhole photography gallery

All images in this gallery were made with my Ondu Rise 5x4