Re: Pin hole cameras?

[Nigel Orr <nigel.orr@xxxxxxx>]

At 09:51 09/11/99 +0000, Ant wrote:
>Clearly pinhole lenses are inferior in some sort of way, but what

>From http://www.pinhole.com/resources/articles/Young/index.html

"Despite its antiquity and apparent simplicity, the pinhole camera
offers
several advantages over tens [I think they mean lens ;-)- Nigel] optics,
particularly when resolution is not especially important.
These include

complete freedom from linear distortion
depth of field from a few centimeters to infinity
wide angular field

The pinhole's light-gathering ability is poor, but this is largely offset
by the high sensitivity of modern films and television cameras"

As _I_ understand it, it's easy to make a good cheap pinhole camera, and
easy to make an expensive really good lens camera.  Take your pick!  If you
want telephoto or zoom lenses, you need a lens one (preferably C-mount to
be able to use any old CCTV lens)

Remember it's not just about optics if you are using it outside- lenses
also give some mechanical protection to the CCD element.  I'm currently
playing with a cheap little B&W lens camera with IR leds (from
http://www.henrys.co.uk/electronics.htm
), but I only went for that because
one of its first applications was to inspect the inside of a chimney (long
story!), and I didn't want to risk a pinhole getting bunged up with soot
;-)

Another advantage of pinholes is that they don't gleam in the light, so if
you want it to be covert, pinhole might win.

Nigel


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