A simple but neat little pinhole camera, laser cut from 3mm ply. Different frames are provided to give a circular or rectangular image. The camera is intended to be used with paper negatives. The photographic paper is pinned behind the frame and then the two halves of the box are pressed together.

One of the characteristics of early photographic processes is that they are slow. This limits their use for indoor portraiture unless a strong artificial light source is available, or a camera with a very fast lens. Regarding the latter, I came across an interesting camera design that gives a fast working aperture of f/1.7 by using a concave focusing mirror rather than a conventional lens. This camera, invented by Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson, was awarded the first U.S. photographic patent…