Thanks.
Besides wanting esthetically pleasing little box, I’m a bit concerned about making the right size/shape hole (and I assume that’s of a high priority if you want to get the exposure right based on accurate f size of the hole.
I do have a drill, but do not have any proper measuring tools to ensure smooth and precise job is done.
I spent a few years working with students and on my own with pinhole.
First, there was little, well, actually, no quality difference between laser drilled holes, and ones carefully made with .002 Brass Shim Stock.
Brass is much easier to use than aluminum, and I ended up using various sewing needles for drilling, and 400 grit automotive abrasive paper to clean the brass up.
I have access to microscopes and it was part of the school process, so I used one on low power to check the results, you can easily see the difference between a well polished round hole and a piece of now scrap brass. You can probably get by with other magnifiers to check your work. You can polish the opening with the needle and resand. Takes only a few minutes.
Eric Renner and his site is the holy grail of pinhole information.
I bought several of the commercial cameras, from cardboard kits to the 4x5 wood cameras. All produced nice results.
I also made pinholes fitted to Leica body caps drilled out. This type of 35mm does not lend itself to enlarged pinhole images. We made some out of 35mm film cans, the image in a circular camera extends from about 1mm from the hole all the way around in a sort of oval image, interesting. I bought a case of new 1 quart, (1 L) paint cans, which got a 1cm hole in the side, some paint, and a pinhole fitted.
I found a military surplus can of a roll of ortho film which can be handled in normal safe light, so it can be cut and fitted to almost anything. I was carrying a military flashlight with the red filters fitted so I could load and change film if I am traveling. Film was cut in to sheets and carried in an envelope.
As Graphics around here, especially without lens, go for almost nothing, ($50?) it would be foolish to overlook the ease and convenience of using them, plus if you have the older one with focal plane shutter it is a plus, though most of my exposures are 30 seconds or longer so a bit of black electrical tape works fine. Some other tapes transmit light.
Add a 6x9 roll film back, and you have more options, plus folded up with the handle, they are easy to carry about.
I used a Polaroid back as well.
I also shot with an 8x10 wood field camera, less than $100 here often, and again I had some ortho film. Images were close to those of a lens image.
The ortho film is great because you can develop with Dektol or any paper developer and develop by inspection, and you have a large negative.
You can move the pinhole closer or further to "zoom".
I never had trouble finding old plate cameras in Europe, just trouble carrying them home, and trying to adapt them to film.
My friend Lukas in Prague put in a glass plate or piece of plastic, and wedged the sheet film in on top.
You can recoat some old glass plates, or tape some ortho film inside and use almost any holder with no worries about focus.
These cameras can easily be converted back to lens use.
Bring along a nice figure model, large camera, big tripod, and bottle of wine, sounds like a plan.
My old LTM pinhole seems to work better with the M8, but it might be the chimping aspect that helps.
Have fun, sorry for the long post, hope there is something in it to help you decide on which path to follow.
Besides, a friend in California just bought the RD 1 Igor had here, so when one door closes... It was on his web page and he just reduced the price to move.
Regards, John Have fun.
