Mamiya 7ii and pinhole shooting

nokton_user

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Hi,
Is it possible to do pinhole shooting with the Mamiya 7ii?

Can I made a pinhole from the lens cup of the 65mm lens, and shut via the lens? or is it not a real pinhole shooting?

Thank you,
Nir.
 
Hi,
Is it possible to do pinhole shooting with the Mamiya 7ii?

Can I made a pinhole from the lens cup of the 65mm lens, and shut via the lens? or is it not a real pinhole shooting?

Thank you,
Nir.

I have plans to convert a body cap for use in pinhole. I'm afraid the lens cup would sit too deep and vignette badly and I'm not sure how you'd attach it to the camera.
My plan is to cut a large hole in the center of the body cap and then glue a large washer or two to the back side of the cap. This will recess it a bit in to the body. The pinhole will go on film side of the washer.
I'll use a lens cap or something like that as a shutter.
 
One question, how would you advance it to the next frame when the Mamiya's original shutter is electronic in the lens? I don't think the body would allow the winder to be advanced without an electrical connection that tells it a frame has been shot.
 
Last edited:
One question, how would you advance it to the next frame when the Mamiya's original shutter is electronic in the lens? I don't think the body would allow the winder to be advanced without an electrical connection that tells it a frame has been shot.

Good question. I have no idea.
I'll have to try advancing the film with just the body cap on.
 
Hi,
Is it possible to do pinhole shooting with the Mamiya 7ii?

Technically, nearly any camera can be a pinhole camera. AE is to be avoided in general, as reciprocity breaks down in long exposures, and most in-built meters cannot compensate for that. A mechanical shutter or an electro-mechanical shutter that can be strictly controlled for lengthy exposures is best. For that matter, cap-in-hand works perfectly well for such lengthy exposures.

A rangefinder camera has no particular advantage over an SLR, or indeed, a box camera, since there is no focusing or setting exposure on a pinhole (except by the gross expedient of making the hole larger or smaller, or changing the sensitivity of the recording media).

Pinhole exposure times tend not to be conducive to hand-holding, either; so there is also no particular advantage to using a light camera over a heavy one.

Can I made a pinhole from the lens cup of the 65mm lens, and shut via the lens? or is it not a real pinhole shooting?

If I understand you correctly, you propose making a pinhole in the lens cap and then exposing through the standard 65mm lens. If that's what you're saying, then no, it is not 'real' pinhole shooting. It is shooting at an extremely small aperture. I suspect your resulting images will suffer greatly from diffraction, which may render an interesting effect, but they won't be pinhole photographs. This is the reason most lenses do not stop down past f/22 or perhaps f/32 (f/64 for some large-format lenses). Diffraction ruins the image.

Pinhole photographs are made without lenses, period. They take advantage of a curious property of light that acts as a lens would in terms of focusing light. They do not have an 'f-stop' as such, and they cannot be focused. The effect obtained is often desirable.
 
It would be much simpler to just mount a roll film back onto a simple wooden box with a pinhole in the front.

Hi,
Is it possible to do pinhole shooting with the Mamiya 7ii?

Can I made a pinhole from the lens cup of the 65mm lens, and shut via the lens? or is it not a real pinhole shooting?

Thank you,
Nir.
 
For my Hasselblad I just cut out a round piece of cardboard that fits snugly into the lens mount. Cut out small hole in the middle, cover it with a piece of aluminum foil, make a hole with a needle and there you go.
 
electrical tape over the pinhole, then advance the frame. no problemo! Dont expect the meter to work though!
 
Keep in mind that you cannot remove the lens from a Mamiya 7 without closing the curtain. And the shutter will not fire when the curtain is closed. You have a lot working against you trying to use a Mamiya 7 with no lens. That is why I suggested the wooden box with a roll film back.
 
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