Digital Pinhole Camera - Physics Demonstrations - Digital Pinhole Camera | Physics Undergraduate Labs

Purpose

Shows that images can form without lenses through geometric projection alone. Students observe the trade-off between aperture size, image sharpness, and brightness using interchangeable pinhole plates on a digital camera.

Nikon DSLR camera body on green surface with a metal pinhole mount assembly attached and two interchangeable metal pinhole plates laid out beside it

Very blurry, bright photograph of a lecture hall wall clock taken through the largest pinhole; clock outline barely visible through heavy geometric blur

Blurry photograph of a lecture hall wall clock through the medium pinhole; clock circle and hands are more visible than in the largest pinhole image but still soft

Very dark photograph of a lecture hall wall clock through the smallest pinhole; clock outline is sharper but image is severely underexposed

Figure 1: The DSLR body with pinhole mount assembly and three interchangeable metal plates, each with a different diameter pinhole.

Figure 2: Largest pinhole, 5-second exposure: bright but heavily blurred by geometric blur. The clock is barely recognizable.

Figure 3: Medium pinhole, 5-second exposure: improved sharpness over the largest pinhole, with the clock face and hands now recognizable.

Figure 4: Smallest pinhole, 5-second exposure: sharpest of the three images but severely underexposed, showing the brightness-resolution trade-off.

Digital Camera and Pinhole Kit

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