And then there was ONDU

A new camera, life is good! Looking for something different to try with film so I thought I would go right back to where it all started with a pinhole rig. I have had the ONDU multi-format 6 x 12 camera for about 6 months. Sadly, priorities and life got in the way as usual and so it is only now that I have decided to push ahead and give it a try. In returning to photography and as many of its options as possible, I stumbled across the modern deployment of pinhole cameras and thought this could be a really fun and challenging way to combine “old school” camera technology with film, digital and alternative printing processes. For today though, I am just interested in shooting a roll of Fujicolor Pro 400H negative film that I loaded without thinking about subject matter. Without a neutral density (ND) filter the 400 ISO speed is too fast for most outdoor pinhole shots and so my first efforts were taken in our back garden area on an overcast day, late in the afternoon, to get the light low enough to be practical.

Glasshouse 10 sec exposure

The ONDU images remind me a bit of my Fuji Instax Square camera prints. I like the look of them, but only for the aesthetic feeling they convey. You cannot assess a pinhole image by modern imaging criteria and that for me is the whole point. It’s pure escapist joy in a way. The colour accuracy of the Fuji Pro 400H film scanned with my Epson V700 flatbed was absolutely spot on. There is a little bit of residual magenta in some of the edges but the central image area is perfect…….and this surprised me. These first shots reinforced what I had read about pinholes and that is, the central image area looks the sharpest with progressive vignetting happening towards the edges of the frame. I chose to use the 6 x 12 format for a start to see how much drop off occurred in the light towards the edges and I’m quite surprised at how much detail it carried into the shadow tones on the frame edges. If I had adjusted my scanner better I could have dragged a bit more detail out at the sides but this was ok for a first go.

Garden shot into the light 3 min exposure

Functionally the camera is very easy to use. Just mount it on a sturdy tripod and line up the image area with the lines etched onto the ONDU. The view angle of the camera is very wide so you can get quite close up to the main subject and of course it is automatically in focus. I used my Sekonic L508 light meter with the diffusion sphere for incidence readings. The ONDU conversion scale provided on a neat little wooden guide was accurate enough to get properly exposed images out on my first try. The only negative experience was the film roll was a bit lumpy looking when I opened the back and I may have suffered a light leak on two of my frames. This was evident by a patch of red fogging at the top of the negatives. I plan to shoot only black and white Ilford FP4+ in the ONDU for the foreseeable future so will plan to unload the film in a change bag where I can rewind it tighter if required to avoid this from happening again. I also have a variable ND filter coming which will be interesting to try on brighter days. So, in summary, the ONDU is easy to use and produces good quality images by pinhole standards. It is going to be fun to learn to use it in more depth.