Pinhole Lens Test

I got a new pinhole lens (smaller hole than the tiniest pinprick I could make, and perfectly round), and wanted to test it against my old DIY pinhole.

First I used my 50mm to establish a baseline. (The pinhole is something like 47mm away from the sensor, so you’ll see that they are just a bit wider.)

I put a piece of aluminum foil on a piece of paper and made the tiniest pinprick I could. I then drilled a hole through a lens cap and taped the foil over the hole.

Lots of weird starry shapes around the candles, and some nasty flare underneath the clock and over the speaker. (But this is an extremely contrasty, difficult shot; I’ve been quite happy with this lens.)

Wow. First off, this shot is ISO 1600 while the last one was ISO 800 (both 30 sec. exposures), because this hole was so much smaller.

None of the odd flaring, and how do you like those halos? I guess diffraction is real, after all. :)

Neat! Especially the diffraction.

On the down side, all evidence I’ve seen so far for the claim “everything is in focus on a pinhole” seemes to be better explained as “everything is the same kind of blurry on a pinhole”.

“everything is the same kind of blurry on a pinhole”

Well, yeah, “in focus” is relative. You would not call a pinhole lens “sharp”. Depending on the scene, though, this could be fine.