Catching Up

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NOTE POSTED 04-17-2009 – I have been trying to get a handle on the cross slit project since this was originally posted here. At this moment, and I don’t see my mind being changed, I am abandoning any further work or time. I believe that simply put, since there are two distinctly different focal lengths there will always be one plane that is stretched out of proportion. I am planning to continue into the world of old manual focus M42 lenses and even older lenses from folders on my Canon XTi. Of course, there will still be occasional side trips into pinhole land.

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I did receive the SD card I needed in order to test my digital stereo rig. As soon as there is a decent day I will be trying it out, along with some more shots with the homemade wood stereo camera and, of course, the newest toy – that double slit camera cap. The main problem for the rest of the year is the weather. With an annual snowfall of over 110″ per year combined with one of the lowest percentages of available sun received, the subject matter until Spring is mainly bare trees and snow. In fact, guess what was in the air just a half hour ago ? 

 

Double Slit Camera 4

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The super lens cap is finished, tested and a new page containing photographs has been created.

Double Slit Camera 3

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This morning I got what I needed together for this project. As I mentioned before, I have turned aside a bit from making a whole camera in order to determine something of the physical characteristics needed. This will be a lens cap on steroids, so to speak. I am using a set of macro rings as the basic structure, single edge injector razor blades for the slit edges, black core foam for the blade holders and information I have gleaned from the internet. If the findings are OK, I will then turn to making it in a 4×5 MF wooden camera with a Graflex roll film back using 6×7 negatives.

A few words here on the internet information – there are many references to slit cameras, however, most are related to either cameras used to determine finish line winners or the very interesting experiments on quantum physics showing how light travels as both waves and particles depending on whether they are being observed or not – real SG1 tech talk, huh ? Try this for a starting point – you will start wondering when the Asgard are going to beam you aboard – I hope you have on clean undies – LOL.   http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=usTOM8vffB4 or search the internet for>> Dr Quantum <<

 Further, the little related to what I am doing is mainly of the sort “I am going to make a double slit camera and I am all ready to make it, and it is going to be neat. Can anybody give me information on how to do it?”, or, “Here is a link to (pictures, information, guidelines, etc)”; a vast majority are either dead or not having anything related to the subject. The three places I did find that had needed information are enough to get going, I will either place the information or the links on my www.photographyhacks.org website after I actually determine if they are worthy.

So, here I am saying I am going to do it AND post pictures yadda, yadda, yadda ……….  Well, I do have good intentions of doing just that and you can determine if I follow through by checking back here for updates. Below is a quick picture of my worktable all set to start.

Double Slit Camera 1

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I really should stop web surfing ………….

A month or so ago I found a wonderful website:  http://www.f295.org/

Update March 2009: The above website has gone to a member’s only pay website, however the information is still all there.

there are literally thousands of posts and photos to look at and they are all either pinhole or alternative developing styles for both film and paper.

There is a section dealing with what is referred to as double slit cameras. This is basically a sort of super pinhole – with baggage. Two slits are aligned at 90 degrees from each other and spaced apart front to rear. The first, narrower, slit acts as a wide pinhole in one direction and the second, wider, acts as a pinhole in the other. The upside is faster exposures and better detail. The baggage ? Well, since there are two focal lengths there is a degree of stretching along one or the other axis depending on the slit alignment. I was able to read the information and leave without getting too excited over it. Well, last night …………..

You guessed – I’m at the first stage I mentioned recently – conceptual artist. The image is fuzzy at this moment. It will — nope – won’t use the d**e**p word — come to fruition – probably on the bus ride to NYC tomorrow. Instead of just making a simple one and going at it, I’m going to make a dream machine. All the adjustments and such that I can work in to the design. I have a small stash of poplar that will be used. 

The thing that actually triggered this ? I was put off by the accuracy of the slit. Last night I had another of those rare lucid moments and thought ” why not make a pattern of sorts in Ado*e Ph*t*s*o* ?”.  I grabbed some transparency sheets, set the program to make a file at 1000dpi and 2″ x 2″ with a black background. I then made 8 different sized ’slits’ with the pen tool. Starting at 11 pixels wide down to 4 pixels. Now I can use the patterns to align the slit edges to ensure they are parallel.

The whole concept became apparent when I held two of the transparencies – one vertical and one horizontal – spaced about two inches apart, up to a light. When I moved my head around in an imaginary square to approximate a 6×6cm square that little square of light- .004″ square – traveled along the slits – just like the descriptions in the posts ! “It can be done !” – sorry to Mel Brooks.