Nikon DX F-Mount Pinhole Lens

thingiverse

This is my pinhole lens design for the Nikon DX F-mount DSLRs. It might NOT WORK WITH FX, because the bigger mirror may hit the back of the lens. It has a focal length of ~37mm (when i compare it to a zoom lenses at ~37mm). That is the advantage of my design - if you just use a cap, drill it and turn it into a pinhole camera you will be at around 45mm and this is visibly wider. And also, why destroy a perfectly good cap? It works well on my D3100, its screws on tight and clears the mirror just fine. The quality of the picture depends on the quality of your pinhole. Do not expect sharp images, though. On full frame DSLRs a well made hole will give you ok-ish images, but on APS-C sensor, expect even more blurriness. Print Settings Notes: All the parts are printed without support. You may need to rotate some of the objects in the slicer. Print the parts in BLACK plastic or paint them afterwards in black - i used spray paint for the front and black marker for inside. I printed the parts in PLA, but ABS should work just as well. Post-Printing The parts are assembled with pressure - you may need a hammer or a vice to squeeze part 1 and 2 together. On my printer the assembly is tight and cannot come apart in any circumstance. Now it's time to make the pinhole. You can buy a laser cut pinhole, but that's no fun and in my opinion goes against the whole idea for pinhole on a modern DSLR - it's meant to be fun and DIY. Get an aluminium soda can or something similar and cut a 20mm circle. Be sure that there and no wrinkles and the piece is straight. Get a sharp needle and press in the center of the circle. Do not pierce the aluminium you only want to make a small pimple. Get some water sandpaper (i used 500 grit) and start sanding that pimple. Don't use force or you will bend it back. Sand until a hole shows.The hole needs to be about 0.25mm in diameter! Don't make it smaller than 0.2 and don't make it bigger than 0.3. In my tests 0.25mm was optimal. You can use a guitar string to check the hole size (i used a 0.24mm string). If you don't have a way to measure it, - it's trial and error. Get a magnifying glass and be sure that the hole is round and free of debris. Put your disk in part 3 and press it in part 1. If the fitment is not tight enough use superglue! You don't want the parts to come apart inside your camera and break it. Clean the parts well and be sure that hey are strong and cannot break or disassemble inside the camera! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CAMERA DAMAGE! FX users BEWARE, your mirror may hit the back cap! Check everything thoroughly. How I Designed This I designed this in Onshape. I used the camera, the kit lens and both caps for reference/ Custom Section You can freely edit this design, as long as you give me credit and link to my thingiverse project. Here is the design in Onshape:https://cad.onshape.com/documents/6d20c7de2184f064912eef76/w/84130cf6bf4e6b9e529e4716/e/3e7f30bc5d539a9a5591464d