To make a pinhole camera in a matchbox, pierce a needle hole in a square of aluminium stuck over a window in the outer sleeve, blacken the inside of the drawer, then run 35 mm film behind the pinhole, stretched between two cartridges and loaded in total darkness.
The matchbox is probably the smallest camera you can make yourself: a pinhole camera that fits in the palm of your hand and loads directly with a strip of 35 mm film. This tiny format has its own logic and its own look, which have little in common with the tin can.
In short, in 8 steps:
- Gather a matchbox, two 35 mm film cartridges, a square of aluminium, a needle and black tape
- Pierce the hole in the square of aluminium by turning the needle
- Cut a one-centimetre-square window in the centre of the sleeve
- Blacken the inside of the drawer with a marker pen or matt paint
- Stick the pierced aluminium over the window, from the inside, and put a flap of black tape over the pinhole
- Run the film behind the pinhole in total darkness, from the full cartridge to the empty one
- Seal the box with black tape and expose by lifting the flap
- Advance the film by turning the take-up cartridge, then develop it in a tank
What changes here is the film. Instead of exposing a sheet of paper in a large box, you run a short length of 35 mm film behind a tiny pinhole, which gives images just a few centimetres across, grainy and a little dreamy.
The principles common to any build, matt black inside and a clean pinhole, are the same as for a conventional pinhole camera, and they are easier to master on a tin can before trying this format. If how the process works is still unclear, the complete pinhole guide lays the groundwork.
Why the matchbox changes everything
A matchbox is too small to hold a sheet of photo paper, and its sliding drawer provides just the right space for the film to pass through. It is this feature that has made the format a classic of home-made photography.
The inner drawer houses the film, and the outer sleeve, pierced with the pinhole, becomes the camera obscura. The film runs right through the box, with a leader sticking out on each side, so you can advance it frame after frame without ever opening the camera.
The same idea can be applied to a flattened drinks can or a film cartridge, but the matchbox remains the most accessible, because everything is already the right size for 35 mm.
Materials for the matchbox pinhole camera
The format needs very little, and most of it can be found in a kitchen drawer.
- An empty matchbox, with drawer and sleeve intact.
- Two 35 mm film cartridges, one full and one empty to take up the exposed film.
- A small square of thin aluminium, cut from a drinks can, to pierce the pinhole.
- A fine needle and sandpaper to remove the burr.
- Opaque black tape for the shutter and for light-proofing.
- Matt black paint or a black marker pen for the inside.
You can get an empty cartridge from a lab that still develops analogue film, or by sacrificing a finished roll. It acts as the take-up spool, and it is the one you wind to advance the film.
Piercing the pinhole and blackening the box
The pinhole is pierced in the square of aluminium, never in the cardboard of the box, which is too thick and would give a rough edge. The precise technique, turning the needle, flipping the sheet over, sanding off the burr, is the same as for any pinhole camera and is described in detail in the guide to making one.
With such a short format, the distance between the pinhole and the film is very small, around two centimetres, so the pinhole must stay small, towards the bottom of the usual range of 0.2 to 0.8 mm: Rayleigh's formula gives about 0.2 mm for two centimetres.
The logic of the pinhole diameter comes strongly into play here, because such a flat box calls for a finer opening than a deep one.
Next, cut a one-centimetre-square window in the centre of the sleeve, blacken the inside of the drawer with a marker pen or matt paint, then stick the pierced square of aluminium over the window, from the inside. A flap of black tape over the pinhole acts as the shutter: you lift it to expose and fold it back straight away.
The pinhole is pierced in the aluminium, which is stuck from the inside over a small window; a flap of tape acts as the shutter.
Loading the 35 mm film into the box
This is the step that really sets this format apart, because you are not loading a sheet but a strip of film, and the whole operation is done in total darkness or in a changing bag.
The film comes out of its full cartridge, runs through the matchbox drawer behind the pinhole, and then its leader is attached to the empty cartridge that will take it up. The box is closed and sealed with black tape along every edge, with the two cartridges sticking out on either side.
Advancing the film from one frame to the next
To advance from one frame to the next, turn the take-up cartridge a few times, which winds a section of unexposed film behind the pinhole. A marker-pen mark on the cartridge helps you measure the advance and avoid two exposures overlapping.
35 mm film is much more sensitive than photo paper, which shortens exposures, but it requires film development in a tank rather than a paper bath in a tray, a different chemistry from the one usually used for beginners, such as that of the Sténoflex kit, which is designed for paper.
Once the roll is finished, the exposed film waits in the take-up cartridge. Develop it in a tank after loading it in total darkness, or hand it over to a lab that still develops analogue film.
Working out the exposure on a miniature pinhole camera
The very small format and the short focal length make the camera relatively bright for a pinhole camera, and exposures are often counted in seconds rather than minutes in full sun. So start from a few seconds in full sun, then lengthen the exposure under an overcast sky or in shade.
This speed remains very relative compared with a conventional camera, and the exposure is as much a matter of feel as of calculation. To estimate an exposure, start from the general guidelines on exposure time, bearing in mind that film is more responsive than paper.
In practice, note each exposure, its duration and the light at the time, because with such an experimental format it is this notebook that turns failures into a method as the roll goes on.
The very small-format look of the matchbox camera
The resulting image is small, the size of the film's path through the box, and bears the marks of the process:
- visible grain;
- edges where the light fades away;
- sometimes film perforations spilling into the frame.
These spilled-over perforations, far from being a defect, are the signature of the format, and many people look for them. The image seems recorded directly onto the film, without the clean frame of a camera body, which gives the raw look that only this type of pinhole camera produces.
It is an approach based on exploration rather than precision, where irregularity is embraced as a material. For a first successful image without the double difficulty of loading film and developing it in a tank, the tin can loaded with paper remains the most direct route, and the Sténoflex kit offers a ready-made version of it, with the camera obscura, paper, developer and fixer included.
The matchbox camera has to be earned, because loading blind and winding the film on take a little practice, but it rewards you with images nothing else gives: tiny, imperfect and entirely your own.
Éric Marais — Photographer, author of two books on pinhole photography (published by Pearson) and creator of the Sténoflex. He has run introductory workshops in pinhole photography and analogue developing from the very beginning.
