Gakken

A couple of years ago I got really into pinhole photography. I built a bunch of cameras from scratch and adapted some old junk cameras with pinhole lenses. The result was a lot of less than terrific pictures. In the end I just bought one of these Gakken kits from Japan and put the thing together. Because of its documented f-stops, it is a lot easier to deal with than my homemade versions. I guess I just don't have the patience to do the math and film tests and figure out that stuff for myself. Anyway, this camera has the ability to shoot single 35mm frames, panoramic shots (like the ones seen here,) or stereoscopes that, when looked at correctly, appear three dimensional. Later my brother bought me one of these ridiculously expensive but well designed Zero Image pinhole cameras. I put film in it once and took a few shots. Then, for some reason, the back was opened and the film ruined. After that I never really used it again. Maybe I'll get around to shooting with it again sometime. My next photo project though, will be shooting with this Anscoflex II, a beautiful camera designed by Raymond Loewy, the guy that designed the entire damn 20th century.