19 February 2010 13:08
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Recently I went right back to basics and made my own pinhole camera. If you have all the right knowledge, photographic paper and chemicals you can make one out of any container you like: a shoebox or a Coke can for example. But instead I opted to build a Hole-on EX kit (£16.99, magmabooks.com), which takes normal 35mm film and is recommended for ages 12 and up.
First let's see how it's supposed to look when it's finished:
Cool, no? Now let's see how I got on...
I install myself in the Stuff test lab and prepare to go to work.
It begins well, full of promise and excitement (partly because it looks like a 12-inch vinyl single).
This what you'll need (at least this is what they say you'll need):
White PVA glue, a ruler, a pen to help shape the curved parts, and a film. Coffee optional.
I guess you could call this the "unboxing". Can a camera really be made from that?
So here are all the components. It's like a flat Airfix kit.
And we're off! I begin by making a "square bit". Easy!
This is how most of the parts go: take a flat shape, then fold the tabs in and stick them with glue.
Thing is, you have to hold it in position for ages until the glue sets.
So I get the shape sorted roughly, then stick a weight on top while it all sets.
With confidence sky-high, I see what's next on the list.
It's the "side bits". Two more boxes. This is so easy. Use a remote to hold them together.
Now I've stuck the "square bit" to the "side bits". Looking good...
A while later I've got something that looks a bit like a camera. A bit.
Stuff's Deputy Art Editor Phill, who's been taking these pictures, gets bored and starts playing FIFA.
Now, following the instructions isn't as easy as you might think...
Perhaps this will clarify the situation... er, no. Hang on, it's upside down.
That explains a few things.
Time for some precision gluing on the prism section.
... which seems to have paid off. This looks quite impressive to me.
And I can even see through it. Just.
Would you look at that? Side bits, a middle bit and a prism. Nearly there, surely?
Not quite so pretty from the back at the moment.
Now for the film spool. This has a vital job to do, so it had better turn out right.
Oh.
But look, it's in the camera and goes round when I turn it. Success!
Seem to have taken my eye off the ball regarding alignment...
A little corrective surgery is called for.
There we go, straight as an arrow.
Excuse me while I hold this part together for the next 15 minutes.
Onwards, and we reach the lens, made by layering loads of almost identical discs.
This bit works as the shutter (so says the instructions).
Pull it one way to open it, push it back to close it.
Mine went a bit wrong.
OK, given up on that ever really working properly, so I'll put the metal pinhole on now.
Now if there's one bit that definitely has to work, it's this. You can't have a pinhole camera with no pinhole.
I hold it aloft, squint, and hope that everything has lined up properly...
Hallelujah! That there is a bit of actual light coming through the pinhole and all of those other layers. Phew.
OK, now I've made the big bit of the lens too. which I stick underneath a ZX Spectrum to bond.
Look at all those empty bits. Must be nearly finished now.
And indeed we are, look!
Now to load the film... Not sure why I'm poking my finger in there.
Then thread the end into the bit I stuck together and then sliced apart later.
It's going on! It's winding!
It's there!
And there we have it. One pinhole camera.
Continuity geeks will have noticed I'm wearing a different top here. That's because it took a couple of days, and in that time I realised it was never going to work and that half of it had come unstuck, so I dismantled it and remade it with double-sided sticky tape. If I was to do it all again, I'd use double-sided tape from the start, not glue.
Smile!
So did it work? Sort of. I managed to take four shots before the film parted company with the spool.
The shutter never worked because it got stuck in the open position, so I kept it in a bag, then took it out with my hand over the lens and left it to expose for a while, then put it back in the bag. Knowing I'd have to do that, I used it at night to minimise light leaks and over-exposure.
Here are the pictures that came out. They were all quite under-exposed. They were roughly 30-60 second exposures, and the film was 200 ISO (400 is recommended but I didn't have any to hand). If you have a go yourself, I'd suggest taking the whole camera and film to a local independent high-street photo lab. Explain carefully what you've got and make sure they only open it up in a bag or a darkroom. So long as you get to speak to the right person, most labs will be happy to help.
For more camera quirkiness, check out the April issue of Stuff, on sale 10 March.
And feel free to have a look at my Flickr stream for more experimental stuff like this.
And now it's your turn...
Tony
26 January 2010 09:36
Excited about 3D? Us, too. But we’re still a little way off buying stock 3DTVs in the shop, plugging them in and gorging ourselves on three-dimensional broadcasts.
Cheer up, though, because it doesn’t mean you can’t milk a bit of extra shine out of your existing goggle box while you wait for James Cameron to get his cheque book out again.
Sort your screen
If you need a new TV anyway, plump for 46 inches of LCD. We like the Samsung UE46B8000 (pictured above), though if you don’t feel the slim profile, deep blacks and great picture are worth £1,500 you’d do well to check out the UE40B7020 for around £500 less. Plus, it’ll go online. Facebook, meet television.
Get with Blu-ray
Now it’s time to plug some goodies into the back of it. If you really want to exploit that big screen and sweet picture, your first thought should be Blu-ray. If we’re being realistic about the budget, Sony’s BDP-S360 (£240) is a good bet for the price. But for the same price you could pick up a PS3 Slim and add gaming prowess, media centre skills and future-proofing for the 3D discs of the future.
Plug in a PVR
If you’re on a tight budget, and you’re after a quick fix upgrade to your old TV, grab a Western Digital WDTV HD media player. At under £100 (you can get it for around £70), it’ll let you browse digital movie files on up to two USB hard drives and pipe them to your screen via HDMI at full 1080p resolution.
Get free HD
If you want or need Sky+, you probably have it already. But it’s worth looking at Freeview HD boxes as a commitment-free alternative. If you live in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff or Swansea, you’ll have Freeview HD broadcasts by the end of March. For £120, Humax’s HD Freesat receiver will do the honours, but expect prices to drop nearer the time.
Boost your sound
Most TV speakers are made out of leftover tin foil from the factory cafeteria's kitchen. Give your sonic set-up a lift with Sony’s HT-IS100. Despite the miniature dimensions of the five satellites, it sounds as chunky as its blocky sub unit. At under £400, it’s also a few sheets cheaper than comparable sounding systems, though it lacks the built-in Blu-ray player of some of its peers.
Take (remote) control
By now your coffee table probably looks like a museum for remote controls. Bin them in favour of a universal wand like Logitech’s touchscreen Harmony 1100. With support for nearly a quarter of a million devices and radio wireless (so you don’t need line-of-sight contact), it almost justifies its £300 street price. If it made the tea as well, you’d never need to move again. Come on, Logitech, sort it out.
14 September 2009 16:06
We love Facebook but spending ages uploading photos and pimping your profile has one major downside – all your hard work is trapped on Facebook. If your profile gets hacked or your data goes walkies, you're screwed. Avoid becoming a social outcast by backing up your contacts, photos and profile using our handy guide.
1 Make sure your profile is up to date
It's easy to forget to change address details or where you're working at the moment, so take a gander at your profile and make sure these are up to date. Also consider pruning that vast list of “favourite” bands.
2 Download the app
Visit the Social Safe website and download the Social Safe app. It'll set you back £1.99.
3 Install the app on your PC or Mac.
You may also need to install Adobe Air but the installer will let you know if you do need to.
4 Register the app
Type in the license code and you're ready to back up your stuff.
5 Choose what you want to back-up
Before you backup, go in to settings and select what items you want to back up. You can back up your photos, profile and contacts.
6 Backing up photos
If you back up your photos, you'll get a thumbnail gallery showing the albums you've backed up.
7 Profile
Your backed up profile will show a summary of all the sections in your profile
8 Contacts
Again, you'll get a thumbnail gallery of all your Facebook friends
9 Timecapsule – see what you've backed up and when
The app has a built-in back-up tracking feature which will show you copies of your previous back-ups. It's useful for seeing what you've changed and if any friends have stopped following you. The swines!
10 Further information
If you need a further step by step guide to using the Social Safe app, try this video.
SocialSafe Demo including Time Capsule from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.
11 September 2009 16:15
Facebook's
new stripped-down alternative version launched today in the US and India only but you can sneakily try it out now. All you need to do is go into settings while you're in your normal Facebook account and change your language to "English (US). Then all you need to do is type in the address http://lite.facebook.com into your browser and you'll see the simplified site.
"Full fat" Facebook 
Facebook Lite 
As you can see Lite takes Facebook back to basics, losing apps and the left hand menu in favour of just the newsfeed and buttons to 'write on wall', 'post photo' and 'post video'. It also continues to recommend Fan Pages and people you might know.
Let us know what you think of Facebook Lite. Do you prefer it or do you want more bells and whistles?
08 September 2009 15:28
We're pretty impressed with the Spotify iPhone app but unlike its Android equivalent, it can't play music while you do other things. Close the Spotify app and your music stops. But there is a way around that…
1 First you need to jailbreak your iPhoneJailbreaking your iPhone will take about 30 mins and involves using a programme called Redsn0w for your Mac or PC.
Full details on the process are here. Follow them carefully and remember jailbreaking your phone will invalidate your warranty with Apple. When prompted you should choose to install Cydia.
2 Install Backgrounder to allow Spotify to work as a background process Apple doesn't allow background processes (besides those provided by its own iPod app and some notifications) because of the battery drain. Be aware that you'll probably see your battery life shortened by making Spotify a background process.
With your jailbroken iPhone,
download Backgrounder from here. With that installed and running simply open the app you want to keep open and hold down the home button. A prompt will pop up asking you if you want to let the app run in the background. Let go and exit and it will continue to run while you do other things.
3 Turning Spotify as background process off If you find that your phone is running too slowly or behaving oddly, you can disable the app as a background process. Open Spotify and when it's loaded, hold down the menu button. A message will pop up to let you know it is no longer running as a background process.
Thanks to Nichola.
20 August 2009 16:27
Simplify Media
made the app that lets you create your own Spotify killer. Now it's made it easy to access your photo library on the go. Don't waste space on your
iPhone 3GS that you could fill with music and apps with photos, grab them remotely instead.
Step 1: download the Simplify Media desktop app
Visit the Simplify Media site and download the free desktop app. It's a relatively small download and is available for Windows (XP or Vista with iTunes, Winamp or WMP), Mac OS X (10.4 or 10.5 with iTunes 8 or iPhoto 8) and Ubuntu (8.10 or 9.04)
Step 2: install the desktop app and share your photo library 
Once you've installed the desktop application, all you need to do is open it and register for an account. This takes a few seconds and just requires a username and password. After that, Simplify Media will give you the opportunity to share you music and photos. Share your photos and jump to step 3.
Step 3: buy the Simplify Photo app from the iTunes App Store
This is the only part of this how to that will cost you anything. The Simplify Photo app [iTunes link] costs £0.59 and is what allows you to get at the photos on your home computer while you're on the go.
Step 4: enter your account details to set up the app
With the Simplify Media desktop application running on your home computer, open the app on your iPhone and enter your account details. As long as you have EDGE, 3G or WiFi signal, it will then give you access to your shared photos.
Step 5: browse your photos We tested the Simplify Photo app with OS X and iPhoto. It allows you to browse your photos in a similar way to flicking through them on your Mac. Here's a rundown of the ways you can do that:
Timeline 
Your photos organised by when you took them. Not particularly descriptive in Simplify Photo's menu but a good way of getting at lots of snaps from a particular period.
Albums 
Flick through your pictures according to the albums set up on in your iPhoto folders. I've only go one – the pictures for a book I'm working on – so the menu is quite sparse for me. If you've set up lots of albums though, this will be the best way to get at them.
Events 
iPhoto splits your photos up into events according to when you took them or groups you've put them in. Simplify Photo will allow you to access them. Here I'm taking a look at my photos from Glastonbury 2009.
Faces 
Tag people in your iPhoto and those photos plus ones iPhoto thinks feature them are grouped together. Simplify Photo lets you browse your pictures that way too. This is my friend John in three unflattering pictures.
Places 
The best crossover between Simplify Photo and its host iPhoto is places with a map view allowing you to browse your photos according to geotag data. I've again chosen to check out this years Glastonbury pictures.
Search
The app has a built-in search that will grab keywords from titles and tags.
Let us know if you've used Simplify Photo and what you thought of it. And email us with any How To features you'd like to read.
05 August 2009 11:27
If you don't fancy shelling out the proposed £10 for a Spotify iPhone
app, don't worry. Stuff is at hand to show you how to share your music
libraries and stream your tunes to any PC or iPhone...
Filed under: streaming music, iPhone, Spotify
24 November 2008 12:07
Ruth goes behind the bar to mix a martini with Ketel One Vodka.
Filed under: how to, martini, vodka, cocktail, party
01 September 2008 15:42
Dan Street dons his Adidas +Predator Absolute boots (£120, www.adidas.com) and goes to Harlequins rugby club to learn how to kick a conversion.
Filed under: sports rugby how to kick a conversion
19 August 2008 17:15
Tom Wiggins shows us how to pimp your PS3 in 3 easy steps
15 August 2008 13:58
Jools saves the day by showing you how to fix a puncture on your bike.
Filed under: how to, cycle, sports
15 August 2008 12:37
Ruth goes retro to show you how to process a black and white film.
06 August 2008 18:36
Dan Street gets all rhythmic and shows us how to master the trickiest of Rock Band skills – drumming...
Filed under: computer game, rock band, drumming
06 August 2008 18:31
No, nothing to do with car keys in a bowl. Simon Osbourne-Walker takes you through the five steps of hitting the perfect golfing tee shot...
Filed under: tee shot, golf, swing
06 August 2008 18:20
Stuff.tv's resident DJ Tony Horgan takes us through the essentials of CD mixing in a style slightly reminiscent of Bob Dylan...
Track 1: King Unique "Dirty" (Fergie Remix)
Written, produced and performed by Matt ‘Watkins’ Thomas and Matthew Roberts. www.kingunique.com, www.myspace.com/kinguniqueuk. P&C Curfew Records 2008
Remix and additional production by Fergie and Dave Robertson. Engineered by Dave Robertson
Track 2: Josh Gabriel "Tone Program" (Style Of Eye Remix)
Written and produced by Josh Gabriel. Published by Copyright Control. P&C 2008 Different Pieces
www.joshgabriel.com
www.myspace.com/joshgabrielmusic
Management: guy@ornadel.com
Remix and additional production by Style Of Eye
Recorded at Globe Studios, Stockholm Sweden.
www.myspace.com/styleofeye
Management: guy@ornadel.com
Filed under: mixing, CD mixing, DJing
