My plans for building a pinhole camera all developed around the fact that I have a handful of 4x5 film holders in my basement that I have no use for. I acquired them from the offices of an old newspaper. Here in the digital age many of such business have evolved or gone extinct, and this particular business merged with another a short drive away and abandoned the old buildings, complete with printing presses circa 1880. It was quite the sight (and smell) but I was able to raid the old photographic darkroom for supplies when the building was being sold and vacated.
A 4x5 camera is what you might see in an old-timey movie. The press cameras with big flashes wielded by men in fedoras, invariably with Chicago accents. As much as I would love one of said cameras, I have yet to take the plunge, but I grabbed the film holders in case I ever got there. Now, it's been a while, with no progress on the camera front, so when I was thinking of how to design a pinhole camera, the spare film holders came to mind.
My idea was that I would build a pinhole camera around the film holders, and I would use photographic paper in the film backs to expose my pictures on. As you might imagine, 4x5 film is quite expensive, but photographic paper is relatively cheap. Paper comes in 8x10 sheets and can therefore be cut into four 4x5 sheets for use as film. And as an added bonus, paper isn't affected by red light, so I will be able to cut and load it under a typical darkroom safelight. I sketched and sketched and came up with several ideas, most of which hinged on my ability to master rabbet grooves on a router. Well, my woodworking skills are fairly amateur, so I eventually steered away from this idea, but these sketches might serve as more precise and capable cameras for me to build at a later date.
