I've been busy lately. Some of it was actual work — finishing up one project and modifying another. I've also been rebuilding my pinhole mount. I built a pinhole mount for my medium format Mamiya last December but it has been problematic. I kept getting a strange flare. Sometimes it was worse than others and sometimes it wasn't there at all. I took some pinholes on my trip to New York. I looked at the negatives and could see the flare and was very disappointed.

I don't have these up on the trip to New York report yet. The one above is from the Caffe Reggio on McDougal Street looking across the street from our table. Louisa May Alcott lived in that building. You can see the V flare. It's been frustrating. These are on 120 roll film and they would have made wonderful enlargements.

This exposure was for the duration of our meal. The best poached eggs I've ever had! The V flare is less but still ruined the image.

Half a V is just visible here at the main branch of the NY Public Library. There was one that the flare, only half a V, worked with the image. At the Guggenheim...

Not only that, but the cardboard mount started to disentegrate before the trip was over. Time to redesign the mount.

I ripped the old mount out of the bayonet lens mount. I cut out a piece of aluminum with a hacksaw, rounded it off with a file, and swept bondo (auto body filler) around the edges to hold it in place in the lens mount.

The bondo had to be applied several times before all was smooth.

I hacksawed and filed some brass (Sebo's, a local hardware store, has a nice selection of metal for hobbyists) into a cover for the pinhole and some stops. The stops are held on with 5 minute epoxy. The pinhole isn't installed but it the mount is ready for painting. As a matter of fact, the first coat on the front side is drying even as I type. When the front is done I install the pinhole and pinhole cover and then paint the back side. The screw is held on with a nylon insert nut and lock washer. I can adjust the tension on the screw and it stays.

I'm anxious to start shooting with this pinhole.