Pinhole camera

A pinhole camera is a camera without a conventional glass lens. An extremely small hole in a very thin material can focus light by confining all rays from a scene through a single point. In order to produce a reasonably clear image, the aperture has to be about a hundred times smaller than the distance to the screen, or less. The shutter of a pinhole camera usually consists of a hand operated flap of some light-proof material to cover and uncover the pinhole. Pinhole cameras require much longer exposure times than conventional cameras because of the small aperture; typical exposure times can range from 5 seconds to hours or days.

The image may be projected on a translucent screen for real-time viewing (popular for viewing solar eclipses; see also camera obscura), or can expose film or a charge coupled device (CCD). Pinhole cameras with CCDs are sometimes used for surveillance work because of their small size.

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