Each year as the autumn winds roll in and the leaves begin to change, I find myself drawn to the transformation of the trees as they take on their fall colors. On a stroll through the Hoyt Arboretum, just beyond the Ginkgo trees, I rounded a corner to find a trail leading through the forest that was lined with freshly fallen leaves. Taking a moment to experience the scene, I decided to set up my Zero Image 6x6 pinhole on a tripod low to the ground. Choosing this camera to capture the rich array of colors felt like just the right set up to remember the feeling of this new season.

At the risk of sounding cliche, the Zero Image pinhole camera is a game changer for your photography. 

It is always exciting to add new cameras to the library, but we daresay few of those cameras stand to have as much of an impact on how you see the world than this pinhole camera.  It may not seem like much more than a pretty, if simple, wooden box.  After all, without a lens, exposure modes, light meter, adjustable aperture, viewfinder, auto bracketing, focus, image stabilization, or any other such feature, how could it possibly be so influential?

⁠A big part of our answer is... you really just have to try one to understand the limits of its reach.  In order to be a bit more helpful, we'll give you a few reasons why we love this impactful little camera.  The first is its natural proclivity toward long exposures.  Sure, many other cameras can do long exposures well, but extended shutter times are the pinhole's standard operating procedure.  To view the world over a span of time is much different than how we see it in mere fractions of a moment.⁠

There is also this camera's near infinite depth of field.  The Zero Image pinhole doesn't have a focus mechanism because it doesn't need it.  With this camera, everything is in focus, from two inches to infinity.  We'll risk hyperbole by saying that there isn't another camera with such a naturally deep depth of field as this pinhole.  It sees everything.  ⁠

⁠And then, of course, there is the quality of image made by this pinhole.  A bit soft, but sharper than you'd think.  Plenty of detail, but still a little impressionistic.  And the colors!  There is certainly something to not having any glass in the way, it definitely does something to the film's colors.⁠

⁠The rest you are going to have to learn on your own, but trust us, it is a path well worth exploring.

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This Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera took a vacation with one of our staff to Zion National Park.  On the camera's first day, it survived the hike to The Subway, resting for a brief bit at Archangel Falls.   Being a small, wooden box of a camera really does mean these cameras travel so well, especially on such grueling hikes as this.

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The last Sunday in April is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day!  Be sure to mark your calendars and grab those lovely wooden, metal, plastic, tin can, garbage can, minivan, pumpkin, coconut, square, rectangular, cylindrical pinhole cameras of yours and go have some fun!

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A sweet, handwritten note from Zernike Au of Zero Image, that came inside the box of newly released Back to Nature Zero Image cameras with 52mm filter adapters, back in 2015.  While holding filters with your hands or taping filters has always been an option, these filter adapters are a much more elegant a solution. 

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A journal and a camera.  They are really just two different forms of the same idea; two different mediums working towards the same goal.  On another line of thought, we love Zero Image's Back to Nature series of cameras, especially the filter thread adapter.  This was an accessory a long time coming.  A bonus to this new design, the filter adapter makes it harder for the shutter to snag on something in your bag and pop open for an unwanted exposure.

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