A pinhole camera with a proper exposure notebook

The shutter can be a piece of tape. The notebook deserves rather more thought.

A lensless camera is a nice excuse to slow down, but it is also very good at producing mysteries: was that frame underexposed, was the box leaking, or did it move? Give each exposure a row before loading the camera. Scene, weather, exposure time, pinhole-to-paper distance. Leave room for the unflattering result.

Keep the first version boring

Start with a light-tight body and a compatible film or paper holder. A replaceable pinhole plate makes later experiments easier, but do not change the hole and the camera depth on the same afternoon. Establish one arrangement that can be compared with itself.

Make the shutter easy to open without nudging the body. Tape is fine if it closes reliably and does not peel the pinhole plate away with it. Cover sharp metal edges.

Check the film holder and the rest of the body for light leaks before blaming the pinhole. A small setup photograph is worth keeping beside the exposure notes; it catches the things that seemed too obvious to write down.

There is no need to promise a beautiful first photograph. A first photograph that tells you what to change next has done its job. Never use an optical viewer to look directly at the Sun.