pinhole camera

plural pinhole cameras

1. artsA simple lensless device for producing a photographic image, consisting of an enclosed box with film or some other flat photosensitive surface on one interior side and a tiny hole in the opposite side.

   Many of today's photographers forget that a pinhole camera — essentially a small box with a hole in it — can be used to produce a quality photograph.

   1981 April 12, Bruce Habegger, “Pinhole cameras can give surprising results”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Aug 2011

   1 more example

   There are never-published treasures like British entrepreneur William Turner's scenes of Shanghai life in the early 1900s — probably taken with a homemade pinhole camera.

   2010 May 3, Don Morrison, “The Capture of Shanghai”, in Time