to bear in mind when writing articles camera obscura and pinhole camera q is a camera obscura the same as a pinhole camera a no a pinhole camera is a type of camera obscura as are all photographic cameras the pinhole camera starts with a enclosed container aka the dark room with a very small opening to let in the light it is therefore a camera obscura cameras that use an actual pinhole size aperture are used to expose photographic film or paper but have limited use as viewing or drawing devices because the light that the pinhole admits is very dim and the image would be very hard to see most camera obscuras are made with lenses in the aperture since this makes the image much brighter and sharper room sized camera obscuras are sometimes made with lensless apertures but these openings are much larger than a pinhole we have been told that an opening about the size of a us quarter can work well in some rooms brightbytes com guestbook faq html faq pinhole camera