ONDU Pinhole Alternative: An Honest Comparison
ONDU builds beautiful wooden pinhole cameras. If you are still searching, you are probably not looking for a better ONDU, but for a picture two people make together.
August 20, 2026 · 6 min read · Przemek Zajfert
Anyone searching for an ONDU pinhole alternative is usually searching for one of two different things. Some want another reusable film camera for their own photographic practice: there are good answers to that, and ONDU itself is among the best. Others want something no workshop of that kind builds: a single picture made by two people together, with weeks or decades in between. This text is written for the second search, and it stays honest about both answers.
Everything below about ONDU and Solarcan comes from their own pages, read on 2026-08-20, with prices and quotes, so you can check every line.
What ONDU cameras are
ONDU is a family workshop in Slovenia, in their own words "a family of creators making photographic instruments from premium natural materials at our workshop on the sunny side of Alps". The cameras are made of walnut, maple and ash, finished by hand. That is not our marketing copy: anyone who has held an ONDU knows this workshop takes its craft seriously.
The wooden line covers formats from 35mm through roll film to sheet film. Prices, as of 2026-08-20 on https://ondupinhole.com: the 135 Panoramic from 200 euros, the 6x6 models between 250 and 290 euros, 6x9 and 6x12 variants up to 340 euros. Several large formats are marked sold out. Alongside it sits the EIKAN large-format line in aluminum, from 1,150 euros.
Two things on the shop page are worth knowing before you order today. First, the note, verbatim: "Last batch of 500 Pinhole cameras available now." Second: "some models might take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to ship". Both are ONDU's own words, not our reading of them. What the last batch means long-term, the page does not say, and we will not claim to know.
Why people look beyond ONDU
Three reasons come up again and again, and none of them is a criticism of the workshop.
The first is availability: a last batch, several sold-out models, weeks of shipping time. Anyone buying for a specific occasion does the math.
The second is the design itself. Every ONDU is an instrument for one photographer: one person exposes, develops, keeps the picture, and makes the next one. Across their pages we found nothing designed for two people to share one picture. It is not a gap in their range, it was never the goal. But if that is what you are looking for, you will not find it there.
The third is the path from shutter to finished picture. ONDU cameras expose film. Film has to be bought and developed, at a lab or with your own equipment, and those recurring costs and errands come on top of the camera price. For a photographic practice, that is normal and right. For a one-time shared project between two people who have never developed film, it is a real barrier.
What actually matters when choosing
Four questions separate the candidates more cleanly than any ranking:
- Alone or together? Is the picture one person's work, or should two people each contribute an exposure of their own?
- Practice or object? Should a reusable camera make many pictures, or should one meaningful picture come into being?
- Film or paper? Film needs a lab or a darkroom. Photo paper develops in a kitchen, under red light, with coffee.
- One price or ongoing cost? A film camera costs once and then per roll. A one-picture object costs once.
Where Both In Time fits
Both In Time is an analog pinhole time-capsule camera for two people. Inside the camera lies a single sheet of A5 photo paper. The first person pierces the 0.3 mm pinhole, exposes their half, seals the camera and passes it on. The second person exposes the other half, weeks or decades later, and develops the shared sheet at home in Caffenol: instant coffee, baking soda, vitamin C, red light. The wet negative is photographed and inverted with the free browser tool on this site. Neither person made the picture alone.
Every camera is built by hand by Przemek in Stuttgart and numbered consecutively from 0001, at 79 euros including VAT. With the seal and a date written on it, the second exposure can wait for a chosen moment: an 18th birthday, an anniversary, a reunion.
And so the comparison stays honest, the limits stated just as plainly:
- One product, one configuration. There is no choice of formats, no lens variants, no series to work through. ONDU offers you a whole range of models; we offer one.
- Paper, not film. If you want the classic film aesthetic and a connection to the analog film community, you will find it at ONDU, not here.
- One picture per camera. Both In Time is not a practice camera. After the one shared picture, the project is complete. That is the point, but it is the opposite of reusable.
- A young brand. ONDU is an established workshop with a whole range of models. We are new, and we would rather say so ourselves before you notice.
ONDU, Solarcan and Both In Time side by side
ONDU
Reusable wooden pinhole cameras from Slovenia, 35mm to large format, 200 to 340 euros in the wooden line, EIKAN from 1,150 euros (https://ondupinhole.com, 2026-08-20). Film separate, developing at a lab or your own. For an ongoing pinhole practice of your own, a very fine answer.
Solarcan
A pre-loaded can from the UK for solargraphy: fixed in one place for weeks to months, it records the sun's path in a single continuous exposure. 19.95 pounds for the standard can, variants up to 129.95 pounds (https://solarcan.co.uk, 2026-08-20). One picture per can, no conventional developing. An object for one place and the sky above it, not for two people.
Both In Time
A handmade camera for one shared picture: two people, two exposures, one sheet of paper, developed in your own kitchen. 79 euros, from Stuttgart, numbered from 0001. Not a tool for many pictures, but an object for exactly one.
How to choose
If you want to photograph yourself, regularly, on real film and with growing skill: get an ONDU, and get it soon, since their own pages name a last batch. For a quiet long-term image of a place you live in: hang up a Solarcan. If you want a picture that connects you to one particular person, across distance or across years: that is what Both In Time is built for, and the instructions show how both halves come to be.
The verdict in three sentences
ONDU builds beautiful reusable pinhole cameras for individuals, and nothing in this text changes that. Solarcan turns weeks of sun into a single landscape image. Both In Time is the alternative for a different wish: an analog picture two people make together across time, for 79 euros, no darkroom needed, built in Stuttgart.
Common questions
- Is Both In Time a replacement for an ONDU camera?
No, it is a different category. ONDU builds reusable film cameras for your own photographic practice, in several formats. Both In Time is a single object for a single picture that two people expose one after the other. If you want to photograph regularly yourself, ONDU is the right choice. If you want a shared picture with another person, we are.
- Can I use film instead of paper in a Both In Time camera?
No. The camera is built around a single sheet of A5 photo paper that carries both exposures and develops at home in Caffenol, no darkroom needed. That paper path is exactly what makes the project doable for people who have never developed anything.
- What does ONDU's note about the last batch mean?
ONDU's shop page says, as of 2026-08-20: 'Last batch of 500 Pinhole cameras available now', with shipping times of 4 to 8 weeks on some models. What that means for the wooden line long-term, the page does not say. We quote only what is written there.
- What does Solarcan do differently?
A Solarcan is a pre-loaded can for solargraphy: you fix it in one place for weeks or months and it records the sun's path in a single continuous exposure. A lovely concept of its own from about 20 pounds, but it is an object for one place and the sky above it, not a picture two people take in turns.
- Do I need a darkroom for either camera?
Not for Both In Time: the paper develops at home under red light in Caffenol, which is instant coffee, baking soda and vitamin C, and the wet negative is photographed and inverted with the free browser tool on this site. ONDU cameras expose film, which usually goes to a lab or needs your own developing setup.
- Which camera is the better gift?
It depends on the person. For someone who wants to discover photography as a practice, an ONDU is a tool that lasts. For two people who want to hold something together, a grandmother and grandson, two friends on two continents, Both In Time is built for exactly that: a picture that is only complete once both have exposed their half.