A pinhole camera is a simple device with no lens that uses a tiny hole (the pinhole) to project an inverted image of the outside world onto a light-sensitive surface like film or paper inside a lightproof box. The principle behind it, known as the camera obscura, was described centuries ago by thinkers like Aristotle and Alhazen, and it forms the basis of modern photography. The size of the pinhole controls the image's sharpness and brightness, with smaller holes creating sharper but dimmer images, while the distance between the pinhole and the film affects the angle of view.