it DOES hav a rangefinder...

M

MelanieC

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My mother and my father were very different people. My father was a bit impetuous, and he appreciated quality, so when it came time for him to buy a camera, sometime in the late 1960s, he chose a Leica M3 and a Rolleiflex 2.8F.

My mother, on the other hand, appreciates quality, but is also practical and unwilling to spend beyond her means to acquire it. So when it came time for her to buy a camera, sometime in the late 1960s, she bought a Polaroid Land Automatic 230. She admits to having been somewhat dazzled by the fact that it made instant pictures, and therefore having spent more than she would otherwise have spent: about $100.

Anyway, the Polaroid lived under her bed for years and years, untouched, until it came time to pack up my childhood home and move into a condo last year, which is when I retrieved it. Like all of my mother's things, it is in meticulously clean condition. I finally got around to getting a battery and film for it.

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It is SO MUCH FUN! We love instant photos!

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So, I need to know fun facts and tricks about these cameras, and where I can get good prices on pack film because it costs $14 for a 10-exposure pack here and that is not OK by me.
 
Good luck. One important thing w/ these cameras is to keep the rollers perfectly clean. The film, when available, will just go up and up in price, I'm afraid. If you REALLY become a fan, then you'll need to get a Pollaroid 110A that has been converted to take pack film - pricey but it gives you an excellent lens and total manual control of exposure (in addition to RF focusing). However, with the rise of digital, Polaroid film is doomed. The only reason it's still available (sometimes) is that there are still older scientific instruments around that use it for recording. I would not be surprised if it vanished alltogether in a year or two.
 
Hey Melanie, I'm glad you could post some pics from that Polaroid Automatic 230! I've got one sitting around I was always intending to try out. Which variety of film did you run through that old pack-film eatin' monster? Your pics look remarkably nicer in terms of color compared to other examples I've seen. I'd love to see some more images you make with it!

Personally, I think Polaroid film is still a bit of a "glass is half empty" or "glass is half full" sort of situation. On one hand, it does seem that Polaroid film acquired some obselescence since digital caught on. However, I still see Polaroid cameras all over the place (and NOT in scientific labs). In fact, most of the places that sell passport pictures around here use 669 packfilm in Polaroid cameras. Plus, whenever you get a cheesy picture taken at a restaurant for a birthday party, they break out a Polaroid and waste some 600 integral film on ya. I'd guess we'll see a continued, and gradual, decrease in film types from Polaroid until there's just 600 integral and maybe a few packilm types left. Still, that's just another useless opinion worth its weight in mud (actually, even less than that since the mud could have SOME use).
 
Amazing shots, Melanie. Impressive.
I've tried one of those polaroid RF folder but I didn'tt know where to buy film. Does Polaroid still produce film for that kind of camera?
 
As far as purchasing film goes, I often get stuff from Unsaleable, which is Polanoid's sales wing. You can get some reasonably priced stuff, particularily if you take a risk and get expired stuff (often giving some lovely, muted colour tones). For example, an expired twinpack of 664 (black and white, I believe) will set you back $25, which IMO is not all that much.
Tom
 
Stunning colours ! It almost looks like medium format slide pictures.
Congrats for making this camera live again ! Shoot it while you can.
 
These are sooo lovely, Melanie!
(My Polaroids - taken not with this model, but with a cheap 600, and an *Bay Procam, and an Unsaleable Joycam - never scan well. The originals always outglow. Can you advise?)
I have purchased Polaroid film on auction sites, and at Unsaleable. But I was lucky a while back: a going-out-of-business camera shop here in town offered me his two-pack 600's for half price if I would buy all he had. It wasn't much - a total of 120 prospective pictures - so I did. :)
 
I've been daydreaming a lot about polaroids lately. It seems so refreshing, in this age of multiple copies, files, negatives...that you have one single shot. And that this shot is not only a record of a point in time, but is also a piece of that event. It was actually there, held by you in your hand, like a sea shell. And there is no other one like it. What a treasure that is.
 
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Good luck with your "new" camera. Especially getting film for it.

For some reason I could not see the photos.

For the first time, I looked at your web site. Your story of Solo was poignant, and your dissertation looked interesting.
 
Melanie, I love the look of those photos. You chose your subjects well.

Funny - I suddenly find my "camera cabinet" filling up with 800- and 900-series equipment, the very same type of camera as the 110a "Pathfinder" Pablito mentioned. As he correctly implies, there isn't any film for these mechanical beauties anymore, but with a little hardware-hacking it's possible to shoot packfilm or even 4x5 with 'em.

I guess I'm a little bored - and, like others here, somewhat enamored with old Polaroids in general. So, hacksaw in hand, off I go. Perhaps this will be the impetus I need to actually acquire a working Polaroid, for a change.


Cheers,
--joe.
 
If you want to see a collection of Polaroid photography from the likes of Walker Evans, Mary Ellen Mark, and Robert Frank, look for a book called Legacy of Light. It is a very ecclectic group of photos and photographers.
 
I have the very same model 230, unused for years. Thanks for the thread, Melanie, and the nifty shots! I think the Polaroid is particularly useful when you want to pass out photos to the victims on the spot, like good PR in a foreign place. To do this with digital would require a printer in your backpack... :)
 
I'm really amazed at the quality of those shots. Since when is Polaroid film anywhere near that good? I'm used to muted/washed out colors, and very uncrisp quality. That's 600 series film, but I can't believe there's that significant a variation among films.
 
Very nice pictures, Melanie. As Planetjoe said above, these Polaroids can be hacked. Google "razzledog" and check out some of his creations. 120 conversions are possible too. Of course you don't have the instant picture anymore, but what a way to recycle some "obsolete" technology.

Steve
 
Thanks guys. This camera is not what I would call particularly user friendly (I have learned that I'm not a big fan of bellows) but once I figured out that I could actually focus it (with a rangefinder!) it became interesting.

The exposure kind of confuses me, because there are very few options but choosing the wrong ones totally screws up photos. So far the best photos I've taken were in really, really bright sunlight, which I guess makes sense since the largest the aperture gets is apparently 8.8.

I used Fuji FP100C, which is a 100-speed color film. I am not sure I understand packfilm speeds. Is 100 actually 100? The reason I ask is that black and white pack film is rated at 3000 and that just seems crazy. (I haven't used any yet.)

The prints look extremely close to these scans. I was shocked. Of course, they scan like poop, really flat (changing my scanner settings might help but I didn't feel like it), so I boosted the curves and contrast in Photoshop. That's it. I didn't change the colors or saturation or white balance or anything. I have had much less luck scanning prints from my piece of crap Sun600 on regular 600 Polaroid film as the colors don't look that great to begin with and there's only so much you can do in PS without rebuilding the photo from the ground up.

I got the orange Element because if you're going to drive a rolling box, it makes more sense for it to be a totally obnoxious color.
 
MelanieC said:
Thanks guys. This camera is not what I would call particularly user friendly (I have learned that I'm not a big fan of bellows) but once I figured out that I could actually focus it (with a rangefinder!) it became interesting.

The exposure kind of confuses me, because there are very few options but choosing the wrong ones totally screws up photos. So far the best photos I've taken were in really, really bright sunlight, which I guess makes sense since the largest the aperture gets is apparently 8.8.

I used Fuji FP100C, which is a 100-speed color film. I am not sure I understand packfilm speeds. Is 100 actually 100? The reason I ask is that black and white pack film is rated at 3000 and that just seems crazy. (I haven't used any yet.)

The prints look extremely close to these scans. I was shocked. Of course, they scan like poop, really flat (changing my scanner settings might help but I didn't feel like it), so I boosted the curves and contrast in Photoshop. That's it. I didn't change the colors or saturation or white balance or anything. I have had much less luck scanning prints from my piece of crap Sun600 on regular 600 Polaroid film as the colors don't look that great to begin with and there's only so much you can do in PS without rebuilding the photo from the ground up.

I got the orange Element because if you're going to drive a rolling box, it makes more sense for it to be a totally obnoxious color.
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Nice camera! My father had one just like it.

The fuji film runs a bit cheaper than the polaroid and I actually like it a bit better.
Fuji makes 100 iso black and white and color films (FP100B and FP100C) plus 3000 iso black and white. I haven't tried the 3000 iso stuff yet. As near as I can tell, they shoot about as rated, with lattitude more like slides than film.
Since I got my Graflex XLSW with a polaroid back, I've been a bit instant film obsessed. There's just something about it....
 
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