Picked up a 450 Land Camera!

[Pirate]

I'm loving this! A friend has a 360 and 440, so I found a 450 to play with. Got the film (3000B) and some batteries and we loaded up.

Here's my first shot:

And of course her first shot is of me like this.

 

[vdonovan]

Congratulations! They are great cameras. Don't forget to save the negative side of the film after you peel it. Dried and scanned, it has a character all its own:
http://blog.littlepaperplanes.com/vince-donovan/

 

[Pirate]

I agree, I've been keeping the negatives. When scanned they have a lot more useable detail than the positive print.

But I do not understand what your link has to do with Polaroids or anything photographic?

 

[3rdtrick]

Hi Pirate,
Your 450 is one of the finest packfilm cameras Polaroid made. The only thing you need to look out for is the Fuji Film Jam problem if your friend has not already solved it for you. There are options with the batteries too, you can convert to AAAs or even use the CDR123s with modification. I use the FP100C film and the negative can be bleached to remove the back and then printed. I have bleached them but never got around to printing any. The FP3000B film that you are using has negative that can be scanned directly when dry. Have fun and post your shots.
Pete

 

[vdonovan]

Oops! Wrong link. I fixed it.

 

[Pirate]

3rdtrick, I have shot two packs of the 3000b with no jam problems then loaded a pack of FP 100 yesterday and the end of the paper tab tore, but it came out fine after that. I think it was stuck in the pack more than the pressure from the back door holding it in. I converted mine to AAA batteries a couple days after I got it. Great mod and cost $1.29 from Radio Shack. I'll be modding my friends 440 for AAA's also.

Vince, great shots! I do love this polaroid character.

I had to put a caption on this one...

 

[vdonovan]

Great shots! My favorite is the girl standing next to the whiteboard holding up a fist.

 

[Pirate]

Thanks! She's actually flipping off the viewer but I wasn't paying enough attention to move her slightly for a better backdrop. Two of her prints walked away after our critique last week so she was kinda pissed and wrote the note on the board for the thief.

 

[Jamie123]

Those polaroid cameras are great. If you're into this kind of stuff you can also try to get a 110A or 110B Land camera and convert it to packfilm. There's some work and sweat involved but it's pretty straight forward.

As for the film, I use 3000B a lot, too, as it's quite versatile but I'm not a huge fan of the high contrast. The 100B version is much nicer and smoother but obviously not suited for indoor photography. Polaroid had an ISO3000 film (667) that was incredibly beautiful.

 

[Godfrey]

Like 'em all. 🙂

I'm restricting my Polaroid Mania to the SX-70 and Impossible Project film ... It's so easy to get deep deep into too many photo entertainments, and I'm already sucked into at least a half dozen too many.

G

 

[Pirate]

I'm into a bunch of formats already myself and would love for the Type 55 to come back so I could do Polaroid in my 4x5 cameras!

I've seen the conversions on the 110A/110B cameras but I would like to take a 360 or 450 and convert it to a 4x5 back with a Copal 0 shutter/lens on the front. It would best a 180/195 body!

 

[Jamie123]

I'm into a bunch of formats already myself and would love for the Type 55 to come back so I could do Polaroid in my 4x5 cameras!

I've seen the conversions on the 110A/110B cameras but I would like to take a 360 or 450 and convert it to a 4x5 back with a Copal 0 shutter/lens on the front. It would best a 180/195 body!

Personally I would not bother with the 4x5 conversion to be honest. Seems like MUCH more trouble than it's worth. A simple and probably worthwile conversion for the 450 IMO is to replace the lens with a 5" lens from a Polaroid Close-Up camera. It's an f4.5 lens and has a self-cocking shutter wich is very convenient. You'll obviously lose the in-camera meter but you'll gain a much faster lens.