Polaroid Thread

I guess I need to get to know the Impossible film more. My OneStep had one pack of good film through it and the last 2 where awful. So i stopped using it.

On a similar note, last night I sat down with the 320 and cleaned it up, checked all the functions and the bellows and such. It's 100% lovely best I can tell. I was considering popping a pack in to run a few shots but it was so dreary and cold here last night I didn't want to waste film inside like that.

And on a similar similar note, my third set of 10 packs of FP3000b arrived. I am now at full capacity in my fridge drawer for that film as well as at my budget limit for now.

Everywhere I've purchased the film from previously for $8.99-9.99 a pack has now gone up. Adorama is now $13.99 a pack as is B&H. Freestyle seems to be the only place who has not raised their price at the moment and it stands at $11.99 which is where it was previous. On Amazon, the FP3000b went up to $15-20 or more a pack depending on the "disreputable" dealer you chose.

I'm glad I had a little extra cash and got in while the getting was good. I probably won't be able to buy anymore for a while and certainly not at the price I was used to paying. I find it very difficult to justify $15-30 a pack for film I was paying under $10 for just a month back. Damn you fuji.
 
alienmeatsack said:
I guess I need to get to know the Impossible film more. My OneStep had one pack of good film through it and the last 2 where awful. So i stopped using it.
...
Click to expand...

Remember that Impossible Project started, almost from scratch, in 2011. There film has been through several formulations so far. And it's changed with every formulation. I've had a few packs come in that were defective and when I sent them a note and said, "hey I'm getting this behavior," they've been very good about saying "oh that was defective: let me refund you and you can get more."

Theirs is a shoestring operation that is making headway against reinventing what was essentially the result of $2 billion and decades of development effort. The film is as yet quirky and somewhat inconsistent—the only way to really learn it is to use it enough. And accept its imperfections.

In fact, one of the things I most enjoy about using this Polaroid stuff is that unpredictability and inconsistency. 🙂

Fuji discontinuing the FP3000b is just the continuation and evolution of their business. Doesn't make me happy, but I don't let it annoy me. I bought my 23 packs of film, will make a project out of using it up. That will be end of life for this LC350 unless I move to shooting color with it.

G
 
Hopefully my 30+ packs will last me for a while. I won't really know until next Spring when I get out and really get shooting. I tend to shoot a lot of film when it's nice, and polaroids if I can. I was using my Instax mini a lot but the pictures were so small that it felt like I was being restricted. I almost got the Instax wide but held off until I was given that LC Colorpack IV and found that film for it was cheap and readily availble. I'd had my One Step 600 for a little while at that point too but all I had for it was expired films that resulted in mostly useless photos.

I bought a single Impossible pack, put it into the fridge, and kept it for a special shoot. But the LC came into the picture, literally, and it got kind of sidelined.

I am hoping to do a shoot with the GF using studio lighting and such soon and would love to try to do it mostly instant with a Land Camera and the One Step. I like having a theme when I shoot, be it BW, close up, texture, parts, or whatever. And I've not really done a proper session using just instant yet.

So that's in the plans for me. And getting some more Impossible films. I asked Santa for some too. 😀
 
Bruno Gracia said:
what do You think about Automatic 103 Land Camera?
Click to expand...

Bruno,
The Auto 103 is interesting as it is a plastic body but still has the 3 element glass lens and two window rangefinder. The aperture selection is the same as the 101 so the kinda limits it to daylight use. The plastic bodies take a 3v battery so the conversion to AAA or lithium batteries is easier. If the price is right, get it.
Pete
 
I don't know about everyone else here but if it's $30 or less and works, it's a no brainer for me to buy and clean up to use or hack.

The only LC I do not have now that I am looking for is the 250 and then one of the ones with the dial under front with the variable ISO settings. Beyond that, I will buy any I find that appear to work, or if they are all in one plastic bodys and they have a clean and working back, I'll buy to hack into a back for another camera. 😀
 
I noticed too when I hopped on the B&H site that the 3000B was back in stock and 50% higher than when they ran out about 10 days ago. I ordered 10 packs from Freestyle. Bad form from B&H.

I'll keep stocking up on 100c (at the current B&H price) since it will probably be next on the block, my guess is sooner rather than later.

Thankfully I have no problem trying to fit cut film or Harmon direct positive paper in my polaroid cameras. I have been saving the empty packs for just that. All can become pinhole cameras except for the 180, that will stay the way it is.
 
Unfortunately I like the 3000B for the high ISO and indoor shooting. The Harman paper would still be interesting to play around with. How would you load it into the Fuji film packs? Maybe you could work out some kind of replaceable dark slide. I think the borders would be black instead of white but that could be cool. Keep us posted if you do it.
Pete
 
I've not loaded the Harman DP paper into any of mine yet, but I can't imagine it would be that difficult. You'd have to trim it down to fit it into an empty holder and use a changing bag to swap, but could be very cool results once shot.

I've used the HDP paper for many of my other cameras. The hardest part is getting a piece cut in a dark bag that fits and doesn't move. I found that for the Diana, I just cut a 4x5 in half into two pieces that are 4x2.5 and they fit perfectly and stay in place.

So one could figure out the best size for the HDP (or any paper or film) that starts at 4x5 and use maybe a slide trimmer with something taped to it to create a feeler edge in the dark. Then just slide those into the old cartridges.

I hoped to try this already but haven't. I guess if you could preload 10 or so and store them safely in something that keeps the light out, you could change out packs.

I've also thought about the idea of just placing the 4x5 sheet directly onto the film plane in the camera and using a block of foam behind it to hold it into place. Not sure if this will work as it may get too close to the lens and throw off the focus. Would make it easier if it did, as you'd not have to preload empty cartridges with film etc.

The idea of doing this with some of my Portra 400 4x5 film is also interesting.
 
3rdtrick said:
Bruno,
The Auto 103 is interesting as it is a plastic body but still has the 3 element glass lens and two window rangefinder. The aperture selection is the same as the 101 so the kinda limits it to daylight use. The plastic bodies take a 3v battery so the conversion to AAA or lithium batteries is easier. If the price is right, get it.
Pete
Click to expand...


thank You very much!
 
I'll probably pickup the Harmon paper after the first of the year. If I remember right you can work with it under a red safe light. That would make the trimming and the loading into the film pack easier. A light tight box to store the loaded packs that fits into a changing bag it about as far as I have gotten in the thought process. I am not sure how to go about a dark slide for them. In the old days I used to be able to come up will all kinds of wacky inventions.
 
You got me thinking about it. You could probably use the factory paper darkslide and load one sheet into the pack. You could use the ground glass for focusing and load the camera in daylight but then you would not be able to replace the darkslide. Most likely you would need to use the changing bag to unload. Well, keep working on it...
 
3rdtrick, using the paper dark slide is a good solution. I think there should be enough for 2 covers with enough tab sticking out to remove them.

The only issue I can think of is that you'd still have to remove the film pack and photo paper or film from the camera in a changing bag.

I was just sitting here staring into space and had an idea for this. I don't know if it would work. Let's assume that you are using existing pre-used film packs for single shots on photo paper or film. And that you can modify them as you need. If the camera itself has the room where the dark slide paper normally comes out for it, and if the pack can be modified to do it, what if you were to make a paper or light proof fabric dark slide that you slid in one direction with one pull tab and then pulled the other tab back to cover it back up?

poladrag-20131203-152722.jpg


If this worked and you did enough photos regularly, it would make it worth the trouble to also build a proper pack for the paper with the dark slide paper/fabric path built in vs modifying existing packs. You could add some small rollers on the end for the paper to roll past easier as well.

My proportions are not right but that is the general idea. You'd want the window in the paper/fabric to be able to cleanly be pulled over the paper back and forth, and the opening should probably be at a spot where it would end up at the back of the pack and not just on the end partly where it curves around the pack. Light proof fabric would certainly make the slide/bending around the pack part easier and as long as you made it's opening just a tad bit larger then the opening on the film pack itself and sewed the edges so it didnt fray, fabric would be the way to go. I think the paper would get bend and start breaking down after a few pulls back and forth.

But this "doohicky" would allow you to load paper or film, cover it, and then uncover in the camera, snap your shot, then recover and remove the pack in light. If you had a few of these, you could shoot without having to use a changing bag every single time.

I was thinking too that if you built the pack itself, you could hinge the top so that you could easily place the film/photo paper into the unit, then close. You could reload these in the field this way in a changing bag.

Yes, I am at work and sitting here day dreaming of gadgets to use non-standard film/papers in a Polaroid body and getting paid for not doing my job. Don't tell my boss. 😀
 
Last edited:
I visited the local flea market guy who's got the crazy vintage photo booth today with my friend.

He had about six One Steps and similar 600 Polaroid cameras in the booth as well as a J66 and that super old school roll film one (100?), a Colorpack, a 101 and 450 Land Camera. The 450 had no battery to test it but I may go back and take my batteries and try it, it has the other nicer clearer range finder and I'd like to add it to my collection.

I don't need it. I just bought one of the Fuji Instax Mini 90 Neo Classics this past week (on mega sale) and will use it a lot I'm sure... but I have a think in my heart for the Land Cameras. They had one of the red 600 series polaroids which Id like to grab since its red. But no SX-70 models so far. I need to ask him about those and see if he can look out for one. Who knows.

Then we found another Colorpack (1) in another booth, with box. It's like the Polaroid Universe wants me to own as many of these as I can afford. lol 😀
 
I've been enjoying the Instax Mini 90 since I got it, but I still like shooting the actual Polaroids. I noticed that Target is still selling the PIC-300 aka Instax Mini 7s and the Polaroid branded Instax films at $20 for a 2 pack... Meanwhile everywhere else its Fuji film and $14 for 2 packs.

I traded a few of my beloved Fujifilm FP-3000b packs from my stash for a few vintage (and working) Polaroid 665 Polapan packfilm. I am looking forward to trying it and comparing it to the Fuji BW films.

I'm also still eyeballing the 250 Land Cameras waiting for one to fall into my lap...

And wondering why in blazes Fuji hasnt made a BW Instax film.
 
I think addictive describes ALL camera gear, regardless of what it is.

I have so many 35mm and 120 cameras now it's not funny, quite a few digital, and my Instax and Polaroid collection is growing as well.

I hope one day to have my office done with shelves to display and store for easy access as I get an urge, sorted by kind. If I thought the film would be good for a while in the Polaroids, I'd leave pack film in all my Land Cameras, BW in some and Color in others so I can just grab what fits my mood. 😀
 
I found a Polaroid One600 in a charity store today, with an unexposed film pack in it. The first shot was blank, the second very faded with a warm tint, subsequent frames have been very warm but salvageable as bw. It focuses to 3' and has a built in flash.

One day I hope to find a pack film model. Here's a print from today's find.

15204293158_6d23110abe_o.jpg

by lynnb on flickr
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom