The Frankenroid 65mm Schneider Kreuznach Angulon 65mm f6.8
I wanted to have a wide-angle instant camera and this seemed like one way to go about that. A few years back I received this lens and shutter and had paid very little for the Polaroid camera. The first thing I did was to remove the lens, shutter and all the electronics from the existing camera and make small modifications to fit the new one (There are still some cosmetic changes to be made). The lens has 6 elements and is designed to cover an image of 65mm x 95mm with some shifting. Fortunately Fuji FP100c’s image area is 73mm x 95mm. It does however result in vignetting when used wide open. The lens has a field of view of 80 degrees which equates to about 25mm on 35mm film that is pretty wide for a Polaroid.
The registration distance is different for the new lens so I needed to figure out a different method of focusing. I found that as part of the collapsing mechanism I was able to add what amounts to a measuring stick with marks for important distances. This ‘Stick’ slides in and out as the lens is moved back and forth. In order to calibrate this I cut drafting applique and put it in an old film holder so that it was at the same location in the camera as the film would be. I then measured the distance for different points where that image was in focus and marked them on the ‘stick’.
The new focusing allows for close focusing all the way to 5″ however going the other way once you focus past 3 feet it becomes difficult to make changes as the differences become very slight. However with such a wide lens it’s not really a problem with whats in focus extending from very near to infinity focus.
The lack of a tripod mount is probably the largest problem I have and will look to address as I make improvements. Having to hold the camera while also focusing by pulling the lens in and out and tripping the shutter is a little too cumbersome. Here are the first four sample images from my new Frankenroid.
