I find myself at my twelfth remaining frame of original Polaroid Spectra. I’ve been using it so judiciously that I’m pretty sure I’ve taken a picture of this tree during another autumn with it. This short video is a sped up look at the image developing.
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.
This is number 17 of my remaining Polaroid Spectra stock I seem to have skipped over number 18 & 19 and will have to scan them but who said I had to post them in order.
I received a Polaroid 430 Land camera as a kind gift and was surprised to find it still contained a few unexposed film frames. My Expectations of any of it still working were very low so I was surprised when I could discern an image with the first exposure. The next one didn’t work out as well as the chemicals werent distributed by the rollers. What you see here is the final frame, the colour has completely changed with age, but any picture is better than no picture I always say (right now for the first time).
Here is a digital image I’ve edited (as best as I could) to look like a Polacolor. Yah I didn’t think so either.
This pretty much describes a rainy winter day in the Lower Mainland. Everything floats although I’m not sure why there is a pillow in the pool.
This is also the final image from my Polaroid 330 it’s taken me an entire year to shoot this pack of film.
