It's official: I have Instant Film Fever

[vdonovan]

Hi Jason, yes, I forgot about the 195. If you do find one for $10, snap it up!

The finder I took apart was the plastic Polaroid one. I cleaned it up real well so it's fairly bright, but it's no Zeiss!

[tiberiustibz]

The instax image size is a bit wider than a polaroid style. I've heard the cameras are huge.

I love the packfilm in polaroid land cameras. my school even has a mamiya which is a blast when I take it out. People are perpetually amazed by instant prints.

Polaroid 600 style is a blast as well. I dearly hope the new film by the impossible project costs less than $2 a shot

[Ektagraphic]

Instant film fever is dangerous! Whenever I go out to shoot, I always pring instant now too! It's sooo much fun!

[Anscojohn]

p.s. instead of shelling out the dough for a Konica Instant Press (I'd love to have one too!) you might consider modifying an old Land camera by ripping out the original shutter and lens assembly and replacing it with a 127mm press camera lens. It's a fun easy project, very rewarding, total cost about $50.

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Two questions: is the above project an easy one for those of us who are not particularly mechanical? What would it involve adapting a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Speed Graphic to take instant film packs?

[vdonovan]

Hi John, I bet it would be much easier to put a Polaroid back on a Speed Graphic than to put a Speed Graphic lens on an old Polaroid camera (which is basically what I did). I believe that Polaroid backs are readily available for the Graphic.

My project was very low tech, inspired by this guy:
http://option8.110mb.com/polaroid/index.html

Main tools were some little screwdrivers, epoxy, and masking tape.

[EASmithV]

Instant fever is infectious too. I like fixing up flea market Polaroids and I always draw a crowd whenever I take one out shooting. It's amazing that people don't realize the film is still readily available.

Now my regular birthday gift to friends is a fixed-up folding Polaroid and a few packs of Fuji film. They are always tickled.

p.s. I love the Instax too. Take an Instax mini to any party and you will be the most popular person there.

What do you mean fixed up? razzled?

[vdonovan]

No, I just buy flea market cameras, give them a good cleaning, and convert the battery pack to AAAs. I'll usually run a test pack through to make sure the photo sensor isn't too far off.

But it's a cool idea to make some Holga-d polaroids cameras. Spray some junk on the lens, put pinholes in the bellows and/or throw the thing on the ground.