Polaroid 104

Polaroid 104 fully opened & ready to go!

Continuing my journey with film cameras I’ve purchased let’s talk about my Polaroid 104.  I bought this camera because I had previously bought two Polaroid “Land” cameras (a Colorpack II, and a Colorpack III) at Goodwill and love them.  I wanted to get a more “old school” Land camera, one with bellows.  I found a seller on eBay listing a Polaroid 100, 104 & a 320 in a lot.  I jumped and bought all 3 paying less than $25 all in.

All 3 Polaroids appeared to work, but none had batteries.  This type of camera requires a battery to fire the shutter.  Yikes, the battery type is not easily found and I don’t think manufactured any longer.  I researched online about buying an equivalent battery or mod-up the battery compartment to accept AAA batteries.  For the 104 I decided to go the mod route as the leads were intact and the compartment clean of corrosion.

Closed with a self contained cover

Cover off, but bellows not yet expanded

Camera fully opened from the top

 The main feature of the camera is that it uses Polaroid 100 series film.  The film is also called “pack” film (instamatic) which is surprisingly still made.  Fujifilm manufactures the film and it’s readily available for about $14 per pack (10 shots).  Available in color 75 ASA (film equivalent to ISO) & B&W 3000 ASA. The cool thing about this film (unlike Polaroid film which is ejected from the front of the camera), this that it’s “pulled” from the side of the camera.  When developed you peel the film apart revealing the image.  Very retro!

 

Key specs of the 104 is that it’s lightweight, all-plastic, has folding bellows, automatic exposure through a Polaroid "electric eye", and it’s a quasi-rangefinder.  It’s focused by moving the bellows in and out slightly by moving the focusing knobs attached to the bellow struts back and forth.  There are focusing markers in the viewfinder, but I haven’t figured them out yet.



To get the camera going I cleaned it up, and went to my local Radio Shack to buy a AAA battery holder with wires.  I clipped out (with big fingernail clippers) the bracket that held the existing battery, and wired the holder into the existing battery leads.  I then added 2 AAA batteries to get the desired 3 volts, and jammed (literally) the holder back into the compartment.  I armed the shutter, did a test shutter release, and “click”, “click”.  The needed double click that told me the electric eye (light meter) was working.  Success!

 

DIY battery mod

I loaded a package of Fujifilm FP-100C and took a couple of test shots.  The first was out of focus on one of my cats (need to work on the focus) and one outside which came out fine.  I’m good to go.

 

Inside, got to figure out the focusing technique

Getting the hang of how to focus for a maximum DOF

Bottomline, a fun, retro camera that can be picked up easily online or at flea markets.  Most you buy won’t have batteries, but you can buy them online (expensive around $20, so do research first), or mod-up a battery yourself.  Film can be purchased at most camera stores or online camera stores.  Just remember if you buy a Land camera make sure the battery compartment is free from corrosion.  Have fun, I know I will.

The Polaroid Colorpack III

I know this is going to sound crazy coming from a digital photographer, but recently I've started to get back into film photography.  Think of it as a hobby within my obsession.  It started about a year ago when on a whim I picked up a Mamiya M645 from eBay.  This is an all manual 120mm medium format film camera.  I've ended up shooting a number of rolls through this camera with great success. 

 

Around the same time I stopped by a local Goodwill Outlet and found that on occassion they had old film cameras & instant film Polaroids that people had donated.  I've been stopping by a couple of times a month and since then have picked up 28 film cameras.

 

One of the cameras that I've enjoyed playing with is the Polaroid Colorpack III.  This is an older "Land Camera".  You know the type that when you shoot a photo, you "pull" the film out the back of the camera.  There is absolutely nothing automatic about this camera.  It's 100% manual.

 

Polaroid Colorpack III Land Camera, a box of FujiFilm FP-3000b & a shot in my office using a Flash Cube

The nice thing about the camera is that you can still buy film for it.  Fuji makes a line of instant film the Fujifilm FP-100c and the Fujifilm FP-3000b.  The first is a 100 ASA (similar to a digital ISO) color film and the other a 3000 ASA black & white film. 

 

I've shot about 1/2 dozen packs through this camera, and the photos are great.  Very 60's-70's vibe.  The challenge is that you have to remember to set the ASA switch on the camera when you put in the film, and you have to play with the Darken/Lighten dial to get the right setting.  It's basically trial and error.  Another thing that's fun is that the camera takes Flash Cubes.  I bought about 5 packs of Flash Cubes on eBay, and they work fine. 

 

Essentially, all you do with this camera is turn the focus ring on the lens to the distance to your subject (you basically guess), you set the darken / lighten dial to the right setting (normally I set it slightly darken), compose your image through the viewfinder, and push the shutter release.  You then pull the film tab on the back of the camera to extract the photo.  You wait the proper amount of time (normally less than 30 seconds) and peel the image from the backing paper.  And there you go.

 

If you find one of these cameras at a flea market or garage sale the main thing you need to check is if the battery compartment (inside the camera near the front of the lens box) has limited to no corrosion.  If not, you simply put in 2 AA batteries and you are good to go.  I've been lucky, both of the Polaroid Colorpack cameras I've found have worked great.

 

Here are a couple of scanned Polaroids from this past weekend's photo exhibit by Mike Arledge at Petrov Frame & Restoring.  No hipster iPhone app on these Polaroids, it's all retro goodness.

 

Photographer Mike Arledge shot with FujiFilm FP-100C

Our host & shop owner, Anatoly Petrov shot with FujiFilm FP-3000C