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.

October Creative Meetup

Went to Travis Little's October Creative Meetup (Artist Gathering) at the End Of The Line in Fountain Square.  I had hoped to stay the evening and chat with friends and introduce myself to others that I wanted to meet, but I had to leave after about 45 minutes.  No problems I still got to chat with Dean Scott & Paul D'Andrea.  Also another photographer (name escapes me) who shoots medium format film ... nice.

 

Anyway, one of the things I had planned to do was to photograph the participants with the cameras I mentioned in yesterday's blog post.  I did have time to shoot about 6 photos with my Filmtastic Debonair and a couple of Polaroids. 

 

The Polaroid Colorpack III worked great with Fujifilm FP-100C & a flashcube. 

 

The Polaroid Spirit 600 also worked well with an expired pack of Polaroid 600.  The images are a not that rich, but for a pack that is expired, I'm just glad the battery had juice to fire off the images. 

 

A short, but fun night talking with several people about photography!  I could do that ALL NIGHT.

All Plastic

Just a quicky post tonight.  Tomorrow evening after work I'm going to a local Artist Meetup in Indianapolis to meet with and chat up a large group of artist and creative types.  You know your painters, models, makeup artists, photographers.  Your basic right side brainers.

 

Anyway, what I've done the last couple of meetups is bring a few Polaroid cameras, and popping off a few shots.  Most of the time people look at me like I have 3 eyes, but some get a giggle out of it.   I almost always shoot digital in studio and for my "real" photography, but I've been shooting film just for fun and for street photography. 

 

Here's what I'm bringing to this month's Meetup.  You have a Polaroid Colorpack III that I blogged about yesterday, a Polaroid Spirit 600, and a Plastic Fantastic 120 Debonair.  The Debonair is toting a Vivitar 3700 that I picked up at Goodwill.  Oh yes I am also bringing a box of Flashcubes for the Colorpack.

 

The Colorpack will be shooting some new Fujifilm FP-3000c, the Spirit 600 a couple of packs of expired Polaroid 600 (fingers crossed that the batteries are still good) and the Debonair a 120 roll of Kodak Portra.  Should get some interesting photos.

 

And here are the my plastic wonders:

 

 

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

 

Polaroid A-Go-Go

Went to the local Indianapolis Creative Gathering aka Artist Meetup at the Khoury Restaurant in Broad Ripple.  Got a chance to chat with several local artist, primarily photographers.  Event is organized monthly by a local Indianapolis uber-painter Travis Little.

One fun thing is that I brought several of my newly acquired Polaroid cameras and my Polaroid Spectra II that I've had for years, but just recently brought out.  Took a few shots of the people I chatted with.  As you can tell, the quality of the film leaves much to be desired, but come on, it's a Polaroid and you are supposed to get muted colors and limited contrast.

Careful shooting Polaroid film.  A key is to get film from the Impossible Project or depending on the Polaroid model, from Fujifilm.  Most film you get off the internet from Polaroid is well past it's used by date.  Any, oh by the way, the film is pricey....

The following are from my Polaroid Spectra camera.

Stacy, Paul, Ryan & Wilbur, all local photographers

Hey, it's me! Photo by Paul

Polaroid Colorpack II - Retro Goodness

The first shot after I bought the film - Behind Roberts Camera in Indianapolis

I’m a photography podcast fanboy and recently watched a podcast by Chase Javis on his InvitationToHang project in NYC from last year.  The podcast showed the cameras he was using for the project.  Several were old school Polaroid cameras.  As I watched the podcast it was POW…flashback.  I used to shoot Polaroid cameras, and I thought to myself, I bet I still have one.

Anyway one thing led to another and I dug up my old Polaroid, a Polaroid Spectra 2.  It had been collecting dust as I was now a fully committed digital shooter.  Just for giggles, I went to Roberts to see if they had any film for the Spectra and they said nope.  They did however have film for the 600 series and Fujifilm for the ColorPack series. Note, I’ll post another blog on the Spectra as I did get some film online from the ImpossibleProject.

Anyway since I didn’t find any film for my Spectra camera, I went on a personal mission to find a ColorPack or 600 series Polaroid camera.  I wanted to get one as cheaply as possible. Guess what – SUCCESS.  I went to a local Goodwill Outlet and I found this beauty.

Polaroid Colorpack II instant camera in good working order

I grabbed it and the final price, only $1.  I thought to myself, even if it didn’t work, come on Steve, it’s only a buck.  I brought the dusty beast home and cleaned the outside & the corrosion in the battery area.  The next day I went back to Roberts and bought a pack of 100 ISO color Fujifilm and a 3000 ISO black & white Fujifilm.  I loaded the color film, held my breath and guess what, it worked.  Sweet.

Today I went out and shot the full color pack (only 10 photos) and, it’s fun.  This pack was basically just to figure out how to dial in the camera, and figure out how to use it.  At 100 ISO a sunny day means you have some blown out or images pushing the right side of the histogram.  There is a dial on the front that you can dial to darken or lighten and I found outside I needed to turn it to full darken and the images came out fine.  The images below have one shot with "normal" setting, and the second with the dial set to "darken"

I also shot a couple of images inside earlier and the results were no good.  WAY too dark for 100 ISO file.  Looks like I need to find some Flashcubes online.

Ambient light without a flashcube with 100 ISO film - EPIC fail

The fun thing about this camera is that it’s manual focus and that’s about it.  You basically point and shoot.  The lens ring has distance markings on it that you turn to the right distance of your subject.  Since this is NOT a DSLR you are doing lots of guessing to get the focus right.  However, in my first film pack that didn’t seem to be an issue.

The second fun thing about this camera is that once you shoot a photo, you “pull” the film out of the camera and let it develop.  Very old school.

The only drawback to this camera is that the film is somewhat expensive.  A 10-pack is in the $15 range.  Not as expensive as the 600 or Spectra type film, but unlike a digital camera you want each shot to count.

Bottomline, good times and a fun compliment to digital.