Anyone using one of the dirt cheap one600 Polaroids?

[celluloidpropaganda]

Tempted to order one for $35-40 - seems like it should be positively Holga-esque.

 

[vanspaendonck]

Actually it is better than the Holga, but it still has a plastic fixed focus meniscus lens that derives its image quality mostly from a small aperature (f/12 I believe).
Why pay $35 to $40? I bought 25 packs of recently expired 600 film the other week for EUR 50 (about $ 70) and got the camera thrown in.

 

[kraker]

Actually it is better than the Holga, but it still has a plastic fixed focus meniscus lens that derives its image quality mostly from a small aperature (f/12 I believe).
Why pay $35 to $40? I bought 25 packs of recently expired 600 film the other week for EUR 50 (about $ 70) and got the camera thrown in.

@celluloidpropaganda: I agree, you should be able to get it a lot cheaper than that. I recently bought 2 Polaroid cameras for EUR 5; granted, they are secondhand, and it's not the model you mention, but still... I wouldn't pay $ 40 for it.

@vanspaendonck: 25 packs for EUR 50? That's a good deal! Is there any more where that came from? Where did you find them?

 

[Ian Leake]

I'm using one and like it a lot. The 600 film has some great effects when overexposed. (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[IloveTLRs]

I went to go buy a one600 last night and found out that they aren't being made anymore - at least, no longer in Japan; I don't know about the rest of the world. My favorite store had a sign saying the one600 and one600 Ultra are no longer being produced, although 600 film is.

Not sure if I should bother looking for one now ... :confused:

 

[Akki14]

Hrm odd. They have party packs of polaroid cameras and the special edition silverbordered film over here in Boots (national drugstore/chemist chain). I'm not sure if the camera that comes with it is a one600 though. Check other shops? My friend bought some, what i'd call "normal", polaroid camera for me at a jumble sale. Actually I was at a green room party in BBC Television Centre the other week and someone had actually brought a polaroid and a stack of 600 film!

 

[Ian Leake]

They're still for sale through their online shop in the UK. And I think Polaroid have recently released a "new" 600 film that replaces the old one.

 

[Amund]

I have the previous model I think, mine is just called Polaroid One. Main difference is that you can disable the flash on mine, one the One 600 it always fires(you can cover it with your hand)
I like mine a lot, it`s pretty wide angle and give sweet results with regular 600-film. A few snaps from it:

 

[f/stopblues]

I just got one of these for my birthday I wanted one just to play with and it's been fun so far! I don't recall exactly what model I have, but it had a little "lighter" and "darker" adjustment on it. The only thing I'm not excited about is that the flash is on all the time. That's okay, my girlfriend did exceptionally well for the little description I gave her. I may have to do flash surgery in the near future though.

 

[gr82bart]

Just get one. We always need another for the Instant Print Exchange!

Regards, Art.

 

[Alex Hawley]

I got one this weekend and enjoyed it. My two year-old grand daughter is fascinated by it and quickly learned how to operate it. There ya go! So simple a two year-old can do it!

Hey Ian, How'd you do that overexposure thing? Looks pretty cool!

 

[dslater]

I got one for my son for his fourth birthday last year. He has taken some pretty good pictures with it - has learned to hold it level, fill the frame with his subject, etc. I think a polaroid is a great fist camera for a young child. Nothing else gives them that instant feedback + a print they can hold. If you want to see a great reaction, take a polaroid of a young child - say 2 - 3 years old, immediately hand them the print, and watch what happens when the image starts to form before their eyes.

 

[Ian Leake]

Hey Ian, How'd you do that overexposure thing? Looks pretty cool!

Thanks Alex. It's quite straightforward: the built in flash triggers a pair of strobes which overwhelm the 600 (I think it's somewhere between 2 and 3 stops overexposed). The image takes a long time to appear, and as much as 30 minutes to develop completely. I've tried to get the same results with polaroid sheet film but unfortunately that didn't work. I don't know whether it works with the new 600 film either.

 

[Alex Hawley]

the built in flash triggers a pair of strobes which overwhelm the 600 (I think it's somewhere between 2 and 3 stops overexposed).

Ahhhh! Thanks for sharing that Ian. Most interesting. Unfortunately for me, its out of my little photo box of the world. I must say though, its a quite stunning effect.

It never ceases to amaze me how creative people get with Polaroids, both cameras and film. Its truly astounding.

 

[IloveTLRs]

Now that I've seen some samples I'm once again interested I have one place I can look in: downtown there's a shop that sells Holgas, LOMOs, etc. They may still stock them.

However a pack of 600 film costs around $12 for 10 shots - that's expensive! (Not to mention used SX-70s selling for $200+ :rolleyes Even APS isn't that expensive for a roll ...

 

[Akki14]

...but APS is a crap format $12 is cheap, a single pack of 600 is £11 here. The trick is to buy the 4 pack from Argos (yeah i didn't realise they'd sell that either, for UK people in the know) for £35 and then it's a little cheaper.
You're in Japan, though, get an instax instead? Film for instax is a little cheaper. If you don't have much money you have to consider your polaroid camera more like a large format camera and value every single image.
I don't understand the sx-70s selling for sillymoney, I heard(might be a rumour) the photographers's gallery in London was selling a few refurbished models for £100-£200. I am so very lucky I found mine in a charity shop for £10. So. So. Very. Lucky.

 

[Ian Leake]

...If you don't have much money you have to consider your polaroid camera more like a large format camera and value every single image...

Yes, and everything is relative. £1 a shot is cheaper than £2 per sheet of 10x8 HP5+, which is cheaper than £6 per sheet of 14x11 HP5+ or £6 for a roll of Astia 120 (inc. lab costs).

 

[IloveTLRs]

I found one I went to the shop I mentioned in a previous post and they had one last "dead stock" Polaroid 600 model (http://www.polaroid.com/service/product.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441761661&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302034645&bmUID=1196984310789&bmLocale=en_US, unopened and unused. I took a picture with it last night and it works great. It's a real kick to watch the photo develop right in front of your eyes.

A pack of Polaroid 600 film was ¥1500 or $13.50, so I'm going to treat it very carefully. One question though: after the 10 shots are up, what are you supposed to do with the film cartridge, chuck it? Can the batteries be taken out and used in other appliances or are they proprietary?

 

[IloveTLRs]

Also a question about Polaroid photos: how long do they last? Do they fade under fluorescent lamps or sunlight? Should they be kept in the dark like Kodachromes?

 

[Akki14]

http://www.chemie.unibas.ch/~holder/sxbeginn.html
"Polaroid integral films contain a 6 Volt- battery, that usually has a lot of power left when the film is finished. You can convert two clothes-pins to contact-clips and power a radio or toys for hours, until the battery is empty.
Polarity:
If you look at the plain cardboard side, the two holes are up and the contact tabs downward, the tab on the left is the positive one."
However I've never been clever enough to do this (and don't really use much stuff in the way of batterypower) so I just have a rather silly stockpile of empty packs now because I can't bare to throw them out either.:confused: They're in limbo world in my land of junk :rolleyes:

Not sure if they'll fade or not, I tend to keep them all loose in a shoebox type box. I would think the whole chemicals still in contact with film thing is worse for it than sunshine. My mom took a polaroid of me as a kid and that hasn't faired too well over the years (though it was overexposed to begin with) even though it wasn't exposed to light.

 

[Alex Hawley]

Also a question about Polaroid photos: how long do they last? Do they fade under fluorescent lamps or sunlight? Should they be kept in the dark like Kodachromes?

I have Polaroid prints from the 1970s that are still in good shape. They've been in the proverbial shoe box or other such container for all those years.

 

[Ian Leake]

My 600 prints go yellow quite quickly (after perhaps 3 months in a normally lit room). I'm not sure whether this is due to the over exposure or not, but it's a shame. I've read somewhere that there's a way of reversing this but I can't remember the specifics.