Check this photographer out!

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 16, 2019

Old school and amazing.

justlexi · Jul 16, 2019

It looks heavy but the outcome is really nice.
40 years on doing his passion.

Theo Sulphate · Jul 16, 2019

He's been known for quite a while.

I hope he's got an enormous stash of Fuji pack film.

Chrismat · Jul 16, 2019

Thanks you. I've known his work for some time. I wonder what film he uses now? Instax?

fiddle · Jul 16, 2019

He's outside of B&H almost every day. My commute to work. Spoke to him a bunch of times, nice guy.

tezzasmall · Jul 17, 2019

I too have watched this before. He sounds like a great guy following his passion. And people seem to love having a 'proper' picture to look at and take away with them, rather than a phone loaded full of selfies that are never anything more than a phone file. .

If I'm ever in the area again, I'll seek him out and deffo get him to take my picture and give him a few $$.

Terry S

pentaxuser · Jul 17, 2019

Except for the Speed-Grafic and the location it's an almost identical story to that of the Dublin photographer who did something very similar for many years on a brdge across the Liffey in Dublin.

A great idea and I had no idea that a Speed-Grafic could be adapted to take film packs. He really looks the part. As a matter of interest what involved in attaching a film pack to the back of a Speed. He appears to have no difficulty in obtaining supplies of film

Thanks

pentaxuser

Theo Sulphate · Jul 17, 2019

pentaxuser said:
...
A great idea and I had no idea that a Speed-Grafic could be adapted to take film packs. He really looks the part. As a matter of interest what involved in attaching a film pack to the back of a Speed. He appears to have no difficulty in obtaining supplies of film
...

I believe the Polaroid 405 holder can be used on the Speed Graphic without modification. There's another Polaroid holder for the now-obsolete 4x5 instant film, but the 405 holder, which was designed for Polaroid 100-series pack film, works for the fully compatible Fuji pack film.

Since Fuji stopped production a few years ago, prices are now extremely high and supply is limited. I hope he has more than a few hundred packs (purchased long ago) in refrigerators.

pentaxuser · Jul 18, 2019

Thanks Theo. I thought I had heard about Fuji stopping production of film packs so his "time" so to speak is limited. Pity

pentaxuser

jtk · Aug 3, 2019

pentaxuser said:
Except for the Speed-Grafic and the location it's an almost identical story to that of the Dublin photographer who did something very similar for many years on a brdge across the Liffey in Dublin.

A great idea and I had no idea that a Speed-Grafic could be adapted to take film packs. He really looks the part. As a matter of interest what involved in attaching a film pack to the back of a Speed. He appears to have no difficulty in obtaining supplies of film

Thanks

pentaxuser

FYI film packs were used routinely by Speeds. Common. Normal.

removed account4 · Aug 3, 2019

pentaxuser said:
Except for the Speed-Grafic and the location it's an almost identical story to that of the Dublin photographer who did something very similar for many years on a brdge across the Liffey in Dublin.

A great idea and I had no idea that a Speed-Grafic could be adapted to take film packs. He really looks the part. As a matter of interest what involved in attaching a film pack to the back of a Speed. He appears to have no difficulty in obtaining supplies of film

Thanks

pentaxuser

catlabs said a few years ago they are working on remaking film packs so who knows maybe you will be able to get them soon !

Pentode · Aug 3, 2019

fiddle said:
He's outside of B&H almost every day. My commute to work. Spoke to him a bunch of times, nice guy.

Yeah, Louis is a super nice guy with a great sense of humor. It's never even occurred to me to ask him to take my picture. Hmmm.... next time I see him on 34th Street.

Theo Sulphate · Aug 3, 2019

jnantz said:
catlabs said a few years ago they are working on remaking film packs so who knows maybe you will be able to get them soon !

They said that, but I'm certain it will never be a reality - either by them or a third party manufacturer.

Pack film is "mechanically" complex to manufacture, assemble, and operate - it's like a 10-shot Grafmatic with tabs. You put this "pack" in the back of your Polaroid camera or holder, insuring that a fan of 10 little tabs and the darkslide tab stick out. Close the back. Pull the darkslide out a long, long, long way - because it's covering a lot of material . Trip the shutter. The first negative gets exposed and then you pull the first numbered tab and a larger separate tab sticks out. You pull that and it causes negative #1 and it's corresponding positive material to come together and then get squeezed through the rollers. You wait a specified time and then peel off the positive sheet. Only then can you see a few of the layers of paper and other things that's part of the sandwich of your first photo. Repeat for the next nine photos.

What it is:

I wish Fuji would have contacted Impossible before they scrapped their facilities and equipment, but they didn't. Impossible are probably the only ones who could recreate pack film today, but even they struggle trying to achieve a proper opacity layer and archival qualities that Polaroid had mastered in 1972 (SX-70 integral film).

The Chinese are capable of reverse-engineering pack film, but unless it's worth their effort financially it won't happen.

Fuji wasn't making money on pack film once third-world countries switched to digital for id's and stuff. So, they bailed out and devoted their resources elsewhere. I see Fuji pack film being offered from $50-$80 now that demand exceeds a dwindling finite supply. If Fuji had raised their prices from $12 (?) to $25, would that have saved it? Probably not.

RalphLambrecht · Aug 4, 2019

Mainecoonmaniac said:
Old school and amazing.

what a lucky guy

Cloudy · Jan 7, 2021

I've bumped into him standing outside B&H when I visited New York ages ago and I didn't realise he was "famous", but I liked his look and I asked him if I could take his picture.
He was lovely

p81 · Jan 7, 2021

If we ever travel to NY sometimes, a day is planned to look for him, sharing some pictures, time and give him some $s. I like him even I haven’t met him yet. Please can someone tell him greetings from Germany!

jtk · Nov 26, 2021

Interesting, smart, flexible flash setup.

Check this photographer out!

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