It's official: I have Instant Film Fever

johnny9fingers · Jun 9, 2009

I got the Fuji Instax camera and some film for my son, then had to get him a new one as I fell in love with the beast. Then I found & bought a Mamiya Universal Press with polaroid back and some 665 pos/neg film. Now I've offered some digital gear (see want to trade classifieds) in an attempt to get a Fuji Fotorama FP-1 Pro or Konica Instant Press. I've got it bad and love it, the quality of the pictures that I get from the Instax is better than most of my digital stuff, can't wait to see what I can get out of the Mamiya......

John

Christopher Walrath · Jun 9, 2009

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

This falls loosely with the spectrum of G.A.S. (Gear Acquistion Syndrome). Have fun with it.

Chazzy · Jun 9, 2009

How big are the prints from an Instax? I've never had the privilege of seeing one.

vdonovan · Jun 9, 2009

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.

vdonovan · Jun 9, 2009

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.

jasonhall · Jun 9, 2009

Yes, I love the fuji line of instant pull apart film. I use a Polaroid 195 and a RB67 with a back by LANE. I have stacks of prints and love it. But at a dollar a shot, its hard to keep film around these days...

Jason

jasonhall · Jun 9, 2009

vdonovan said:
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.

The folding Polaroid Land is 117mm...how do you set up the focus?

johnny9fingers · Jun 9, 2009

Hi Charles, the Instax picture is about 4" wide by 2.5" high, kinda small but takes great pictures.

Hi Vince, I have seen some 360's, 180's & 185's for sale here and there for decent prices. Do they take the Fuji FP 100 & 3000 film packs??? And yes, the Konica Instan Press is pricy but figured I'd take a shot at swapping some gear if anyone was interested.

John

vdonovan · Jun 9, 2009

Oh yeah. Almost any of those folding Polaroid cameras will take the Fuji FP-series film. Polaroid made dozens of models, so you want to check here before you buy to see the features of the camera and which film it takes. Except for the 180, there's no reason to pay over $10 for any of the folding Land cameras.
Dead Link Removed

The only gotcha can be the batteries--some of them took hard-to-find 3v and 4.5v batteries, but there are plenty of places on the web to show you how to work around that.

Jason, to answer your question, I opened the rangefinder and found the adjustment screws. I opened the camera and taped a piece of wax paper to the back so I could check the focus. Then I adjusted for infinity and for close focus. It works great.

jasonhall · Jun 9, 2009

vdonovan said:
Except for the 180, there's no reason to pay over $10 for any of the folding Land cameras.
Dead Link Removed

Jason, to answer your question, I opened the rangefinder and found the adjustment screws. I opened the camera and taped a piece of wax paper to the back so I could check the focus. Then I adjusted for infinity and for close focus. It works great.

Was that the Zeiss finder or the Plastic Polaroid one?

Also, I would think that the 195 is also worth the extra money, I sure paid a bit more...

If you do get a 195, I would also buy a 250(or a similar one) and trade out the plastic Polaroid finder for the nice bright Zeiss finder. I also traded out the backs to get rid of the timer. It did not work real well and made the camera more bulky. Besides, with current film, it is not really needed.

Jason

vdonovan · Jun 9, 2009

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!

nickandre · Jun 9, 2009

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 · Jun 9, 2009

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

Anscojohn · Jun 9, 2009

vdonovan said:
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.

*******
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 · Jun 9, 2009

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 · Jun 12, 2009

vdonovan said:
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 · Jun 12, 2009

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.

It's official: I have Instant Film Fever

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