My first Polaroid... EeeeHH "Fuji"????????!!

Now with the demise of Polaroid, I have been looking at the possibility of getting 4x5 B&W instant film. Not a single choice here in the Netherlands, so after some tips of APUG'ers, I now have finally acquired a second hand Fuji PA-45 instant pack film holder and a pack of Fuji FP-500B45 straight from Japan send via airmail, which covers almost the full 4x5 image size...

Eager to try it out, I just managed to get a first shot before sunset that I would like to share here for others considering switching.

The picture is attached below. Notice it has a very nice smooth tonality and no streaks of poor development, something I almost never managed with my single sheet Polaroid type 52 and Polaroid 545i holder.

The Fuji PA-45 holder is easy to use, after you understand how to use it. See this thread I also posted today and the last link to the YouTube films for some examples:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

My second hand holder came without manual, so at first I was a bit at loss. With these films, and a Polaroid document about instant pack film, and after simply opening the film pack, it all became clear. Open the holder, just stack the film in in the correct orientation, close the holder, and pull out the protective black paper dark slide and you're ready to shoot.

Also, probably less waste, since far less single sheet waste and an overall smaller packaging compared to Polaroid. Best of all, it's only 1/2 the price of Polaroid, even including sending from the other side of the globe!

Now we are just left with one problem:

*** How are we going to call these instant shots???? ***

We all have been used saying "Oh, just shoot a Polaroid!" to say we're going to make an instant shot. The brand name Polaroid became synonimous with the photo itself.

So from now on we need to say "Shoot a Fuji"???

It sounds crap... but what choice have we left???????

Stupid question time - so this is a pack film 4x5 holder... does it have its own darkslide? I'm guessing it has to but I wanted to make sure... oh yeah and is it too thick to put in a springback?

The Fuji PA-45 I have does indeed have a darkslide, and it's fine in the springback on my Toyo.

Heather, each pack has a paper darkslide that you use when loading, and then the PA45 holder has a normal, metal darkslide.

Gefeliciteerd Marco! Try the 3000b next!

Yeah, I think we need to call these fujiroids. I get tired of typing "fuji instant film" all the time.

Yes, it has it's own darkslide made from stainless steel so you can take it out at any moment, and no, it's not a stupid question since I didn't know anything about this holder until it arrived yesterday... But even if you manage to forget to slide in the darkslide, and ruin a sheet, the other sheets should be well, according to the Polaroid manual of pack film in the other thread I pointed out.

No, it's not to thick to fit a springback, it fitted very comfortably in my Tachihara viewcamera's springback, without forcing anything, and even room to spair. The pack holds 10 sheets.

To give you an exact measurement: the holder is 28 mm thick.

keithwms said:

Yeah, I think we need to call these fujiroids. I get tired of typing "fuji instant film" all the time.

Click to expand...

Fujiroid sounds a bit to much like "hameroid" Maybe we should call them "fujins" (FUJi-INStant)

Thanks for the info. I've dealt with fuji pack film before but in the smaller format for my polaroid cameras so I know about the (absolute pain in the butt to pull out) paper "darkslide".

Well, of course I can not speak out of any experience with just one exposure made on pack film, but any issue related to pulling these darkslides, is likely not a Fuji specific issue, as the pack films of Polaroid and Fuji are interchangeble and thus must have virtually the same design.

Anyway, it might be that in 4x5 the issues are slightly less that with MF, since the darkslides are bigger, there is probably less chance of accidentely ripping something apart while pulling them.

Also, with Polaroid single sheets, my failure rate was at least 1 in a pack of 20, usually related to issues with the metal strip at the bottom of the sheets, that if bend only the slightest amount, do no longer properly hold the sheet in the 545 holder.

Well, let's see how the failure rate turns out to be for this pack film with time... useless speculating to much now.

Marco, because the PA45 has no clip mechanism, your failure rate will be much better than it was with the 545. The drawback is that there is no way to process later- you have to process as you shoot. But this is a minor issue in my opinion.

Incidentally, in my latest blog, I discuss how to fix an issue with clip mechanism in the 545 holders. If the clips are hanging or they come out a bit bent, it is likely because of a design flaw involving two screws that are a bit too long. This can be easily fixed.

Marco, who/where did you order this Fuji PA45 film holder? How much did it cost. Thanks for any info. It sure looks like a winner.

Paul

I bought everything from the Megaperls webshop managed by Dirk, who's also lurking here on Apug as "Dirk-san" ((there was a url link here which no longer exists)).

It's on: (don't mind the unicircuits name, it's the right link):

http://www.unicircuits.com/

Choose the "Webshop" link that you see on the left, or go directly to:

Dead Link Removed

The second hand holder Dirk send me, was in excellent condition, looked like new. By the way, you might also like to explore this thread that I started here, since I didn't have a manual of this holder, and hadn't used pack film before, I was at first at loss how to use it. The YouTube films in this thread (especially the last one) helped me out. It may be of use to you to if you haven't used pack film holders before like me:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)


Marco

Hi, thanks for the mention. There is actually a Fuji equivalent to the Pola 405 holder: the Fuji PA-145. It accepts the smaller film packs. Contact me if you want a used one, I am selling one right now (personal sale).

Problem with instant film

Hi all,

I revived the thread because I ran into a little problem I hope Keith can comment on, since he´s the one with the most experience here with the Fuji film.

Keith:

I have now finished the whole pack of 10 instant exposures, no jams or other issues noteworty, except the issue demonstrated below in the attached image ('Elswout_badshot').

As you can see, I had a bad pull, causing the vertical damage, however, this is not what I am interested in. Besides maybe also having underexposed the image, you can see there is a curved, moonshape shadow acros the lower part of the image, with the lower part being darker, and the upper part lighter. This happened to two consequetive exposures on the same location (I did not move the tripod).

What may have caused this?

Actually, I have two possible theories: one is, I took this shot in the direction of the sun, maybe that caused an issue, but than I would more likely simply have expected some flare, as visible in the other image?

Another issue I realized, and this is what I want your opinion about, is that I realized I had been developing the image straight in the sun. Now with the single sheet Polaroid I used before, this is no issue, because both the negative as well as positive are protected by the light proof coverage.

However, with the pack film, only the darkslide side of the developing image is protected against the light, the photo side is not.

Could the bad image be caused by intens sunlight falling through the photo and disturbing the developing process? This might also explain the curve, because possibly one part of the image shaded the other??? :confused:

Does this make at all sense to you Keith?

Hmm, I am mystified about that bowing / banding effect, I haven't seen it myself. But let me ask, were the two exposures where you saw it were at the end of the pack?

I have developed the pack film in broad daylight and not seen anything like this. I can think of a few suspects: pressure on the pack (before shooting), rollers need cleaning or are improperly contacting the film, or just bad luck with this pack or damage during shipment.

If you remember what order your frames were shot, perhaps you can lay them out and see whether the effect was increasing or decreasing. That may give a clue.

No Keith, they were not at the end of the pack. Actually, I got another four good ones after these two bad ones before the end of the pack.

Since I have shot a diapositive afterwards, and used the fujin as proofing, I maybe able to tell a bit more next week, when they are developed. If the diapositive has the same effect as well, it must be due to the setup of the camera and I have done something wrong there, although I stil have no clue. Maybe the lensboard was not properly attached?, but than again I should have noticed that when removing it...

I have now held one of the instant pictures in front of a strong halogen lamp. No light coming through, so I think we can disregard my concerns about sunlight penetrating the picture and disturbing the development.

Let's see what the diapositive holds...