Polaroid 402/403 focal length?

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paul ewins

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I got a couple of Polaroid 402 and 403 miniportrait cameras (that's the 4 lense passport camera) really cheap and I've been thinking about trying to use them for stereo portrait photography. Part of that involves knowing the focal length of the lenses so that I can calculate the ideal f stop for the stereo base. I've looked at the Polaroid site and can't find that sort of information, even in the user manual. Google hasn't been any help either.

Does anybody here know what that might be, or some easy way of determining it?
 

Donald Qualls

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The naive method is to open up the camera, install an empty film pack with the metal back plate removed and tape or half a sheet of 3x4 film across the inside of the shell to establish the film plane, and then measure to the rear of the lens. However, if you have a common Polaroid to compare to, you're likely to find the lenses are the same as the plastic double meniscus in the cheaper folding cameras-- and all the folding 3x4 pack Polaroids have 114 mm focal length.
 
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paul ewins

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The things is that the lenses are set to focus at 1.2m (4') or 1.9m (6'6") if you get the supplementary lenses. If I take the back off and focus to infinity on a piece of ground glass and then measure from lens to glass would that be near enough to the focal length?

I'm amazed that Polaroid could charge $700 for something that is basically a box camera with four plastic lenses. The 403 has the sonar rangefinder, but even that was avilable on relatively cheap models. I'm going to try and get a film pack today and that will probably cost me more than I paid for both cameras.
 

Donald Qualls

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Measure the distance that's there (easier than trying to measure to a GG down inside the camera body), and then use diopter calculations to back out the infinity-focus focal length. What you have is equivalent to a longer lens focused at infinity plus a 0.83 diopter -- take the distance you find, in meters, invert to get diopters, add the 0.83 for the closer focus, and convert back to meters. Done in 15 seconds if your calculator is in reach... :wink:

Polaroid was charging that for a camera that a) was calibrated to produce a passport-legal image size, b) would produce that passport photo in a couple minutes, c) would do it reliably, whenever called on, and d) used standard, easily obtained film. Their competition was stuff like long-roll portrait cameras that sold for that, made you wait until you'd shot 400 or more frames to get the images back, weren't even vaguely easy to use (focus with a tape measure, and better get the lighting right -- you won't know if there was a light problem for a week or more), and required buying film by the 20-roll case (that's 20 rolls of 100 feet each). A bargain if you had a small shop and wanted to add passport photos, especially since you could hand over the print in under two minutes.

Sonar focus? Those were supposed to operate at a fixed distance to give the correct image size. Does it just beep when the distance is right? Yeah, I've got an Autofocus 660 here with the sonar on it, sold for about $100 new, just before Spectra film came out. Mount a framing box on the tripod socket and it'd make a perfectly fine passport camera, except that you can't depend on the integral prints not to fade or discolor if you cut out a piece. My 350, however, could do that job with a portrait kit attached, and cost me $2 for the parts to repair it after I received it as a gift. Doesn't put 4 images on one print, but that's only necessary if people want multiple copies or you have a big volume of business...
 
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