Back in 1960s, automatic exposure was an amazing advance in photography. Polaroid, in its quest to make a really easy-to-use camera, made most of its cameras with only automatic exposure. I mean, who needed anything else? Fast forward to today and it seems automatic exposure has lost its mojo. Complete control over shutter and aperture […]
Author Archives: Jim Skelton
I stumbled upon my first Polaroid pack camera in a thrift store the year after we got married. Peeling apart the first photo got me hooked, and I ended up collecting a bunch of these cameras. After pack film effectively ran out, my despair turned to hope as I worked at modifying these cameras to use different types of film. Now, I'm looking forward to a bright future with Polaroid pack cameras!
Posted inArticles
My RA-4 reversal journey: Shooting and processing colour paper negatives
I got bit by the RA-4 reversal bug a few weeks back, diving deep into chemistry, filtration, processing, and rinsing (more on the rinsing a bit later). The RA-4 development process is used to produce a color print on (you guessed it) color paper in the darkroom. In this article, I cover my RA-4 reversal […]
Posted inGuides & How-Tos
How-to: Shoot 120 & 35mm film in a Polaroid pack film camera
After using a Polaroid pack film camera to shoot paper negatives, I was wondering how easy it would be to shoot other film types. The closest size native to the Polaroid is 120 film, so it made sense to explore that option. I’ve seen other conversions to 120 using existing commercial 120 backs adapted to […]
Posted inGuides & How-Tos
How-to: Develop paper negatives “out and about” with a field development kit – by Jim Skelton
After I learned a bit about using my Polaroid camera to take pictures on paper negatives, I made up a little kit that included a Polaroid camera, tripod, a dark box with paper negatives loaded into empty film cartridges, and a changing box in which I could swap out the cartridges as I took pictures. […]
Posted inGuides & How-Tos
How-to: Shoot paper negatives with a Polaroid pack film Land Camera
Prices of Polaroid 100 series pack film keep rising as existing expired stock becomes rare. At some point in one’s own economy, it becomes too expensive to shoot. I reached that point when my pack film stash ran out and the going price was around $80/pack (a couple of years ago, now). I thought it […]
Posted inFeatured projects
Build log: Take one Polaroid Model 455 and one Instax 100 camera and what do you get? A serious hack job
After Fujifilm’s FP instant pack film was discontinued back in 2016, the remaining larger-format instant film choices were few: Impossible Project integral film, which took 30 minutes to develop with unpredictable results, or Fuji Instax wide film. Sure, you can still buy expired pack film, or spring for One Instant, but at over $20/photo, it […]
Posted inGuides & How-Tos
Repurposing orphaned instant cameras: Creating the Polaroid “SX-450”
2016 hit me hard. 100-Series pack film for Polaroid cameras would no longer be produced and it was only a matter of time before all of my packfilm cameras would become orphans. By 2019, my film stash was running low and I was toying with the idea of making these cameras work with other film […]
