Adventures with a Polaroid Automatic 100

As I posted, I recently converted a friend’s Polaroid Automatic 100 land camera to use normal AAA batteries. I got the chance to take it out for a spin in Golden Gate Park.

Having separate windows for rangefinder focusing and framing is a little weird, and more shows up on film than the framelines tell you, but I really liked shooting with it. You can carry the camera with the bellows collapsed and still use the viewfinder, only extending them to actually take a picture. This makes it nice and compact for walking around, fitting easily in your hand or on a strap under your arm. (I’d leave the cover at home, since it’s a big useless thing you have to carry, kind of like a bigger Holga lens cap).

Overall, I give the Polaroid Automatic 100 a "hell yeah". You can find them for around US $10 on eBay in working order (except the battery conversion, but you can also just use more expensive batteries if you’re not up for that), and despite the demise of Polaroid, Fuji still makes a very nice pack film that’s cheaper (and IMO nicer) than Polaroid was anyway. Fuji’s compatible films are FP-100C (ISO100 color), FP-100B (ISO100 black and white), and FP-3000B (ISO3000 black and white).

Here are some shots from the park… as you can see, the magnolias were in full bloom!

 

Expired Polaroid 669

 

Double exposure on expired Polaroid 669

 

Expired Polaroid 669

 

Fuji FP-100C

6 thoughts to “Adventures with a Polaroid Automatic 100”

  1. Dear Nicolai,

    I just got a polaroid 100 automatic land camera. When I opened the battery compartment, I realized that the negative (black) wire was unconnected. Since I couldn´t solve this issue and I saw in your bolg that you did some thing with battery adaptation in that model I´m asking for your Help!
    Could you tell me where to attach the black wire?

    Thanks in advance for your time.

    Best Regards,

    Juan

  2. Great pictures. Would you mind shooting me an email? I recently bought an old Polaroid land camera at a thrift store and have some questions as to how to get started experimenting with it.

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