Tag: polaroid

How to modify a Polaroid SX-70 for 600 film

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Adrian Hanft (of Lego pinhole camera fame) wrote a nice, step-by-step tutorial on converting a Polaroid SX-70 camera—whose Time Zero film has been discontinued—to take the still-available 600 film. He writes:

Polaroid 600 film actually fits in an SX-70 camera pretty easily. The problem with using 600 film in the SX-70 is that it is four times more sensitive than SX-70 film. Without modification, all your photos taken with 600 film would be overexposed. To correct this problem, we are going to adjust the camera by two stops. We will use a one stop neutral density filter to cover the lens, and we will remove the neutral density filter that covers the photocell. If you are wondering why we are adjusting by two stops when the film is four times faster, here is a quick math lesson. One stop is equivalent to doubling (or halving depending on which direction you are going) the amount of light. So, 2×2=4. Alright, lets get started.

Read tutorial at Found Photography

Roid Week 2006: post a Polaroid a day for five days

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Flickr members Cate and Lori Baker (Lori just finished co-editing the now-available benefit photography book, Signs of Life: Surviving Katrina [blogged previously]) have declared 11–15 September, 2006, to be Roid Week!

The idea is simple: shoot a Polaroid a day for five days and post them to the Roid Week group on Flickr. Roids! Cate! Lori! Sweet!

(You do have to be a member of Flickr to upload, but free accounts are available.)

If you’re new to Polaroid, you can get the lowdown from this primer at Omnimatter.

Omnimatter: “Rediscover Polaroid”

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Aaron Muderick has written a solid primer on Polaroid photography:

Every film photographer will tell you about the shots they lost because the lens cap was on, the film was bad, the camera setting was incorrect, or their own technique was mistaken. In the film era, one only found out about these critical mistakes days or weeks later when the film was developed and processed. By this time, the shot was lost forever. Digital changed all of this with the tiny video screen on the back of each camera.

However, the inventors of the digital camera were not the first to solve this problem of image turnaround. In 1947, a Harvard dropout was driven to invent by the impatience of his three year old daughter: “Daddy, why can’t I see my pictures NOW!”. His name was Edwin Land and his company was Polaroid.

Continue reading at Omnimatter

Polaroid to discontinue 80-series peel-apart instant films

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Fucking hell, Polaroid are killing yet another range of films! This time it’s the 80 series (84, 87, 88, and 89) 3.25 x 3.38-inch peel-apart pack film—the stuff you shoot in Holgaroids, supershooters, and squareshooters. Each product page bears the following message:

Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing 8[x] film within the last 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.

I guess it’s time to figure out how to hack a full-frame back as a Holgaroid replacement… hopefully the 3.25 x 4.25-inch 600 series pack film isn’t going anywhere for a while. Although, with Time-Zero and type 85 pos/neg discontinued, who the hell knows?

Polaroid emulsion transfer tutorial

Nicolai Grossman

Check out this well-written Polaroid emulsion transfer tutorial, with examples, by Sarah Wichlacz:

Polaroid transfers have a unique visual style that is a little ghostly, a little impressionistic, and often very moody. Needless to say, it’s a fun way to spice up found slides and staged photos. With a few readily-available supplies, we can make a whole bunch of transfer prints.

Continue reading at SarahWichlacz.com

Via MAKE Blog

Free Polaroid image transfer e-book by Holly F. Dupré

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Fine art photographer Holly F. Dupré, has published an e-book, Polaroid Image Transfers – Tools & Techniques. It’s clearly written, covers everything from film and paper characteristics to manipulations to mounting and reproduction for press. Essentially, this is an ass-kicking document from start to finish. And it’s free! Thank you Ms. Dupré!

Continue to the intro page or download the PDF directly.

Via Heather Hollingdale