Going backwards: the Polaroid Landcamera Automatic 100

My Polaroid adventure continues with yet another addition to the family. I started with a boxy plasic camera from the early 1990s, then came the classic SX-70s from the 1970s and a SLR 680 from the early 1980s. My latest camera is the oldest of them, a Polaroid Automatic 100 from 1963. And what a beauty it is! It has a lot more buttons and settings than the other ones, and you need to think about and remember a lot more things before you shoot. You can set the ISO according to the film you're using, to whetehr it is bright sunny or overcast day, what film you're using (colour or black and white). It also has not just one viewfinder but two. One for focusing, and one for composing your shot.

Unlike the other models, which all use the film that we all associate with Polaroid cameras, the one where the photograph comes out automatically when you release the shutter and immediately starts to develop, this one uses a so called peel apart film. After having taken your picture, you will have to pull the photograph out of the camera, let it develop for a certain time (according to the temperature), and then peel the top off to reveal the image. You actually not only get the developed image, but also the negative.

It is certainly a lot more fiddly than with the other, later cameras, and the chemicals tend to be still wet after you have peeled the photograph apart, so you have to be careful when you handle it. But the quality of the photographs is astonishing (I certainly never got such a blue sky with any of my other Polaroids!). I guess that has to do mostly with the film itself (these cameras work with Fujifilm FP-100C and FP-3000B), but the sharpness of the lens really is beautiful.

The first photographs. Not really very exciting subjects or compositions. I just wanted to try it out. And of course, my scanner couldn't handle the colours very well. Even worse than with the Impossible films.

I am finding it almost hard to believe that these were taken with a camera that it is over 50 years old. I guess that speaks for the quality of these old cameras (as indeed of the later models as well, even though you can't really compare the photographs). I'm looking forward to trying this camera out more.

Cyan Polaroid summer shots

I had this Impossible Cyan 600 film that had been sitting in my fridge for a while, and I thought that our holiday was a good time to try it out and use it up. I was a bit sceptical about the film, and I must say, I'm not convinced. One thing that I found a bit strange was that it seemed quite impossible to get a sharp image with this film. And my Polaroid SLR 680 does take sharp images. It has to be said, though, that these scans don't do the actual images justice. While they aren't sharp, they are by no means as grainy as they appear here. And the contrasts are much stronger and the transitions much softer and smoother. Apparently, it was not only the camera, that struggled with the cyan, but also the scanner.

I still like these four images, though. A boat trip on the lake, a cool drink in the garden, and of the course, the two of us. And it does not happen very often that N agrees to have his picture taken. It was fun to try out this film, but I'm not going to buy it again. Actually, I prefer the simple films to all the fancy special edition that are available. Colour or black & white, and a simple white frame. The photographs have enough magic in themselves, they don't need any fancy shapes or colourful/patterend frames.

The sweet bliss of getting a sharp image, and two new cameras to play with

I'm still learning how to take photographs with my new SX-70. It's not as easy and straightforward as with the later autofocus cameras, and every photo that turns out properly focused and sharp just makes me insanely happy. Because you have so much less control of the outcome than with a digital camera, getting it right is somehow so much more satisfying.

Yes, I admit, I might be getting a bit obsessed with these old instant cameras. I just bought another not one, but two cameras. Well, they came as package of two, looked good and were reasonably priced. One's a Polaroid Image System, the other a Polaroid Image Pro. They're quite similar but the Pro has a flashy LED display and some extra features in addition, such as the option of multiple exposure, which I'm quite excited to try out. I only had one Image/Spectra film to try at the beginning of the weekend, so I decided to try out the Image System first. The Image/Spectra films used for this camera have a different image format, not the traditional square, but a rectangular format of 9.2x7.3cm. It also has an electronic display in the viewfinder, which gives you green light if your photo is going to be good, or a warning if it isn't so that you can recompose it.

16/05/2015 - The Old Apple Tree

After the first couple of photos I noticed that the frog tongue was a little bit creased at the edges, which leads to those two light stripes at the edges, where the photo is exposed to too much light when ejected. I plan to eventually replace the frog tongue, but for the moment I found an easy solution to the problem in one of the discussions on Flickr. When you take the photo, instead of releasing the shutter button immediately, keep it pressed down. As long as you don't release it, the photo won't be rejected. (This actually also comes in handy when wanting to take a double exposure with this camera, but more on that when I've tried it out). I took a dark canvas tote with me, sticking the whole camera into it before releasing the button so that the photo is ejected straight into the bag and not exposed to any light at all. And that did the trick beautifully. The stripes are as good as gone or only faintly visible.

16/05/2015 - Garden Corner

Yesterday, two more packs of Image/Spectra films arrived in the post, and I could finally try out the Image Pro. The frog tongue works perfectly here. I just need to read up a bit more about its functions and how to set all the settings on the LED display. It does feel almost modern, compated to the all manual SX-70 and the simple switches of the Image System.

Learning the SX-70, and a walk in the forest

I'm slowly, very slowly, learning how to use my new Polaroid SX-70. It's not easy, and I still get it wrong most of the time. This one's definitely a lot more  temperamental than the plastic box, my 600 type Polaroid. So I'm even more excited about every photo that turns out reasonably okay, which at the moment is about every one in four or five. I hope to get the hang of it soon, or else it's going to be very expensive. I'm taking photos in all kinds of different situations and taking notes of what worked and what didn't to find out what works best.

I also find it quite difficult to scan them. The colours just don't turn out quite right. They do look much better in reality.

On Sunday, I went for a long walk in the forest with my Mum. I took the SX-70 too, and I've learnt that the forest is not the best place for it. Maybe it was too dark, even though it was a sunny (and hot) day. Or maybe the contrast was too strong in the midday sun. Also, I find it very difficult sometimes to focus. Not only because it can be very tricky to get it right with the split focus circle, but also because I find it difficult to keep the camera still enough. Which is actually one of the reasons I'm embracing instant photography so much the moment. To help me become more mindful, focused, calm. Something I've been working on for a while now. But I'll write more about that some other time.

While my Mum walked through the forest at a brisk pace, thanks to her walking sticks, I was constantly either lagging way behind while taking photos with up to three different cameras (though mostly my DSLR), or trying to catch up at an even brisker pace while carrying a heavy camera bag over my shoulder. And most of the way was going slightly uphill, may I add.

But I'm glad I brought my DSLR. It was a lovely walk (even though I was exhausted afterwards) and I enjoyed taking photos in this beautiful forest. For the past ten years, it has been allowed to grow back into a natural forest, with next to no intervention, except when trees have fallen over the pathes. And even then, only the bits that block the path are cut off. Everything else is left to nature. It's a truly magical place.

Well, we might not have carpets of bluebells in our woods, but the forest was full of wild garlic, and it looked and smelled beautiful.

A quick photoshoot, and my first little stop motion film experiment

What do you do when you've got tons of stuff to do? Exactly. You try out something new instead of getting on with your stuff and getting it done. Preferably Something completely different. Something new. Which, because you haven't done it before, takes up loads of time.

I came across a tutorial for a stop motion film the other day, which I thought was really cool, and I wanted to try it out myself as soon as possible. In the tutorial, the film (made of a series of photograph), was made in iMovie. Hurray, I thought. I have iMovie. Unfortunately, when I opened my iMovie, it looked completely different than the one in the tutorial, with none of the buttons anywhere to be seen, and much less options. I somehow managed to figure out how to change the lenght of the film, but I'll have to spend some time figuring out how it works, where to find what, and how to create films the way I want them to look - and how to upload them so that they look the way I want them to. But apart from the frustrations, it has been great fun to create this little film.

Having taken out and set up all the equipment, I took the time to shoot some other things as well. I remember years and years back, when Granny Smith apples first appeared in the shops, how special and exciting we thought them, all bright green and shiny. I've been thinking recently, while shopping, that I haven't seen any Granny Smith in the supermarket for quite some time. What happened to them, I wondered. Did they still exist? A couple of weeks back, I happened to be in Germany for a day, and there, in a supermarket, I saw them. Of course I had to buy some, and I've been wanting to take photos of them for the past two weeks. I think they look just terrific.

I've been stressing myself out with my photo organising project, and I'm beginning to feel that I've been overdoing it. Those hours and hours at the computer after work and at the weekend. Today, my head feels like it's going to explode any minute. Good thing that I've got a little holiday coming up. And playing around with the photos and iMovie today has been a nice break. I still have loads of hours of importing photos into Lightroom to do, but I'm trying to take it a bit easier when I'm back from my holiday, all relaxed and full of energy again (and hopefully, with that constant headache gone).

But now I better start packing...

B&W Film

I picked up, the prints of my first roll of b&w film today, taken with my beloved Minolta Hi-Matic 7s II. So far, I've been very happy with the colour prints taken with it, although the digital version is always quite terrible. No matter whether I scan them myself from picture or negative, or have a CD made, they results are always the same: terribly grainy and not very sharp images. I'm beginning to think that there's something wrong with the camera somehow, as I've seen digitalised pictures taken with that camera on the net, and they look nothing like mine. But at least, the prints are okay. Maybe I really just have to stick to the prints, the old fashioned way :).

On the other hand, it's quite cool what you can with Photoshop to them afterwards. With one totally overexposed image, I managed to get some of the colour back and turn it into a picture I'm quite happy with:

I was slightly disappointed with the black and white prints. They turned out rather dark, with lots of contrast and little details. I've used an Ilford ISO 125 film, and the result is pretty much the same regardless of the weather condition, whether it was grey and rainy or bright sunshine. I stuck to the "sunny 16 rule" or used the automatic mode, with which I've had good experiences (even though I read somewhere that it wasn't reliable anymore because the voltage of the batteries has changed).

But as I said before, the advantage of the digital vesion of the analog prints is that they can be processed in Photoshop. And the grainy, not-so-sharp look somehow adds to the old-time-fee of the analog prints (although I wish you could see how wonderfully SHARP that lens actually is!).

Early morning at the river, with a bit of a yellow filter added afterwards:

 

 More early morning at the river, complete with reflections and a couple of mallards - and some added warm-up filter:

Some clouds in the sky, with a bit of contrast adjustment and orange filter to give it even more drama:

“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.” (G. K. Chesterton)

A grey and rainy day in one of the parks in Vienna, using a couple of solid colour layers to give it a cool greenish/blueish tint (and a little bit of sharpening):

And last but not least, an untreated, SOOC shot of the pavillion in Vienna on the same grey and rainy day.

I took another roll for development when I picked up the prints. So now at least I know what to expect, and won't be too disappointed. But it's awfully expensive. Together with the CD, it cost me well over CHF 1.00 per print!! So maybe I should consider doing my own developing sooner or later, if I want to go on shooting with bw film.

I've just decided, while finishing this post, to create a second blog dedicated entirely to black & white. There, I want to explore all aspects of black & white photography, hoping to learn and develop my skills. Have a look if you like: http://www.nordljusinbw.blogspot.com/.