Monday, July 1, 2013

New Addition: Polaroid Colorpack II

On the way back from my usual Sunday morning walk, I stopped off at a yard sale and scored a new Polaroid to add to my growing collection.

Being that pack film is still available, this was an exciting find, and a bargain at five bucks. I’ll probably order some film and shoot with it just to say I did. 

I was quite a fan of Polaroid back in the day when I would use type 55 4x5 film with my 645 back in a home-made pinhole camera. The cool thing was, I could swap it out for a 4x5 film magazine loaded with negative film or paper. Sadly, those days are over. Or are they?

It occurs to me that I could cannibalize the Colorpack II and convert it into a pack-based pinhole camera. But that would be a shame to do to a working camera. Then another thought; an NPC 35mm Polaroid back. 

There are quite a few of these out there, and because they use only a fraction of the 3-1/4"x 4-1/4" image area, they don’t command a particularly high price in the market. I could easily modify one and build a pinhole camera around it. 

Another approach would be the Pinholgaroid. The Polaroid back for the Holga does not yield a full-frame exposure, a waste in my opinion. But, the back and the camera can be easily modified in such a way to make that so. And since a Pinhole Holga is only about fifteen bucks, gutting it won’t be too painful. 






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