manycameras

[manycameras]

BUTLER 2014

The Decade Project promotes a robust, lasting and enthusiastic film photography renaissance.

To be photographed, email butlers.decade@gmail.com

[manycameras]

The Many Cameras store has re-opened!

Not that it's ever been officially closed but the store is only busy around Christmas-time for some reasons and I couldn't be bothered to re-stock until closer to another season of buying. I have changed the store address from firda.etsy.com to manycams.etsy.com to reflect the store name. I've also had to raise the price a little bit because these cameras are getting harder and harder to find. There are days when I've had to come home from a day-long camera-hunting with nothing to show for it. I've also noticed that shipping charges to the US by Canada Post has gone up considerably for anything that weighs above 1kg, which is quite unfortunate. I wish there was something I could do about it. :-( Anyway, if you're in the market for a Polaroid camera, please check out the store! If you know of anyone who is in the market for a Polaroid camera, please refer them to the store! I'd be forever indebted to you. :-) I'm still in the process of adding more cameras to the store so if you don't see anything you like today, please check back in a couple of days. Thanks in advance!

[manycameras]

For quite some time I had been thinking about this:

Polaroid cameras are awesome, but I already have a bag full of old batteries, most of them containing still so much voltage in order to fuel another 2-3 cartridges (depending on your camera). Yes, there is a battery return program by the impossible project (which I highly recommend supporting though there are currently no free return envelopes…) taking care and eventually reusing some of the returned batteries (great!). 

But I wanted to try a different approach. The idea is quite simple, but might also go against some part of the original polaroid concept.

Instead of having the battery coming with every cartridge of film (with the battery landing in trash rather sooner than later), why not power the camera externally with a standard rechargeable battery.

So this is what I did (and you can do this as well, if you are willing to take some irreversible modification to your camera):

Drill two holes in the bottom of your camera, right at the point where usual the cartridge battery connects with the camera.

Stick to cables through the holes (I used a piece of the audio cable from my stereo system).

Connect the other ends to a rechargeable battery with the right voltage (mine is 6 V, 750 mAH, I used this

That’s it.

Costs of modification: About 15 Euro (for battery and charger)

Time of modification: less than 5 minutes.

Now here’s the catch:

For using the camera this way with a new cartridge you need a changing bag in order to remove the fresh battery from the cartridge. Then you are ready to go.

Taking this further, I can see some advantages and possibilities:

Less battery waste 

More efficient use of power.

Battery outlasts even the most energy hungry photo sessions (I’m thinking of using my Polaroid ImagePro with multiple exposures and flash on each exposure)

No battery in the cartridge means: More space for film!

What needs to be done now?

First of all, I’d like you to weigh in. What are your thoughts on that concept? Does it make sense to you? And if you are from impossible, I really would like to talk to you about this in-depth. Please use Twitter or mail.

Second, please share this idea with your polaroid friends on- and offline, so I can find out what others are thinking about it.

Last but not least: This is a prototype, meaning I’m testing the concept. In a next step some cool looking and efficient product design would need to happen ;)

[manycameras]

(via Film is Like Drugs | Polaroid Spectra System - Many Cameras) Have recently revamped and re-organized my websites. This tumblr will be used for posting film photography links of interest while the dot com will be for posting photos I took with my many film cameras. The Etsy shop will get re-stocked soon(ish) because Polaroid cameras have started piling up all over the house again! Hope you'll keep following! :-)

[manycameras]

This might be of interest to the experimental/DIY film developers among you. You've probably heard or read somewhere that you can use salt water for fixing. You might be skeptical about it. Well, according to this blog post, you can make a working fixer by mixing a minimum of 300 grams of table salt with 1 liter of water. The caveat? Fixing time is 2 days. Not too bad if you're not in a hurry. Plus, table salt is cheap and can be bought anywhere. I'm assuming the fixing is done at room temperature. A related discussion thread on Flickr can be found by joining this group . And here's a picture from a roll of film fixed with salt. Will experiment with this in the near future and let you know the results.

[manycameras]

Old Polaroid yields eerie development: a long-dead uncle I'm usually happy enough just to find an empty cartridge with some battery juice left in it when I buy one.

[manycameras]

Time to stock up!

[manycameras]

That's unheard of in this digital age. Good for them! And good for us, film shooters!

Bravo, Kodak!

What a headline! Kodak phases out digital businesses, keeps film alive

[manycameras]

The latest Impossible Project instant colour film looks very impressive! I wonder if you still need to shade it from light when it ejects. If not, that'd be perfect!

[manycameras]

My Cameras: Coronet Flashmaster

I found the Coronet Flashmaster at the local antique market last month and got my husband to get it for me for Christmas. It's a simple, point-and-shoot, medium format, bakelite camera from 1950s with no settings whatsoever. I thought I'd run a test roll through it, to double as a test roll for a new batch of C41 developer/fixer that I was going to mix. The film I used was Kodak PPF 100 that expired, oh, only 12 years ago. Obviously, I'd forgotten a lot about C41 processing after not doing any of it since last summer. The results show that many things that could go wrong during the processing did go wrong. But thanks to the crappy lens on the camera and the light leak in the top left corner, I still like some of the shots anyway. Hope you do too! :)

And thanks to this roll, the second roll of film I developed with this batch of developer/fixer this morning turned up just perfect. Can't wait to scan and share!

[manycameras]

A DIY Film Developer Problem

There is no dead pixel problem in film photography. Only dead fixer.

[manycameras]

Solo | Brownie Hawkeye Flash Solo passed away today at age 25. He was one of the donkeys at the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada. I'm saddened by his passing but glad that I caught this moment in his life on film and that I have this picture to remember him by.

[manycameras]

If you want to use Impossible Project PX680 film in a Polaroid camera designed to take SX70 film and you find shipping cost to order the pack filter from Impossible Project too crazy (like I do), the linked blog post shows you how to make a DIY pack filter using a sheet of gel filter that can be had pretty cheaply from a local source.

[manycameras]

I've always wanted a Holgaroid. I've got a Polaroid back for my Hasselblad that I could potentially use, but I don't really want to destroy my beloved Holga. This is an excuse for me to get another one, I guess!

[manycameras]

Another link to another do-it-yourself light shield for the Polaroid SX70 cameras. This one is even simpler than the other one I posted last week and the material used is fabric, which should be more more durable than paper. It could also double as a camera sleeve. Very elegant. I don't know why I didn't find this first when I first started looking for a tutorial. I was just searching for more tutorials when I found this as I just got the two packs of Impossible Project film I ordered in the mail today. Exciting! Will post pictures soon, assuming the SX70s I'm about to test are working great.

[manycameras]

Bulb Exposure | Brownie Hawkeye Flash) Just wanted to show what could be accomplished with a Brownie Hawkeye Flash on Bulb mode. It’s about a 1-minute long exposure. The film I used was probably the discontinued Kodak Portra UC (I used to shoot with this film exclusively before it became really difficult to find). This is one of the reasons the BHF is my most favourite box camera ever. :)

[manycameras]

I've got two packs of Impossible Project film coming that I'm going to use to test a couple of SX70 cameras before putting them up for sale. I realize that I'm going to need one of those shade accessories so that the pictures won't turn up looking like crap, but I don't want to fork out $14 for something that could potentially be made at home for a couple of bucks. I turned to Google, and voila! Found this link to a blog post with instructions to create a do-it-yourself light shield. Perfect! Just thought I'd share.