So I got to thinkin’. I do this now and then – but today, sunday, in a brief moment of procrastinating on my homework, I’ve been thinking about Polaroids. I’ve been playing around with polaroid pack film for the last few months, doing some tinkering and battery adaptations and all that. I’d heard a few years ago about converting old Polaroid Roll Film cameras for regular roll film and even 4×5″, but it seemed either too complicated or too expensive. In the DIY Spirit, I went searching, surely it couldn’t be that hard.
Now some background – the first Polaroid cameras were of the roll film variety, which to my understanding involved two rolls of film in the camera – the negative material and the positive print material, that rolled together and sandwiched during development to yeild a final print. This film is long long discontinued and was superseeded by polaroid pack film. You can read more about these early polaroid cameras, and all the others, on The Land List.
While we’re at it, This site here has pretty much everything you’d ever want to know about converting polaroids, including these early models. However, he doesnt tackle the 4×5″ conversion, and at this stage I was quite curious.
I’d always heard two names thrown around – Littman and Razzle. The Littman 45 Single is available here and seems to be exactly what I was expecting – an early Polaroid 110-type camera, which cost maybe $40 on the used market, adapted for 4×5″ format.
They start at, supposedly, $2,000USD, up to $7,000, depending which model you want. Last time I looked into this, that’s as far as I got, and I felt pretty miserable about the idea by this stage. Some quick research shows that Littman himself isn’t exactly smiled upon by the community, and theats of litigation aren’t new. Apparently the idea is patented, however you patent something like this. Looks like a neat camera, but I have moral objections to paying through the nose for prestige-pricepoint items.
And the idea isnt new actually, there’s plenty of people who have done it themselves with varying degrees of success. There are some smaller names out there doing conversions commercially, and DIY jobs even show up on ebay now and then.
Next, I took a look at Razzle, and found out – damn, the chap is Australian. Melbourne, to be exact, and just a few suburbs away from a friend who’s floor I sleep on now and then.
Here’s a clip from his youtube channel, clearly poking some light fun at the littman…
Image borrowed, with best intentions, from the Razzle homepage.
I like it. 900USD, even less if you supply your own lens and/or body. Considering the amount of work that goes into them, the custom machining of parts, and your choice of leather for a bit extra, pretty acceptable.
I would like one. Please?
Time to start saving.
Have a look at the other projects on his site too, there’s some pretty interesting panoramic stuff. Great to see a tinker at work.
Also, on further research, it turns out Mr. Littman is a bit of a dick.
EDIT: The Byron? Yes, the Byron – another challenger appears, see here. I like the flush form of the back, and he’s posted a lot of good details of the trials and innovations he’s made. More tinkering and a lot of pictures.
Also, while we’re at it, check out Noah Schwartz work in the same field.
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