Ghostly Sin

Ghostly Sin, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

PX70 Cool • Definitely the color formula I liked the most especially as it aged.

Echo Park Wander

Some images from a recent photo outing with my friend Julia around Echo Park, CA. 

Overcast morning and things were quiet.

           

   

Polaroid Spectra SE, expired Softtone Edge Cut film & SX-70 Sonar OneStep, Impossible PX-70FF film.

   

   

Holga 120CFN, expired Konica Pro 120 160 color negative film.

Polaroid ColorPack II and Polaroid Blue

Recently rescued a few vintage cameras from my mother's house. One of the useable ones is a ColorPack II model that takes type 100 film. The ColorPack II has the following specs.

• Lens: 114mm, f/9.2 3-element glass or plastic.
• Shutter: Electronic; range about 10 sec. - 1/500
• Flash: Built-in flashcube socket; flashcube automatically rotates after each exposure
• Automatic exposure system similar to the folding pack cameras.
• Settings for 75 and 3000 speed films. (fixed aperture for each)
• Has simple "face sizer" focusing aid for 5ft. setting only.
• Has metal "spreader bars" instead of rollers.

specs taken from rwhirled.com/landlist.

I always thought of these hard plastic models as being a cheap, inferior, bulky versions of the range finder pack cameras (250 for example). I found it to be surprisingly light (it is plastic after all) to carry. The exposures seemed to be pretty accurate as well. The lens seems pretty sharp, I think this one has the glass lens. Focusing is a bit difficult since you have to guestimate with a scene selector, but with a little practice I think it would be easy. I would definitely bring this along instead of a regular bellows pack cam for any kind of camping/hiking purpose since its so light weight and simple to operate or for questionable weather conditions.

I've only shot some Polaroid Blue film through it so far. I initially got the Blue as part of the Triple Dip deal from Impossible, one Chocolate, one Blue and one Sepia. I'd been curious about the Blue film for some time and having a now empty and available camera to use it with I loaded it up. The film seems like its missing the yellow portion of color spectrum, but even though its a wonderful blue color (and a nice range at that), other colors due come thru depending on the color balance. Red's come thru as do some greens and skin tones. One of the other unique things about this film is that it has a silk textured surface to it. A blue version of the 125i silk perhaps. Sometimes I really like the look and texture of silk films and other times it really bothers me. Appears to work really well with the blue. Polaroid always seems to have done blue really well. Has a lot of potential, stylized options with it depending on the subject matter. Since this is a expired film and limited, it may soon be difficult to find this film. The Impossible store still has some in stock, but supplies were looking low. I say check it out while you can!

I'd Like To Thank The Academy...

Just a quick post to say thank you to Jeff at the art of waiting, the impossible project and Anne Bowerman and Dave Bias for selecting my Polaroid diptych for The Art of Waiting "Autumn" instant theme contest. They're sending me 4 packs of the new PX600uv+ film! How cool is that? Needless to say I'm very happy about this.

"Trees and Crows" - expired Artistic TZ film.

Boba Fett and Flowers

My first few shots with Impossible's PZ600 film and a Polaroid Macro 5 SLR camera. I really like the quality of this film. It has nice subtle tones with pretty good darks and its really sharp as well (despite the out of focus Boba). I didn't use a light shield with any of these, but its indoors and with the built in flash. Pretty much flipped them over and left them alone for 5 minutes. The tone does seem to take a day or two to really set.

PX70 FF

A mini review with some of the shots I've done with my first two packs of Impossible's new PX70 Color Shade First Flush edition. They did something different this time around when they announced the film. You could buy it in 3 packs, but at the price of two since its new and still some what of a beta flavor as far as color/exposure and all that goes. I think that was a really smart thing for them to do. Especially since its so new and unpredictable in some ways. Plus, its almost like a thank you to the customers for helping to test this out early on. The temp issue seems to be fine, light exposure is still an issue though. Had to accept that for the time being and make regular use of a light shield. I have to admit, I feel like I got a better handle on this film, much quicker, then I did with the PX100 FF. My first pack of PX70 was mostly about what to expect (and not a lot of great shots either), so by the time I got to the second pack I felt like I was finally getting shots that I really liked and was able to replicate somewhat. I found that with my SX-70 Sonar OneStep, I needed to either over or underexpose by half a wheel turn on the exposure dial. It seemed to be the only way to get more color to come thru or something with some darks to it. Like the PX100, it is on the lower contrast side and in general has a blue-green hue. You can coax it out though in other ways. Some are using warming filters on the camera to boost color and contrast. However, Impossible states that this film can take several days to finish developing. Most of mine I've waited 2-5 days before scanning. I do notice a gradual change in the overall color and density. It does tend to improve over time. Plus some of the darker areas take awhile and can look a little splotchy, some refer to it as lizard skin. Impossible has already announced the new version of PX70 at Photokina and should be on the market sometime in October. The samples looked nice, more color and contrast, but still with that nice old vintage quality to it. I'm looking forward to trying the new batch when its out. I do like the quality though of this edition. I think thats one of things I enjoy about the Impossible films in general is the variety of quality/experience with each edition.

Light shield flipped up, but I still like how it turned it out.

Check out the ever growing and complete set of my PX70 shots on Flickr.

Welcome Mio

Say hello to my little friend, Mio.

A couple of months ago my wife was visiting her family and they live in a small town up the coast. While there, she planned on checking out thrift stores and yard sales and asked her to keep an eye out for any old cameras or Polaroids. She found this Polaroid Mio for only two bucks! I've seen these going for anywhere from $50 to $100 brand new on ebay. Of course, I had no idea if it actually worked. You can still get film for these. Fuji makes it, Its contrasty and full of color. Its called Instax Mini. *More on that in at bottom of post. Got some batteries, takes two of the CR2 variety and finally got around to ordering some film via Amazon.com where its really affordable around $16 for a twin pack for 20 shots total. The camera works great and is very simple. Power button, distant landscape button, light or dark button, force flash on button (its always auto ready though, can't turn off) and the exposure button on the front. Once you pop the film in and close the door, you have to take a picture to eject the dark slide, after that, ready to go. It has a 60mm fixed length lens with minimum focus of 2 feet.

It really is a fun camera to use in that Polaroid ready kinda way. So long as you've got some decent light the flash won't fire so you can get some nice creative shots with it. For indoor/night time snaps, its a no brainer. It really is point and shoot. The design is a little on the odd side, switching between horizontal and vertical is slightly awkward. I do like the fact that I can get my instant fix, while not costing a lot to do it. The images are pretty darn sharp with exposures that are always great. If you find a Mio on the cheap, get it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

* According to hear say and rumors - 

Apparently Polaroid licensed Fuji to make/design the Mio and to manufacture the film as well. Fuji released their own branded camera years ago, but didn't sell it in the U.S., maybe not even outside the Asia markets. A few years ago they started selling their larger wide format camera and then added the mini models with Fuji branded film. Then sometime earlier this year, the once great former shell of a creative company Polaroid decided to get back into the game again (thanks to the success of the impossible project) and partnered with Fuji and released the re-re-branded Fuji to Polaroid 300 camera. Whew, that was a lot to summarize and setup. 

Palms

Palms, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Just a quick post.

Something about this Polaroid just says summer to me.
Yep, that's all I got for right now.

Polaroid Spectra SE, expired Polaroid 990 film.

Love it when the imperfections line up perfectly.

Gonna Take You Down To Chinatown

Spent the afternoon with my friend Julia wandering around Chinatown here in Los Angeles. For one reason or another I'd never gotten around to really checking it out. I definitely found myself inspired. Obviously all that red had something to do with it, the architecture, street musicians, food and overall it was just pretty cool. Its not a huge area, but had a lot of activity going on with lots of people walking around, shops and musicians playing traditional Chinese guitar type instruments, made it feel a little less L.A. like. After we were done shooting, we had a great late lunch at Via Cafe. You can check out my food blog for that. Gave me a chance to test out some Polaroid ATZ edge cut film and another new film, Fuji RXF400 chrome which I cross processed and pushed and some expired Fuji NPS160 color neg film that was processed +1/2 and C-41. Its interesting with the cross processing of Fuji chrome films how they all seem to go to a different color dominant shift. Astia went green, RDPIII went more yellow, Sensia went yellow/green and the RXF had a blue/cyan shift. The older the film the greater the shift. 

 

 

Holga 120CFN. Fuji NPS160 color negative and Fuji RXF400 Chrome film 

cross processed C-41.

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I really like the quality of the ATZ edge cut film, instant vintage. Suddenly it felt like a different time. This film really performed well for something that used to get tossed out by Polaroid. Unfortunately there were very few packs made available for sale and its all gone. I still have 2 packs remaining.

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, expired Artistic TZ edge cut film.