vernon_jenewein

Perhaphs you might look into the Fuji Instax 500af. Of all the Instax cameras it gives the most control, including flash adjustments, and only one with a true auto focus. It has been discontinued for the later 210 and 300 model, but those only have a 2 position focus system. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Fujifilm_Instax_500AF

Back on the ejection. I have SOLVED that issue. And, I have found out what is causing it. In the exit end of the film pack is a small mylar plastic "curtain" that keeps the film from light exposure if the door is opened. On this pack of film it was somewhat "deformed" and presented a clear blockage for film to easily leave the film pack. How I fixed it: I was working with already wasted film, so I tried many times to get the film to exit after an exposure. I could hear the shutter, and whirring, but no film/picture exited. Even with my finger pressing the film to exit, it was a definite stop at that film cartridge exit. So I took one of my single edged razor blades from my shaving kit and cut the Mylar plastic curtain out completely. Then I loaded back up the film (using 5 old no good exposed film) and the dark slide. Out came the dark slide, and I shut the flash off on the Minolta after that to save battery. Clicked the shutter and out came the first picture. Second click and out came the second pictures, and so on. Then I re-loaded the pack all over and did it again with success.... 3 times! No issues with film ejecting. Vern

I have 2 Spectra cameras. One a Polaroid Spectra 1200si and the other a Minolta Instant Pro (same as the Spectra Pro). In a recent purchase of Impossible films I have had difficulty with the picture ejecting after the shot (shutter, whir eject) . Is this an issue with all the Impossible films? Manufacture date of the one I had issues with in the Minolta was 8/15 Other one that was intermittent eject issues is 4/15 manufacture date. Even the Polaroid Spectra 1200si is having issues with sometimes ejecting the film. Other thing I noticed on these pictures is lack of any "vibrant" colors. They reminded me more of B&W film, with a pink cast than true color films. You should see how they look against my Polaroid 450 and Fujifilm FP-100c film. That film is fully vibrant in color compared to this. Perhaps it was wishful to think that I could get results like I did with my earlier Kodak EK4. If I remember right, even the earlier Polaroid Spectra and SX-70, etc cameras, with their respective films, did a whole lot better than does the Impossible films. What happened? Were the original Polaroid chemistry too toxic, banned, unstable. BTW I also have that Impossible Frog Tongue that covers the picture "when" it ejects. Vern

This link shows the front of my Vivitar 2800 http://www.rockycameras.com/ekmps/shops/rockcameras/images/vivitar-2800-camera-flash-3.99-15144-p[ekm]500x375[ekm].jpg And on the back if I set the dial to ASA 100 I get the choice of f2 on the "red" setting and f4 on the "blue" setting. The new flash I got in today, the Vivitar 283 does have f8, and I used it with the Polaroid with great success.

My Mom took pictures of me growing up as a small child in the 50s and 60s. She would send the roll off to Scruttland (sp) photo, which I believe was either in Illinois or Wisconsin. A few weeks later she would get her pictures and negatives along with a fresh roll of film. She would keep that roll and load it when she got done with the other one that was now loaded in the camera. She did not have a lot of money, and the Brownie allowed her to make a album of me. Had it not been for her and her Kodak Hawkeye Brownie, there would probably never be any pictures of me at a young age. You did a FANTASTIC job with the camera, subject matter and composure. Truthfully, I don't think it would have had the impact in color as it did in these B&W photos. Never thought about the Brownie not being fooled by the snow. I know many camera wants to average the light to make a "perfect" exposure, which with that much snow will generally turn out "gray" snow. Besides any camera shake (I have not delved into looking into that, I know that the Hawkeye had a fixed focus lens. It is the "eye" not the camera that make the "picture". Ansel Adams could have used the same thing and gotten similar results. Great Job!!

I prefer expensive, inefficient and toxic resource-gobbling film,..I made up my mind, Joe,. as I believe global warming is a hoax, and the planet is just fine. I am interested in saving an icon, a camera from going totally extinct. What you said to me could very easily apply to regular film as well, as digital, has less toxic and resource gobbling than regular 120, 220, 35mm, 4x5 or especially 8x10 film. I take offense at what you said! You post right on the verge of what is not allowed, Rodeo Joe "Postings that attack another person's motivation, intelligence, or character degrade the quality of the discussion and discourage thoughtful comments by others. There are many places on the internet where you are welcome to have moral or political arguments, however, in almost every case, photo.net is not one of them. Neither is this community a place for you to harass, abuse, threaten, or otherwise bother other members" -> from Photo.net code of conduct.

Sign the petition to save Fujifilm FP-100c at this link. https://www.change.org/p/save-instant-film and pass it on to your other friends as well. EVEN if you don't or ever intend to use Fuji's pack film, to loose any photographic medium is bad and many times cannot be reversed. Fuji is re-considering...

Thanks Joe and Craig. Yes, I found out on the 3rd that Fujifilm is discontinuing their pack film FP-100c About the same time, that day I received 3 more of the same film I had bought earlier and it was about $13.and change per pack of 10. I went to B&H and ordered 12 packs now at 14.99 which was 13.99 the day before. They accepted my order and will ship as soon as they get in more stock from Japan. Yea, It was a crazy thing! I had bought film and even had a Fujifilm FP-100c on my wish list on Amazon for 10.99 but I had to be a "Prime" member to get it at that price, so I passed, about 5 days ago. You should see the prices NOW on eBay! What was once $14.25 is now $40.95 in the new listing. I have 2 of the "SILK" in the refrigerator and 2 more on the way from catlabs.info. (part of JOBO ) It's 23.00 on the website and 25.00 on eBay from catlabs. You can get SX-70 and 600 film from the Impossible Project for around $25.00, which I thought was a ridiculous price. Perhaps now it's going to be the cheaper alternative to instant print pictures It is too bad, as the Fuji stuff was superior in one regard to the Polaroid. I can take a picture, pull it through the rollers and set it aside and forget about it for a bit. The film/picture takes really about 3 minutes and more won't hurt. Polaroid was time sensitive to the development time. This seems to be self exhausting. Really, if Fuji was having problems selling the film, why on earth did they not come up with a nice usable camera for this film? A camera that had a few modern shutter speeds, adjustable, a setting for ASA, and a means for focus. With their technology and Asia's mass productions skill set they could have really made a use for this film other than Polaroid backs for medium format cameras and the mass of old extinct Polaroid Land cameras. If I could, I would take one of my Graflex lenses and mount it to the front of one of these cameras, but the range finder would be a nightmare to align. Back on the flash.... Even though the camera is set at 75 ASA my Fuji film is set at 100, so that, I would imagine, is what the actual speed should be set on a flash for proper setting, ASA 100. I found out that once I put in a plug (special L type) on the camera, then it locks the shutter speed to just one speed, irregardless of what the light photocell tells it. That helps a lot, since now you only concentrate on the flash for correct exposure for x feet at aperture of f8.8 or thereabout.

Wow, Robert! I had an F3 Nikon a while back and those are super cameras! I think the body new was around $1100.00 or thereabout. A decent Nikon lens would cost you just that much alone!... USED! I did get in another body with 200mm lens, but both that body and lens are non-functional. I was hoping that putting in a battery pack would make the body work as it is in EX++ condition. Nope. Lens is very clean glass elements, but the shutter is locked shut. I found a pdf file on the internet to disassemble it, and might try to get it "unstuck" sometime. Unfortunately it was a 79.00 hope for the best.

I have a Polaroid Land 450 and it takes a special 3 volt batter for shutter and one for the timer. With Fujifilm, the don't have enough time on the timer to worry about. I let it develop minimum of 3 minutes and 5 or more is alright. Fujifilm was different than Polaroid. Once you pull the picture out you can leave it for a long period... even drive home and peel them all at once at home if you want. For my 3V battery I use a CR123 I believe, which is a cheap 3 volt battery. It doesn't have snaps on the end, but I have a rubber band and if you just place it in the battery holder, you can use the rubber band to snug it all up. 250, 350, and 450 had Zeiss-Ikon rangefinders and glass element lenses. They also have tripod sockets and if you can use one of those Polaroid flash ends (funny PC connection with L bracket end) and spice it into your favorite electronic flash cable, you can use electronic flash pretty good. Without that the eye tries to set the shutter speed. When you put that special plug into the side for the flash connection, it makes the shutter speed on speed, and pretty quick too. This is useful: http://www.rwhirled.com/landlist/how2-packflash.htm And this link is REAL helpful to learn of the limitations and the beauty of Instant film pictures. http://www.dantestella.com/technical/roidrage.html

I was on eBay looking and saw a decent price for a body that had a viewing screen. Mine has a few scratches on one of the cameras, (at this point I had 2. One really good, and 1 so-so). So I figured I'd bid up to about $60 since the screens are hard to find. I won the auction for $21.61 and with shipping the whole total came to only $28.56. This was the auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291688380089?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT so I did not get too excited. Well, it came yesterday afternoon. It had a batter holder and I put 4 fresh batteries in there, put on a lens and back and low and behold everything, and I mean EVERYTHING works! On my second Bronica it pretty much works but the metered prism won't work on it and neither does the mirror lock up. On this one, my metered prism not only works, but so does both settings for the mirror lock up just as they should. Fresnel viewing screen is like new condition. Took a picture with my Polaroid back and it turned out great. It did not come with a winder crank, but I had one from when I put a speed grip on my #1 camera/body. I put the winder crank on my #2 camera and swapped out the nice speed grip for this camera as it outshines my #2 several ways. Now, I do have another SQ-Ai body that even if I put in batteries, nothing works. No shutter, no LED lighting up,nothing. Someday I'll have to open it up and see what might be wrong, but as far as cosmetics, the body is EX ++ condition... just don't work. Not often one stumbles across a working 6X6 body for under 25.00. :)

I appreciate your answer Rodeo Joe, but understand these limitations I have: The Polaroid has no adjustable aperture. The film speed setting of the camera is either 75, 150, 300, or 3000 ASA. There is no ASA 75 instant film any more, only Fuji instant that is ASA 100 and ASA 3000 I cannot dial in more open f stops, say 5.6 or 2.8 I am limited to f8.8 for the camera setting on ASA 75 (in reality it's 100 speed instant film) and a smaller aperture for ASA 3000 speed film. On the Model 450 there is a setting for a different film speed of 150 and for 300 On other models it's simply 75 or 3000. Pick one. Shutter speed is also non adjustable. The shutter is timed by the amount of light that reaches the photocell on the front side next to the lens. I have heard that you can limit it to a single shutter speed on the 450 if you plug in the special prong PC adapter plug for flash. What that single shutter speed is I don't know. I do have an old instrument around here somewhere that measures shutter speeds, so I'll have to drag that out sometime.

Just getting back in here. Found and bought a nice Vivitar 283 on eBay for under 20.00 It has a rather impressive guide number (120' using ASA 100 film) and I might be able to set the auto for an aperture of around 8. Looks like it was kind of a powerhouse in it's day. Vern

Thank you for that information!! The Polaroids my 320 and latest 450 have setting for film speed of 75 and 3000. On the Polaroid Land camera model 450 (with Zeiss-Ikon range finder and glass element lens) They provided additional speeds for future films of ASA 150, 300, along with the default of 75 and 3000. Why they choose such odd film speeds only Heaven knows. My FujiFilm FP-100C (color) is ASA 100 as also is the 100 SILK. The B&W FujiFilm I have, FP-3000B is ASA 3000. They (Fuji) also made a FP-100B which was a 100 speed B&W but has recently been discontinued. My color film expires 8-2017, whereas my B&W instant pack film expires 8-2016.. this year. I keep it refrigerated. I did look at those Metz flash units on eBay. They are more the large handle type. I have a Sunpack in my closet with a handle and large flash head (it takes 4 C batteries) along with a Sunpak connector that goes on the hot shoe. Probably an 'auto' type flash. I was thinking more in the line of a smaller flash unit like the Vivitar 2800 or such that could be attached to a " L " type hand flash bracket with the camera. Do any of those pop to mind?