Usability of Polaroid backs

Don't bother arguing with q.g.

 

He is always irrefutably correct about anything related to photography no matter how much voluminous experience you or anyone else may have to the contrary.

Thanks for the advice! Maybe me and my friends (several award winning commercial photographers from Boston, L.A., and NYC) have had it wrong for 50 years. And there is my buddy Michael who was a Nat Geo photog for 20 years after a successful stint doing advertising in NY.. Let me contact them immediately and let them know they've been doing it wrong for all these years. /SARC OFF.

I think I've run into his cousins on other forums I've been on...

I used Polaroid when I was learning 4x5 to verify my camera settings, and I loved P/N film for several reasons, including the apparent lack of any base tone and the funky borders. And yes, Ansel loved it. I also used Readyloads and Quickloads as space and labor-saving alternatives to loading and carrying film holders. When all that went away I lost interest in 4x5 as being too labor intensive for me. Sold all that gear.

Polaroid was instrumental in large format. I did tons of architectural photography, including ads for Architectural Digest. It was the best way to ensure that your verticals were straight. It wasn't unusual to spend up to 4 hours prepping for a single shot, especially an indoor / outdoor photo where you had a seven minute window to get the right light balance. In product photography, the polaroid let us adjust the spacing between objects to yield smooth visual transitions.

100% wrong. As a professional for over 50 years now, Polaroid film was an indispensable tool used by almost all studio photographers to verify light balance under studio strobes, as well strobes used for fill outdoors.

Polaroid film was also used 100% of the time on advertising shoots to show to art directors to verify product placement and lighting.

And, as with every other photographer I have known, it was used 100% of the time during portrait sessions to provide feedback to the subjects.

I completely agree, I used LOTS of Polaroid material myself in my advertising photography studio in the 80s, 90s and very early 2000s. It was common practice back then, in the FILM days, to check complicated studio lighting settings (I was working with food and wine, for cooking books, for example), to ensure everything was working perfectly before the final take. In the later years, I used the excellent, saturated, high-contrast Fuji FP100C color instant film, loaded into my Mamiya RZ67 Polaroid back, and into the 405 (and 550) backs of the LF studio camera (format 6x12cm for editorial work over two pages, sometimes 6x9cm, and of course 4x5" Fuji sheet film). I worked mostly on Fujichrome slide film (PROVIA 100F III 120) that my advertising clients were very happy with, it always looked extremely well after a professional drum scan. And of course, the narrow exposure latitude of the original slide film (100 ISO) was one major part of the reason of shooting a Polaroid, the accurate exposure just had to be carefully checked in advance when delivery of the work was early next morning. Nowadays, young photographers only shooting digital look at me in bewilderment, not quite grasping an era before iPhones and small digital mirrorless cameras... I use them, too, a LOT (Fuji X-T2 & X-E3 and a Nikon D800E DSLR)

But I actually also STILL use instant film material! These days, I love shooting landscapes and architecture (now that I am an old age pensioner and only do what I like) with my Hasselblad and Fuji GX680 III Pro cameras (sometimes also the trusted Mamiya RZ67, the Pentax 6x7 TTL, or even 6x12cm in a Horseman roll film holder, on a Horseman LE 4x5" camera, a very nice, moderately wide panorama format). However, I favor mostly either the 'square' composition of 6x6cm, or the beautifully proportioned 6x8cm format (56 x 76mm) of the monstrously big Fuji 6x8.

And STILL - before shooting a single frame of slide film, I'll shoot a very quick 'Polaroid' (Fuji FP100B black & white pack film of 10) just to check the exact exposure, final composition, and that nothing vignettes (filters, compendium lens shade etc). The processing time is 30-45 seconds, but I always wait 2 minutes for deeper blacks. After a day of landscapes, I find it very contemplative to ponder over my Fuji 'Polaroids', perhaps doing a different 4,5x6 crop, while I wait for my lab in Stockholm to develop the E-6 rolls of film (120 or 220):

Apart from the more practical side, in my analogue photography, I also LOVE to see all the great artistic work and experiments (e.g. Polaroid Transfers, which I tried myself many times) that the innovative Polaroid Land Process inspired (see the books from my library below):

All the best from Stockholm, Sweden,

Bengt Fredén, photographer ;-)

In the dying days of the Pola single loads, I picked up a 4x5 Pola back for a fiver. It sits on a shelf in company of another one that came with a bundle of stuff. Neither have ever been used by me. When the Impossible Project and the 55 venture started up, I entertained a notion that I might be able to use them. No way, no how, not at those prices. So, they just sit there...

A better use was made of the 405 back I bought - there was still plenty of Fuji FP100 stock around and it wasn't actually discontinued at that point. I shot quite a few with that back and was reasonably happy with the running cost. It was more just to have a proof of something or other and just for personal satisfaction.

I still have a couple of packs of FP100C in the fridge. Apparently I could now trade them for the Brooklyn Bridge.

The "classic" Polaroid backs sold years ago as accessories to medium format film systems in their heyday were rendered useless when the last remaining film supplier (Fuji) stopped making the required peel-apart film paks. All the outrageously overpriced Fuji film you see for sale now is expired and needs to be used quickly to net the full performance. Polaroid film is years further expired. Expired instant film doesn't hold up as well as expired standard film, so not a good bet unless you're into pricey unpredictable surrealism.

 

The only instant backs still viable are the rare few that take SX70 type no-peel film. Third party companies still make and sell a mediocre knockoff of that Polaroid film. Its kinda fun to play with if you own an old SX70 camera, but blowing upwards of $500 - $700 for a custom made medium format polaback is likely to disappoint.

 

Another option is hacking a current Fuji Instax camera into a back, or re-housing Instax no-peel film into old sheet film holders. Much better film, but small image size and the hacks can be hugely inconvenient to use.

 

Really the only reason to attempt any of this today is the satisfaction of pulling it off: there's no particular artistic or practical benefit. Even as proofs, the modern instant film variations aren't much help beyond confirming your flash fired properly. The tiny off-center 6x6 or 6x7 is too small to enjoy for most purposes unless perhaps you scan it to digital, 6x9 images from press cameras are more versatile.

 

When the genuine Polaroid peel apart and SX70 film was still available, it was capable of being tampered with to create unique little artworks, also it was cheap enough (and frame size big enough) to have a blast handing the pics out to friends. Today, neither feature applies with the films that are left.

I still have a full pack of the Fuji instant for my Polaroid back for my Mamiya RB67. Can it be used? Would anyone want to buy it and how much?

I will say that apparently there's SOME residual demand for them, as in liquidating my RB67 kit, I got a surprisingly strong price for my nearly-unused Polaroid back and P-plate.

 

On the other hand, my nice Arca-Swiss Hasselblad back(which looks to me to be a Polaroid-supplied back door/roller assembly) sits on the shelf because it's worth next to nothing.

 

On the side of small Polaroids from MF-this isn't QUITE the same thing, but I've had some fun over the past few months contact printing MF on Azo. With the right photo, the resultant little prints have a certain charming quality to them.

How much do you think I could get for my Polaroid back for a Mamiya RB67 and the P=Plate (required to mount the Polaroid back on the camera) along with one expired box of Fuji FP100C? It really is a beautiful setup. ;)

I completely agree, I used LOTS of Polaroid material myself in my advertising photography studio in the 80s, 90s and very early 2000s. It was common practice back then, in the FILM days, to check complicated studio lighting settings (I was working with food and wine, for cooking books, for example), to ensure everything was working perfectly before the final take. In the later years, I used the excellent, saturated, high-contrast Fuji FP100C color instant film, loaded into my Mamiya RZ67 Polaroid back, and into the 405 (and 550) backs of the LF studio camera (format 6x12cm for editorial work over two pages, sometimes 6x9cm, and of course 4x5" Fuji sheet film). I worked mostly on Fujichrome slide film (PROVIA 100F III 120) that my advertising clients were very happy with, it always looked extremely well after a professional drum scan. And of course, the narrow exposure latitude of the original slide film (100 ISO) was one major part of the reason of shooting a Polaroid, the accurate exposure just had to be carefully checked in advance when delivery of the work was early next morning. Nowadays, young photographers only shooting digital look at me in bewilderment, not quite grasping an era before iPhones and small digital mirrorless cameras... I use them, too, a LOT (Fuji X-T2 & X-E3 and a Nikon D800E DSLR)

 

But I actually also STILL use instant film material! These days, I love shooting landscapes and architecture (now that I am an old age pensioner and only do what I like) with my Hasselblad and Fuji GX680 III Pro cameras (sometimes also the trusted Mamiya RZ67, the Pentax 6x7 TTL, or even 6x12cm in a Horseman roll film holder, on a Horseman LE 4x5" camera, a very nice, moderately wide panorama format). However, I favor mostly either the 'square' composition of 6x6cm, or the beautifully proportioned 6x8cm format (56 x 76mm) of the monstrously big Fuji 6x8.

And STILL - before shooting a single frame of slide film, I'll shoot a very quick 'Polaroid' (Fuji FP100B black & white pack film of 10) just to check the exact exposure, final composition, and that nothing vignettes (filters, compendium lens shade etc). The processing time is 30-45 seconds, but I always wait 2 minutes for deeper blacks. After a day of landscapes, I find it very contemplative to ponder over my Fuji 'Polaroids', perhaps doing a different 4,5x6 crop, while I wait for my lab in Stockholm to develop the E-6 rolls of film (120 or 220):

 

Apart from the more practical side, in my analogue photography, I also LOVE to see all the great artistic work and experiments (e.g. Polaroid Transfers, which I tried myself many times) that the innovative Polaroid Land Process inspired (see the books from my library below):

 

All the best from Stockholm, Sweden,

Bengt Fredén, photographer ;-)

 

 

 

 

[ATTACH=full]1361607[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=full]1361608[/ATTACH]

Is that presently? Where do you get unexpired FP100B BW film?

In the dying days of the Pola single loads, I picked up a 4x5 Pola back for a fiver. It sits on a shelf in company of another one that came with a bundle of stuff. Neither have ever been used by me. When the Impossible Project and the 55 venture started up, I entertained a notion that I might be able to use them. No way, no how, not at those prices. So, they just sit there...

A better use was made of the 405 back I bought - there was still plenty of Fuji FP100 stock around and it wasn't actually discontinued at that point. I shot quite a few with that back and was reasonably happy with the running cost. It was more just to have a proof of something or other and just for personal satisfaction.

I still have a couple of packs of FP100C in the fridge. Apparently I could now trade them for the Brooklyn Bridge.

Only a little more than a 4x5 box of Velvia 50. :(

I guess an old digital back for the MF camera isn't too expensive. I think using the digital back instead of Polaroid is better.

A digital camera DSLR in manual, even an older one will do a better job over any Polaroid. Polaroid complety obsolete no longer needed.

I used P/N film with Hassy. I not only still keep my holder, but also the bucket used to clear and clean the negatives.

Unfortunately, the demand from real estate brokers and studio photographers is gone forever. So all remains

Only as an artifact from the past. It ain’t commin back!

By the time I got enough experience with polaroids in my Hasselblad to understand their peculiarities, the digital revolution had occurred. I actually tested shots with my D2x before committing them to MF or LF film.

I was intrigued by the idea of producing both a positive and usable negative from Polaroids. That enthusiasm was short-lived once I found the correct negative ISO was about half that for a positive in the same emulsion. Plus I stained a lot of surfaces painting the film with the preservative coating.

 

(snip)

And that supposed use was to check whether a photographer actually knew what he or she was doing, before he recorded a scene on a frame or two of film. But the thing is: the viewfinder told you (still does) what you are recording. A light meter told you (still does) how it is recorded, tonally. Instant film was particularly bad at doing the latter, had poor (very harsh) contrast and bad colour. And it and was blurry. There were variants that did make quite good pictures, but only if you used the negative that type also supplied (and then you again had to wait for the print, if you were not able to read a negative). And it was quite expensive too.

So people who could use a light meter, knew how to pay attention to focus and framing (and who could read a negative), i.e professional photographers, really had no use for expensive but poor instant prints.

So why?

 

(snip)

Many years ago, National Geographic was sent to take a picture with my father in it.

Well, it was a complicated shot, part of which was lit by a laser two miles away.

In any case, it seems that the photographer used a 4x5 Polaroid camera instead of a light meter.

As he told me about it, the first shot came out completely black, but eventually they got closer,

and then the final shot was done.

For one part of the shot, the photographer went and bought a brand new projector

screen, and then cut a big circle out of it.

Hmmm nice argumen… er I mean discussion.

Don’t know how many of you saw them but I posted some Polaroids I was shooting FP100c with my Hasselblad 500cm just last week (September 2022), while on a short holiday in Maine.

A total lark, just for fun. Expensive at that- the Polaroid film back cost less than the film by a pretty good stretch.

All part of the fun and part of my personal photographic journey. I don’t regret it but I’m not going to be doing this regularly. I shot 7 out of 10 frames so look for 3 more instant photos from me at some point.

http://ricochetridersmotomojo.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p68422589-4.jpg