Polaroid 320

Willow Glen Classic Car Show

PackCars
Polaroid 320, Fuji Film FP-100c

My Dear Sweet Wife already wrote about the wonderful time we had celebrating the birthdays of our two boys.  They turned 6 and 3 recently and we all really enjoyed the celebration.

We had cupcakes, cookies, family, ice skating, more cupcakes, more fun, rainbow cake, gifts, more fun, chocolate cake, more gifts… or something along those lines!

We took a short break from the festivities on Sunday to visit the Cruise for A Cause classic car show in Willow Glen.  This was a great opportunity to shoot some more Fuji pack film in my Polaroid 320.

I love the saturation of the Fuji color film, as well as the soft look of the 320 with its plastic lens and somewhat shallow depth of field.  However, a number of my prints were spotty from pulling them out too fast, coverd with paper fibers from storing them in the cardboard film box, and had blemishes from sticking to each other.

I am still learning how to work with its film and have a couple more takeaways:

  • Do not rush shooting, pulling out, or storing the packfilm!
  • When pulling it out of the camera, say “Pol-a-roid” slowly and keep it moving at a moderate and even pace.
  • After developing is finished and the print has been peeled free, hold it exposed to the air for a bit to allow it to dry.
  • Store the print in a clean case made out of plastic face-to-back (not face-to-face) so that the prints don’t stick to each other

Anchors Aweigh

Anchor
Polaroid 320, Fujifilm FP-3000B

We made a trip up to the East Bay today, first dropping my Dear Sweet Wife off to teach a class at Verb and then the boys and I spent a few hours playing at Fairyland.

I wanted to take my Petri 7S along for some simple fun shooting, but unfortunately its shutter was stuck again.  Even worse than that, when I opened it up I discovered that it had a loose aperture diaphragm blade that appeared to be jamming the shutter.

I might poke around in its innards some more, but given that these cameras go for around $20 in decent shape it probably isn’t worth my time to try fixing it again.

Instead I brought my Polaroid 320 along and finished of a pack of Fujifilm FP-3000B black & white film that had been loaded for a while.

The impressions I shared about this camera last time hold true, but the high-speed film produced very contrasty results in direct sunlight like you see above.  In lower light levels such as in shade or indoors it was more even.

I also popped off a few flash bulbs just for fun using its original flash accessory.  The smell of the burnt bulbs brought about a nostalgic reaction in me, although my boys both said they smelled horrible!

First Few Pack Films

FirstFewPack
Polaroid 320, Fuji FP-100C

I finally got the last of my Fuji FP-100C pack of prints from Southern California scanned in.  These include a few more shots from the water park as well as from Legoland (my young sons’ favorite amusement park.) It was only my second pack of film that I ran through my Polaroid 320 camera and so far it is my favorite.

To back up a bit, I tried my first pack ever back in April.  It was some expired Polaroid 100 Sepia pack film (ISO 1500) purchased from Impossible which was a little tough to work with in terms of exposure latitude.  It had a classic B&W look to it but preferred strong light with low contrast.  One or two low-light shots were almost completely washed out and one or two shots with varied lighting levels resulted in clearly over- or under-exposed elements.

This Fuji FP-100C (ISO 100) color pack film definately required strong lighting, but seemed to be much more flexible in terms of contrast levels.  All my shots were in either in direct sunlight or at worst light shade, but every single one came out looking good.  Its color is beautiful and seems both vivid and even tempered.  Its look is very distinct and even when scanned is clearly not from 35mm film or digital capture.

I did start a third pack of Fuji FP-3000B (ISO 3200), however all three shots I tried were complete failures.  I thought this high speed B&W film would allow for shooting indoors but I was wrong. I had major problems with backlighting and even moderate side-lighting from windows.  I didn’t bother scanning these in at all, and will try the rest of the pack outdoors later…

So far my 320/pack film lessons learned are:

  • Use strong, direct and even daylight whenever possible.
  • Adjust for parallax even when subjects are 5 feet away.  (See my ninth shot which appeared fully centered in the rangefinder.  The right mariachi musician is only half in the print.)
  • Do NOT keep the developed prints face-to-face, their emulsions will start to stick to each other and feathering or ripping will occur! (See my tenth shot for some clear feathering on the wall and upper-left transport, in other shots I touched it up a bit in Photoshop.)

Buckets Of Fun

Big Splash

Polaroid 320, Fuji FP-100C

We wrapped up a long stay in Southern California this past weekend.  Visiting my in-laws is always a blast, but this time we spent nearly a week there and had the opportunity to visit a water park (twice!), Legoland, as well as meet our brand new niece.

I fired off a few rolls of film and won’t see them back from Photoworks SF for a week or so.  But I was able to start scanning my Polaroid 320 shots.  I made it through 5 instant prints from my pack of Fujifilm FP-100c ISO 100 color pack film.

This was my first Fuji pack, and so far I have to say I was impressed.  All my shots were taken in bright sunlight, and working with full light the exposures were spot on (way to go 320!) and the colors vividly saturdated (nice work Fuji!).

Hopefully I can scan the rest tomorrow night…