flickr user you should see - milky soldier

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inspiration - pull apart emulsion film

See previous post regarding Polaroid Land Cameras. This is what those photos generally look like, you can also use the negative part, scan it, and inverse it, to get even weird edge effects, as many of these have.

Polaroid isn't impossible. You could be using one right now! For less than $50.

You could be taking Polaroids RIGHT NOW, tons of the Land Camera series -model numbers usually in 100, 200 or 300 range- are around and CHEAP.

Here is one on eBay right now!

VINTAGE POLAROID LAND CAMERA MODEL 210 AUTOMATIC

For $21.22 it could be yours. I don't know if it works, but generally they just need a bit of cleaning and cleaning of the battery contacts, your mileage may vary.


BUT wait, what about film? and batteries? That is the real issue right? Wrong.

Though the Impossible Project, as awesome as it is, is making Polaroid film they no longer make, that doesnt mean you can't get film, new unexpired film. The Impossible Project is making film for the much coveted SX-70 and 600 models. Not for the Land Cameras, which use a pull apart emulsion film, not the self enclosed type.

Step in FUJI. Fuji has been making instant film cameras in Japan for ages, and you can still get a new one and film for it now, here. They have also been making film that the Land Cameras can use, and it is readily available, costs about the same, and is considered by some to be even better film (not by all though). Film comes in 10's and is roughly $1 per photo cost.

For this Land Camera above, assuming it functions with a fresh battery, you can get either the 667 b/w type film which in Fuji land is known as the 3000b, or you can get the similar 669 color film FP100. Note that the b/w film is 3000 speed (yes really fas and good in lower light (not in dark though) and the color is 100 speed, so it needs a good sunny day!

Okay so that solves that part, now for the batteries...

These Land Cameras use a battery called px-24, not the easiest to find, but they are out there (and have been for years), here is one for $15.99.

SO there you have it, for approx $22 + $16 + $10 = $48, you could take 10 Polaroid pictures now. And of course, after this initial cost, the film is your only cost moving forward.


If you try it, good luck!

NEW iPod Touch with CAMERA!

WOW, think of what this will do for the camera app world. Granted the iTouch camera will only be VGA quality, which is...

"What is a VGA camera?


A VGA camera is considered as an early evolution of film cameras. It supports the very basic and obsolete resolution 640x380 pixels with the same value of .3 megapixels. "



Excited to see one though, weird they didnt at least put a 2 megapixel camera in it though. HD camera is nice though, this is definitely going to bite into FLIP sales.

iPod specs here.

Harmony Korine, Proenza Schouler, and Digital Harinezumi

Harmony Korine, mastermind of the lo-fi videos and movies did a new ad campaign using a Digital Harinezumi 2 Camera by Superheadz. No one announced it officially, but the digital 'signature" of that camera is pretty strong. Beautiful pictures (and assuming video by Harmony).

He was also recently featured in a show for that Harinezumi at New Museum in Nyc.

More info here on that show.

Via Urban Outfitters Via Nowness.

Gameboy Camera for iPhone.

If you were messing about with handheld gaming devices in the mid to late 90's you know the Gameboy very well, and probably even had the camera attachment for it. I never did, though I wanted one (I opted for the pxl2000 and the Fisher Price fax paper camera, among the de rigeur selection of Polaroids, more on those later).

The funny thing about things that happened in your past is that the nostalgia for them becomes overwhelming sometimes. I recently decided I really wanted to look into getting one of those cameras. As with anything these days though, I first did a search for "Gameboy Camera" in the app store for my iPhone.

Of course there is a reasonable facsimile there, and it is surprisingly great. I do wish the contrast was a bit higher, it tends to aim to a lot of mid range to me. This ended my quest. (He also has a pretty great c64 camera app, I never knew even existed).

You can check it out here, it will be the first addition to my "Essential iPhone Camera Apps" list, which I pan to continuously update. (I mainly got my iPhone to have a camera always on me, and to take advantage of all the toy camera apps there, I now have 19 on my phone).

Sample pictures from the app...

The last picture is actually one I took with the app, I tried to push the contrast as much as I can, to mimic the original more. Like these...



Lastly, a video on the Original Gameboy Camera, to give you more info if you wanted.



See more on Amazon.
Gameboy Camera In Red
Nintendo Gameboy Camera BLUE blue version
Game Boy Printer w/ Link Cable
Original Nintendo Game Boy, Gray

inspiration- light leaks

Light leaks are the incredible effect you get when the back of a film based camera is opened. Usually you do this mid-roll, meaning you get a bit of the film pulled out of the canister before you open the camera back.

Here is a great article with much more info at thedphoto.com.

One of the great masters of this style commercially is Mark Borthwick.(click to google his pics)

He has an excellent bookthat you can buy, it includes many of of his better photos, and is curated by Beautiful Losers founder Aaron Rose.


Here are some of my favorites of his...