On 27 May, 15:44, Bob Salomon <bob_salo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> There were two rolls that were inserted into the back and threaded
> through the end of the back. You took a shot, flipped a lever and pulled
> the film through the slot, tore it off and threw it away. When you
> pulled the film through the slot it broke and developer pod and spread
> the developer between the two parts of the film that were exposed. After
> 60 seconds you opened the door on the back and the positive print was
> detached from the rest of the film. You then spread the tube of coating
> material over the positive to fix it - smelly and sticky stuff - when
> that dried you had your print.
Yes, I remember the coater, looked a bit like a lipstick; but when you
took it out of the caseit was a sort of felt pad, with a strange smell
to it. I think the type 55 still uses it, if you want the print
rather than the negative.
My father brought a Polaroid camera home from work to show me,
probably around 1966/67. It was the more modern, squarer shape, but
still folding type, with bellows; the film was pack type, I think it
was type 107.
> Film came in two sizes. A larger print size for the original model 95
> and it's successors and a smaller size for the 80 series and it's
> successors. The back you have was from the larger size.
A bit like the pack film then, with the 5x4 size for the 550 back, and
the roughly 3.5x4.5 inch size for the 405 back, and various cameras;
not forgetting the small square one, type 87? of course.
> The original Polaroid 95 was introduced in the very late 40's or early
> 50's. We had the first version when I was growing up. That was the one
> that had the spring that you lifted up and used to center the image and
> to compose.
>
> Film has been gone for several decades so don't make plans to shoot with
> it. And even if you could find an unexposed roll the fixer stuff would
> be long dried up.
I know you can't get the roll film now; even the pack type has been
dropped in 5x4 by Polaroid, though Fiji still make a colour one. I
bought the back quite cheaply on Ebay a few years ago, and it's in
very good condition; a few slight scratches on the darkslide where
it's been pulled in and out, and the leatherette covering is peeling
off, but that may not be a bad thing, as there are a couple of rust
spots underneath that I can treat before I glue it back. The mounting
plate is harfly marked by the clips, and I don't think the extended
viewing panel thing had ever been on a camera.
I put the back on my Speed Graphic yesterday, and the weight of the
combination is incredible. It seems to have been a very cumbersome
thing to use.
|
