Note: This page was made with a standard format monitor, not the newer wide kind. All my pages are.

About 1990 I found this camera at a yardsale. I was intrigued, and bought it. Until then, I didn't know Polaroid made roll film cameras. Soon after, I became more interested in medium format, and decided to try and modify this one to use 120 film.

I managed to convert it, and it worked fairly well. The main issue with using this camera was advancing the film correctly. It doesn't have a small, round, red viewing window on the back to see the frame number when it comes up. I had to count revolutions of the film advance knob, which I made and installed. As the film was advanced, the number of turns changed, because the film, and backing paper, on the take-up spool got thicker. Mostly, this worked out ok, but sometimes I got a little overlap.

This camera has two viewing windows. One for viewing and framing, and the other is a rangefinder window, to focus and find the distance. There is a distance scale on the bed, with a pointer, and focusing moves that pointer to show the distance. On the front plate, upper right, is an "EV" wheel, for exposure valuation. It is graduated from numbers 10-17. I had to use a light meter, with EV numbers, to find the proper exposure. I'd get the EV number indicated by the meter, then set the wheel on the camera. EV numbers represent different combinations of aperture and shutter speed. I could use different ones, and it depended on distance, and how much depth of field I needed. I have two small charts, in grid form, like a spread sheet, that I used to figure out how to set the camera. One shows different EV numbers and the combinations of aperture and shutter speed. The other shows different apertures, and a grid of distances and the depth of field for each aperture. Sounds like a lot of trouble, and it is, but it was something different, and I wanted to experience some old time picture making, and get some images much bigger than 35mm.

This camera has three main sections--the middle, and two wings that fold over. I had to make a frame of thin copper strips becaue 120 film is narrower than the original frame at the back end of the bellows. Film needs to lay flat, and it could sag in a little if not held flat by a frame. I'm not sure if I thought about the point of sharp focus, at the time. If I did, I must have thought the thickness of the new frame wasn't enough to matter. The focusing mechanism is probably set for the exact original film plane. The 1/16in copper frame I installed changed the film plane by that much. I now think it must have had some effect. Seems that none of the images I made with this camera were "tack sharp." A few were quite close, and using the "sharpening" feature of my picture editing program made them look ok. I sharpened only one step. I frequently have to use the sharpening feature for other pictures I scan. I can scan a sharp positive or negative image, and then the result needs to be sharpened. After reducing the size of an image, it usually needs to be sharpened.

I didn't use this camera much, just a few rolls, and many of the shots were not in acceptable focus. The river boat picture was on the first roll, and it came out good, very near sharp. Using 120 film is a little costly, so I probably won't do any more with this, although I'd like to experiment a little more. I have another page on this website about this camera, and a certain place in western KY, the Jones-Keeney Wildlife Mgt. Area, in the section on western KY. It is a short page that I made previously, with a couple more pictures.

This is Hunter Bluff, near the Jones-Keeney Wildlife Mgt. Area, between Princeton and Dawson Springs, KY. This is one of the few color images that came out fairly well. I had to sharpen it one step. This picture is not special by any means, but included to show another example from that camera.

This picture of the dagger was a close-up project. Not long after I bought the camera, I happened to find a close-up kit in a flea market. It consists of three close-up lenses and a specially marked metal tape measure, all in a leather case. The tape has markings that pertain to each of the lenses, which fit over the lens of the camera. I used a simple home-made light tent with one movie camera floodlight above it.

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