First a little side story about the magic of vintage cameras – you never know what you’re going to find. Check out this post to see what can be found on old film:
“I bought an old camera at The Hollywood Flea Market five years ago and a few months ago I wend to load it up with film and discovered there was an exposed roll of film in the camera. I got the film developed and it reveled some amazing images of solders in uniform with their girlfriends taken around the late 50’s.”
None of my vintage cameras already have film in them, but I’m definitely going to keep my eye out now!
That said, today I wanted to share with you another of the cameras from my camera bag: my vintage Polaroid Pathfinder Land camera – model 110B.
There was about a year that Andrew and I lived with his parents in this fantastic older neighborhood. It was gorgeous and homey and we went on walks (with and without the dogs) all the time.
(note to self: Now that we live in another good neighborhood, let’s reinstate the walks)
While on one of our walks we passed a yard sale where we found this camera! The case and all the goodies/accoutrements and the camera itself I got for $20.
The camera allegedly works, but takes film that is no longer manufactured so I haven’t had a chance to test it.
Might be more than someone should pay for a vintage camera, but I honestly have no idea how to price vintage things. And it was worth it for me ….
Below find a whole gallery of images, of the leather case (with a broken handle and a slightly ripped seam), of some of the pieces that came with the camera (including instruction manual, exposure meter, close up lens, and more) and the camera itself (open, closed and the instructions on the back of it).
I feel like there’s SO MUCH for me to learn about this camera.
It’s not easy to learn about a camera that is so old that you can’t use, but I have discovered some details ….For example, this particular model was manufactured in the early 1960s and there were about 27,000-ish of them made.
Pathfinder was the name given a series of cameras manufactured by Polaroid and Yashica from the early 1950s until 1964. These models were the professional-market Polaroid camera, equipped with a fast and sharp lens and made with durable steel construction. Unlike other Polaroid cameras, the Pathfinders were set to expose the film fully manually, with no aid from an electric eye. This provides the photographer with precise control over the camera. Pathfinders used 40-series rollfilm, which produced an instant print of 7.2 x 9.5 cm. Even today, although rollfilm has since been discontinued, many photographers have found ways to use the Pathfinder.
So, as I mentioned, I haven’t yet used this camera – as far as I can tell from internet research, the film that this camera model takes is no longer manufactured.
But I SHOULD be able to get it converted to take 4×5 Fuji instant film (and to 3 AAA batteries for power).
I found what appears to be the COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS for converting the camera here (and here with photos). But I’m not sure I’m brave enough to do it myself. I think I’d like to hire someone with experience to do the converting for me. (anyone in L.A.-area do this?). Unless, of course, I find a second camera for CHEAP as a backup in case I mess it up. We’ll see. It’s one of those projects that is always on my to-do list but never a real priority.
I honestly don’t follow any bloggers who have this camera, but I found a couple photos on Flickr tagged with Polaroid Land camera 110b : Here by ellenjo (looks like she has converted it) and here by Raymond Molinar.
Have you ever used (or seen) a camera like this? Any tips?
What film do you use?