Polaroid 195

[ped]

I've been a bit quiet here recently... the last few months I've been doing a lot of photography work for my website, taking pictures inside factories. For this I used my digital rangefinder (sorry!) and I haven't used my film cameras except for a roll of BW400CN inmy Paxette on a trip to Sussex. I also need to buy a scanner so I can scan in some of those film shots.

My Polaroid pack cameras have been giving me a bit of jip - first the shutter on the 450 failed and then the 250 I bought to replace it was leaving some funny effects on the film despite not having any light leaks that I could see. It was frustrating because I absolutely love the peel apart Fuji 3000ISO B+W film with it's creamy smooth tones. I bought the SX70 and though I love it's classic feel and amazing folding design, I'm not yet happy enough with the consistency of the Impossible Project film to use it enough.

I've always been interested in the manual 'pro' cameras from Polaroid (the 180 being the most common) but I found out about the model 195 which is the king as far as I am concerned - it's got a clockwork timer on the back which doesn't intefere with the film packs from Fuji (which are slightly thicker than the Polaroid ones) and the lens is an outstanding Tomioka 114mm f3.8 and beautifully sharp. The shutter is a Seiko that goes from B to 1/500.

It works like a dream, it's rock solid and lovely to use. I'm glad I went for it as along with my R-D1, the pack film cameras were the second most used cameras in my collection so I was gutted when they went bang.

Here's a couple of really poor 'Instagram' (I know, I know) pics


Lens by chiscocks, on Flickr


Finally went for it and got a Polaroid 195 by chiscocks, on Flickr

There are some much better ones on Flickr but it's a really pretty brushed steel box. I like it, anyway!!

Cheers
ped

 

[Jao]

Lovely looking camera. I am not all that familier with the Polaroids other than by reputation but this looks a fine example. Nice instagrams too, sorry the gods of film.

 

[ped]

Lovely looking camera. I am not all that familier with the Polaroids other than by reputation but this looks a fine example. Nice instagrams too, sorry the gods of film.

Thanks, the shots from this camera are really nice; smooth deep blacks and lovely contrast. I'm a big fan!

Here's a few pictures actually taken with my 450 but the results are still good even taking the lesser lens into account:


Signature by chiscocks, on Flickr


Within a picture by chiscocks, on Flickr


Nothing is impossible by chiscocks, on Flickr

Mainly pics of me looking solid :bang:

 

[RaglanSurf]

Nice camera Ped, I hope you didn't pay what they seem to be asking on a certain well known auction site

 

[Jao]

You are not wrong about the quality of the images from the camera, they look excellent. Very nice range of monochrome tones indeed.