Topic: Instax EE100 Polaroid Wide

[clagom]

Hi all!

I started another small project with the Belair Instant back. Since the previous Instax Lubitel II failed (still got some nice results out of it), this time I tried to adapt the Polaroid EE100, attached directly with its bellow to the Belair Back.

As a side note, the Polaroid EE100 was extremely hard to disassemble. I think the build quality back then was very good even of a "cheap" product like that. Today's cheap product are really cheap.

Anyway, as usual it doesn't look nice, but this is the first attempt:


Then I used the home made ground glass to find the infinity focus, and then I fixed the bellow according to that:


These are some results:



I shoot with setting the camera at 75 ISO and with the knob on the -1,5~ to the dark, seems to be enough to compensate the Instax film.

I'll now try to put a structure for the bellow to be fixed, but also enough flexible to play around with it, tilt, and since there's room to extend it, for macro.

Cheers!

[Francois]

Not too bad for parts that are essentially just cobbled together.
BTW, instax  film is ISO 800
But the camera's meter might be getting tired a bit with the age...

[clagom]

Not too bad for parts that are essentially just cobbled together.
BTW, instax  film is ISO 800
But the camera's meter might be getting tired a bit with the age...

Thanks! Today I refined the focus, and fixed the bellow in a more accurate way. Cannot retract it now, but still thinking a way that lets me do that (I had to remove the original structure).
At the moment it seems doable to manage the difference of ISO just with the exposure compensation knob, did try with ND filter but doesn't really need (probably it will in a sunny bright day outside, or set the camera to 3000 and exp comp).

[lharby]

Oh, I thought I read somewhere Instax was 400ASA! (I just got a back conversion for my 600SE).

Kudos on this project.

[clagom]

Oh, I thought I read somewhere Instax was 400ASA! (I just got a back conversion for my 600SE).

Kudos on this project.

Thank you!

I tried the camera outside. For indoors it seems right to set it at 75 and dark with exp comp, outside it seems better to set at 3000 and light exp comp. Quite straightforward, still need to try it on bright sunny day though

P.S. The scans are pretty bad quality, real photos look better. Also no light leaks, quite happy for this as well. The reflection on the first photo is the window.

[Chalky]

looks fun!

maybe add a manual lens and shutter next to get full control?

or just keep as it is... nice work 

[clagom]

looks fun!

maybe add a manual lens and shutter next to get full control?

or just keep as it is... nice work 

Thank you!
That would be great, as I enjoy the all manual Polaroid 190
I'll try to get more control of the bellow, then let's see!

[jojonas~]

darn, and here I was hoping that the ee100 front board might be easy to remove. was it the arms that gave you trouble?

I'm thinking about either scavenging the front or converting the camera to 6x9 after my last pack of fp100c

[clagom]

darn, and here I was hoping that the ee100 front board might be easy to remove. was it the arms that gave you trouble?

I'm thinking about either scavenging the front or converting the camera to 6x9 after my last pack of fp100c

Yes unfortunately disassemble the parts of the camera it's not easy at all :/ I tried Allen keys and other tools, at the end I just cut metal and plastic with saw and pincers. Not just the arms, but the hole structure is quite sound. Bellows and front with lens directly attached to the Belair back, and with the rest of the EE100 I made a pinhole camera for pack film. Not going to use it very much, but was fun, to recycle the other parts..

[clagom]

Some photos of the pinhole camera made with the parts left from the EE100 hack. The pinhole I used is probably too small for this format, and it takes much longer time to impress the fp100c.

[jojonas~]

well it made for a sturdy looking pinhole camera for sure!

[clagom]

well it made for a sturdy looking pinhole camera for sure!

Yep, like a brick

[clagom]

Yesterday I tested the camera outside. Quite happy with the results! With the 800 ISO of the Instax, I can set the camera to 3000 with the knob all to the bright, or to 72 and the knob all to the dark, getting similar results in the exposure. The camera still looks ugly, but I could put the original viewfinder on the Belair Back. Even if of course the Instax has a different aspect ratio, it's still more accurate than the Belair viewfinder.

Some photos

[Ed Wenn]

Looking good! Well done on your adventures. I'm assuming that we instant film fans will end up using Instax Wide a lot more in the coming years, so it's great seeing what people are doing to get the format working with cameras already in their collection.

[clagom]

Looking good! Well done on your adventures. I'm assuming that we instant film fans will end up using Instax Wide a lot more in the coming years, so it's great seeing what people are doing to get the format working with cameras already in their collection.

Thank you! It was also fun to work on the customisation I'd like to create something similar for a back for the Mamiya RB67, let's see...