Instant Photography

Martin Smith — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 18:43:39 +0000

I love instant film! There I said it and it’s true, at the press of a shutter you have in your hands a physical print in seconds or minutes (depending on which instant film it is), that’s amazing isn’t it? As it is now #InstantApril which I believe to be the brain child of @KristenWithACamera over on Twitter, I thought I’d do a little blog post about my experiences with instant photography. My history with instant photography has been relatively short, I bought my first instant camera, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 back in May 2014, I really liked those little instax, but the camera didn’t offer much control and the flash was over powering. I then backed the Kickstarter campaign for the Lomography Lomo Instant and was one of the first people to get one in the UK, I was even featured as a Lomo Amigo.

It wasn’t long before I wanted to try a real Polaroid camera so early in 2015 I purchased a Polaroid 626. To be honest I didn’t like the 626 that much again, it didn’t seem to give you much control and you couldn’t turn off the flash. I wasn’t finished with Polaroid though as I bought a Polaroid Spectra SE, this was much better, it has autofocus and the flash can be turned off. Film for these Polaroid cameras is now only produced by The Impossible Project, I particularly like their Black & White Gen 2.0 film for the Spectra.

Impossible B&W, Polaroid Spectra SE

Impossible Colour, Polaroid Spectra SE

Having read quite a bit about Polaroid cameras I wanted to try out a Land Camera that uses the peel apart film. I found out that my step dad had one that he’d never used. I borrowed his Polaroid Land 100 and attempted to convert it to AAA batteries, but the wiring was too far gone and you needed a special tool to get the grip off and on again, so I gave up. Luckily James Fox Davies whom I had met last year at LNDNWLK had a Polaroid 250 that was already converted and fully working that he was willing to lend me. I tried both FB-3000B (B&W) and FP-100C (colour) and loved them both the quality of these films is amazing. After shooting a few packs of film I bought my own Polaroid 350, which I’ve successfully converted to use AAA batteries. Unfortunately recently not long after buying the camera Fujifilm announced they were discontinuing production of FP-100C, the only film that was still being produced for these cameras, FP-3000B had already been discontinued some time ago. Both types of film can still be found, but at a steep price and mostly expired. I still have a few packs of film in the fridge, but I’m going to have to ration its usage. There are people out there trying to save this film, I don’t know if it’s possible but if there’s any chance it’s worth going to savepackfilm.net and signing the petition anyway.

Fujifilm FP-100C, Polaroid Land 250

Fujifilm FP-3000B, Polaroid Land 250

Fujifilm FP-100C, Polaroid Land 250

Holga 120 GFN Camera

Martin Smith — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 21:32:58 +0000

I recently added to my small collection of cameras the Holga 120 GFN, the glass lens and flash version of the famous Hong Kong made plastic camera from Silverprint. I wanted a small medium format camera that was lighter than my Yashica Mat 124g and I can just throw in a bag. I also wanted something cheap and at less than £40 you don’t get much cheaper than that. It was recently announced that these cameras were no longer going to be produced, so I wanted to get one before they were all gone. I’ve only shot three rolls through it so far, two rolls of Ilford HP5+ and one roll of Fomapan 400. While shooting the last roll I dropped the camera on the pavement near my house. The camera survived it’s fall unharmed but the back did fall off, exposing part of the roll before I could put it back on again. Shooting conditions haven’t been the best lately so I’m hoping to do more with the camera when the weather improves. I have some Lomography colour 120 film waiting to be shot.

Holga Samples

These images were taken with the Holga 120 GFN and shot on Ilford HP5+ or Fomapan 400. The negatives were developed in Kodak HC-110 and scanned on the Epson V550 with Silverfast 8.

Holga 120 GFN, Ilford HP5+, Canary Wharf

Gear Archives - Martin W Smith

Instant Photography

Holga 120 GFN Camera

Holga Samples