Pro Photographer Shoots Fuji Instax for Fun!

 

Image Source: http://snapitseeit.com/cindys-island-time/

 

I've recently gotten back into instant film photography, because I like it. No other reason. I have a Fuji Instax Neo, which really is pretty darned good. But, for amazing quality instant pictures, my Mamiya Universal Press (MUP) with pack film back is unbeatable.

 

This picture is by professional photographer Cindy Leon.

 

(Click Here) to read about her thoughts on the Fuji Instax Wide (larger format than my Neo), and see several more nice instant images she made.

 

I'm down to only a few more packs of Fuji FP3000B to shoot in my MUP, and am dreading the end of it, as the film has been discontinued. The much slower (iso 100 vs. 3000) color film is still available from Fuji, but who knows for how long.

 

So, the Fuji Instax film, which is relatively new, may one day become our only instant film option. But, rather than focus on narrowing options, I should be focusing on enjoying making every shot with instant film!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Polaroid in the Forest - Black and White

I've written about my Polaroid 103 instant camera before. (Click Here) to read about it.

 

I recently took the Polaroid and a new pack of FP3000B film out into the forest on a hike. I planned on using it just to quickly check out some compositions, which I would later shoot with the Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 camera I carried with me. I never ended up using the Speed Graphic, but did get a few images with the Polaroid before I ruined a $15 pack of film (more on that in a minute).

 

Here are three images I captured that I think are worth sharing:

 

 

This film is pretty interesting. At iso 3000, you get extremely deep depth of field when shooting outdoors. the prints are a little larger than 3" x 4" in size, and look quite sharp at that size. I scanned the prints, and at any size larger, they don't look so sharp. I'm not sure if that's because the originals aren't so sharp, or if my scanner's focus isn't exactly right for this type of scanning (reflective, as opposed to scanning negatives in transmission mode).

 

(Click Here) to read about how this film is being discontinued by Fujifilm. I sure hate to see it go.

 

Back to ruining a pack of this stuff, I have had this happen twice now. After you expose the film, you pull a small tab of paper from the side of the camera, which feeds a larger, stronger paper tab between the rollers in the camera. The rollers distribute the developer chemicals over the image as you pull it out. Well, that first small piece of paper tore, leaving no tab to pull. I simply stopped, put the camera away and decided to work on it in the dark at home. Unfortunately, that failed and I ended up exposing the rest of the pack. I'm not exactly sure how to avoid this in the future, but with the film going away (and up in price), I sure don't want it to happen again.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com