Best Way to Use the Final Stock of Fuji FP3000B? Party!

I have a beautiful old Polaroid 250 instant camera. This is a pack film camera, which uses FP3000B or FP100C pack film from Fuji. While the FP100C is still being produced (fingers crossed for the future!), FP3000B has been discontinued. That's really too bad. FP100C is 100 speed color instant film, while FP3000B is 3000 speed (!) black and white. Neither of these films can cover for the other.

 

Anyway, I'm not going to get down about the fact that no new FP3000B is being made. I have a few packs left, and plan to use them well.

 

Last night, I used two packs of FP3000B at my company's holiday party. Knowing that it would be pretty dark at the party, and understanding that Polaroid cameras have relatively slow lenses, it was clear that flash was going to be necessary. So, I put the Polaroid camera on a flash bracket, on which I mounted a modern Nikon SB600 flash. Using a cable that I cobbled together from an old Polaroid flash bulb mount and an accessory hot shoe, I got the whole contraption to work. Testing it out ahead of time, I found that full power manual flash from the SB600 works very well with FP3000B at about 5-10 feet distance. Perfect for the party.

 

Now, this is harsh, direct light. That's the look I decided to go for, since the theme of the party was "sock hop," reminiscent of the days when someone would have photographed it with instant film and a big, bright, direct flash bulb. I got exactly what I wanted. Here are the results.

 

 

I can't think of a better way to use up what's left of this awesome black and white instant film.

 

People loved posing for me, and especially seeing the results. My catch phrase was "by the time your eyesight recovers from the flash, the print will be ready."

 

Fun.

 

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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

 

 

Color Instant Shots with the Mamiya Universal

Yesterday, I posted about using Fuji FP3000B black and white pack film in the Mamiya Press Universal camera. So how does the color version (FP100C) work with this big old camera? Pretty well, I'd say.

 

This first shot was made with the Mamiya 100mm f3.5 lens. It's cropped significantly. I focused on the convertible top, folded just behind the seats.

The following two shots were made with the Mamiya 50mm f6.3 (very) wide angle lens.

 

 

The FP100C does an amazing job on the color of skin tones. The shot below is with the 100mm f3.5 again.

 

I'm already having a lot of fun with the Mamiya Universal. I'll enjoy the Fuji pack film while it lasts!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Fuji Instant Pack Film FP3000B, Negative and Positive,and Mamiya Press Universal

My very good friend Dennis recently sold me his Mamiya Universal kit. Initially, I was not interested, as the Universal is an enormous and heavy medium format kit. More on that later. I'll post some images of the kit and why I now really find that I like it.

Well, one of the things that came with the kit was a Polaroid back. Unfortunately, it is designed for Polaroid 80 series film, which is no longer available. About a week of trolling ebay yielded a very nice replacement, which allows use of Fuji pack film. Currently there are two film options in this format - color at iso 100, and black and white (FP3000B) at iso 3000. How's that for a range?

Unfortunately, the FP3000B film has been discontinued. There are still stocks of it around, but at 2.5-3X the original cost. I have a few packs, but probably won't be able to buy more.

Here's a shot of my wife, made with the Universal, 150mm f5.6 lens, and FP3000B:

Scanned from Print

I was quite pleased when I saw this appear as I peeled the backing paper away. It's quite interesting to get a really sharp image with great optics on instant film. My old Polaroid camera just doesn't stand comparison.

Both types of pack film produce negatives in the process, but of very different types. The 100 speed color film negatives must be removed from the backing and bleached, producing a transparent negative. FP3000B produces a paper negative, which you simply have to protect and allow to dry in the dark (or near dark). Here's what the negative from the print above looks like:

Paper Negative, Fuji FP3000B Instant Pack Film

 

If you take the dry negative and scan it on a flatbed scanner (I use an Epson V750), you get something like the image above. Invert the tones and flip the image horizontally in Photoshop, and you get this:

 

Positive from Scanned Negative

 

Pretty cool, huh? The scan from the negative is sharper than the original print, but also shows grain. I love the slightly uncontrollable factors like the edge patterns and occasional black dots. This feels like real photography to me.

 

One note - you'll notice lens vignetting on instant prints from the Mamiya Universal. It's designed for maximum size images of 6x9 on 120 film. The pack film image is larger than that. Reportedly, the Mamiya 75mm and 127mm lenses don't vignette on pack film. I don't have either, so can't say for sure.

 

Having shot a few rolls of film in the Universal, I'm anxiously awaiting an email from The Darkroom, notifying me that the film I sent in last week is processed and scans are posted. Based on the instant results, I'm expecting some amazing image quality from the normal medium format film I've shot.

 

More to come from the Mamiya Universal!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Need great film processing? (Click Here) to visit The Darkroom. They're the best in the business.