Polaroids of Myrtle Beach

I just got back from a vacation in Myrtle Beach. Altho it wasn't my first choice, I had a good time and took lots of pictures, mostly Polaroids. The following images were shot with a Polaroid 300, Landcam 250 or an SX-70.

Review of New Polaroid 300

In the summer of 2009 I picked the wrong time to start my Polaroid obsession since the film would be discontinued later that year. Sure film is still around at 10 shots for $20+ a pack and it's getting a little better since the Impossible Project started remaking the instant film at a snails pace (8 shots for $14+). Needless to say when I read about the release of the new Polaroid 300, I was more then intrigued and even tho there has been mixed reviews, most of those reviews are from people that don't give two shits about the old style Polaroids so I just had to see for myself.

Unlike the classic Polaroids with the iconic square format, the Polaroid 300 camera takes an odd business card sized film which begs the question, "why the hell the small size?" The camera is ugly and doesn't come close to resembling any of the classic Polaroid cameras, in fact, the camera was designed by Fujifilm and Polaroid just rebranded it. The body is made of decent quality plastic, however the camera is very rounded and slippery (it likes to glide across tables and crash to the floor if you don't set it down gently). My Polaroid camera of choice is the SX-70 which allows manual adjustment of exposure and the option NOT to have a flash go off. The new 300 series has a flash that will fire no matter the setting, which includes 4 odd choices: indoor, cloudy, fine & clear. The fine and clear settings totally baffle me. The "clear" setting is for bright sun, however all my shots were way over exposed on this setting when shooting in bright sunlight (and no I wasn't shooting into the sun). I went through a whole pack of film (10 shots for $10) just testing the lighting conditions. I found this camera to be very finicky even more so then the SX-70. As for the colors, I'd have to say they're a little off with the 300 and you don't get that amazing vignetting effect or the vivid color saturation of the square format Polaroids.

Final Verdict:

My old 1970's era SX-70 is still by far the best choice for Polaroids and probably always will be (unless Lady Gaga actually does something worth while as creative director). But until Polaroid or the Impossible Project start making affordable film for the old school cameras, the new 300 will be my temporary fix for instant gratification.

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Below are shot with an SX-70 to compare contrast

Camera Collection

I finally got around to photographing my current camera collection. I currently have 16 and I'm thinking I'll stop at around 20. Most of the cameras are in perfect condition, I even have the original cases for several of them. Film has been discontinued for most, however I still use my SX-70 (green one) and my Polaroid Land Cam (blue stripe one). If you're interested in starting a camera collection I would recommend thrift stores and antique fairs. For those of you looking for polaroid instant film, Polarpremium.com has some and often runs promotions.

Vacation Polaroids from California

I took over 60 Polaroids while in California with my SX-70. I was rather happy with most of them however I definitely need a better scanner, the actual Polaroids are much sharper.

YAY!! Polaroid Film promotion

Polapremium started up their polaroid film promotion again. Store bought film cost $20 (on a good day) for 10 shots, but polapremium is offering packs starting at $11.50... if you know someone who can sign you up for the promotion (hint: ME!!) So if you're interested in dusting off that old Polaroid, email me and I'll hook you up.

Update: you got to email me if you want it, not comment; email= TheBobBlog at mac dot com

How to display your old Polaroids

If you're a reader of my blog you'll know that I recently became obsessed with Polaroid photography. I've been keeping them in plastic boxes that I found at the Container Store for $1.50. I'd get them out every once and a while and look through them, but then I though there has to be a better way of displaying my retro images. I headed over to Target and bought two large poster frames and also picked up some photo corners at a local scrap-booking store. Using one of the plexiglass sheets from the frames, I lined up and stuck the Polaroids on it, then laid the other plexiglass sheet on top so the images were sandwiched in between. I did this because I wanted the Polaroids to look like they were floating. The frame fits 42 Polaroids and since I used photo corners, the images are easily swappable.

More Polaroids on IdeaAttic.com