My camera family has three new members, all film based.
The first is a Fuji Instax 210. Easily the biggest, clunkiest looking thing I’ve ever seen. I ordered it on Amazon.com way back in December and it took until a few weeks ago for it to finally become available. I was hankering for a Polaroid, but since Polaroid hasn’t produced film for a long time, and the Impossible Project hadn’t yet produced the replacement, I decided to go for the Fuji since film is available and less expensive. The only negative is that it isn’t the old square format, it’s wider. Different, that’s all. Oh, and it doesn’t sound the same, I miss that really loud noise the Polaroid SX-600 made. You just KNEW something cool was happening. The film is less expensive than Polaroid, but it still works out to over a dollar a shot, so it’s sort of strange to step back and think a lot more before pressing the shutter button. I’d still really like to get my hands on a Polaroid camera again, I suppose I’ll have to haunt garage sales and flea markets to find one. But, at least I have the Fuji until then.
The next new member is a Holga Pinhole Camera. I’ve loved the effect of pinhole photography, but haven’t ever done it. I think we made one out of a shoebox back in elementary school, but that was about it. 120 is costlier to develop and print than 35mm so I opted for the latter in case I didn’t like what I ended up with. If I love it, maybe I’ll add a 120 pinhole Holga to the collection. I just love the Holgas. Cheap, plastic, and total junk…but totally fun. And really, if you end up hating a camera that you only spent $30 or so on…well, better than wasting money on an expensive digital camera that doesn’t get used.
And the final new addition (which hasn’t yet arrived in the mail) is a Mini Diana. I thought about the full size Diana, but again, it’s 120 and I already have a 120 Holga. Also, I think that I can achieve pretty much the same effects that the full sized Diana gives by using the Lensbaby on my Nikon. The mini Diana uses 35mm film but has two funky options. You can flip a switch to expose either in a square format or in a half frame format. That means that on a roll of 36 exposure film, you actually get 72 half sized images exposed in that dreamy soft analogue manner that is so completely anti-digital crisp. Can’t wait for that little darling to be delivered!
I know I’m a geek, but I’ll keep hunting for that Polaroid….