2008-07-18 // 09:18:33
sulfiteman
Ah, Zero Image cameras are fantastic; I have two, the 2000 which is for 120 roll film and is light and portable, good for holidays and trips, and the 4x5 large format which is also lightweight but a bit more unwieldy so tends to stay near to home, especially as you need to lug other kit around such as tripod and cable release. Just google "Zero Image" and their website will show up - you have to be strong willed to close it down without having ordered a camera (or you can buy them in London at Silverprint and one or two other places). I love using the 4x5 Polaroid film but haven't found any really cheap sources for it and of course soon it will be all gone - and there is no Fuji equivalent, unlike with packfilm!

2008-07-18 // 09:00:17
sulfiteman
Well, I guess it will have to remain a strange mystery, unless I ever meet you at some Polanoiders convention or whatever and can look at your 545, in which case I will be able to tell instantly whether it has been modified. I tried mine up against my 600SE and of course it doesn't mate up at all, there is simply no way of attaching it. I think the additional pictures that Skorj posted to his Filmwasters review are only visible to members; I went straight to the review upon accessing the website and the pictures weren't there, but after I signed in with my membership name etc and went back to the review, all the extra material was visible. I think the Polaroid manual is misleading. I am convinced that your 545 MUST have been modified at some stage, but anyway, you can use it with your 600SE so that is a fantastic bonus. I ought to sign off by congratulating you on your SOTD today and on your pictures generally which are very expressive; I admire your skill at making people feel at ease in that special way which is necessary for fantastic portraiture; I am not very good with people and tend to be a solitary photographer which is fine for building shots and street scenes but I yearn to acquire a good portfolio of portraits; it is portraits which capture people's attention and get them to say "great picture!"

^ i find older people much easier to photograph...i love portraiture and when i can take a portrait i will but my personal favourites are landscapes and quite graphic looking scenes...i like buildings and empty spaces really but the more images i take, its somehow the portraits which i always come back to. Its so odd about the 600SE as mine came from a pro photographer and i can't imagine they would bother to modify it but maybe it has been modified, i think i will sign up for filmwasters and have a look at the other pictures...i always just assumed everyone could do this! i have bought a ton of 54 film actually, ironically now that polaroid is dying out i find that its the cheapest to get hold of en masse, but it doesn't age well. I am sure we will meet at a polanoider convention- i actually hope to be arranging one soon so will of course let you know when it will be! what is that zero 45 pinhole camera you have? i want one of those!! thank you for your kind comments re: sotd, i am sure nan will be pleased at being immortalised! x

2008-07-17 // 11:54:21
sulfiteman
Ok - I'm sort of waiting with baited breath a little, as if I COULD use my 545 with my 600SE it would be fantastic - but I'm not raising my hopes too much at the moment!! Will be fascinated to hear your further thoughts once you have done some research. Ben

^ well i really dont know the answer....i looked at my back and camera dn neither look fiddled with- i swap between the two bacs without putting anything on or taking anything off...i had a look on filmwasters and saw the review and read the comments but none of the images show the 600SE without the back attached so i couldn't see the fittings... on the polaroid website it says its compatible when you read the info manual. All i know is that i shoot with mine and there doesn't seem to be anything detachable attached to either the back or the camera! just give it a go! it will either work or not!

2008-07-17 // 11:32:18
sulfiteman
Ok, thanks - not wanting to waste your time with all this, but as I say, there is a very good illustration of how a 545 WITH an adapter fits onto a 600SE in Skorj's review of the 600SE on Filmwasters.com and there are numerous photos of "normal" 545s on various other websites, to show what one without an adapter fitted looks like. What confuses me about this is that normally a 545 does not have the "lip" that a 600SE pack film back has which enables it to slot neatly into the space on the back of the 600SE body and be clamped in - rather than a lip, it actually itself has a recessed rim, which is how the body of a large format camera such as the Zero Image pinhole mates with it. All extremely intriguing!!! Of course, you can only use that part of the sheet film that corresponds with the 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 size of the 600SE opening, so you get an unexposed edge all the way round each sheet.

^ yeah you actually get most of the image...its only the top and bottom where nothing develops really- or the top and bottom in this case as its portrait not landscape...i will have a look at it all online and let you know- i am fascinated by this too now, i just assumed it was normal!

2008-07-17 // 11:10:55
sulfiteman
........I am astounded - everything I have read says that you CANNOT use a 545 direct with a 600SE without having the adapter - I have to admit that because of this I have never even tried to attach my 545 to my 600SE but will have a go this evening. Not of course intending in any way to impeach your integrity or cast any doubt on what you are saying, but I don't know how many 545 or 545i backs you have seen and how familiar you are with that item of equipment, but is there just the SLIGHTEST possibility that when you acquired your 545 it already had an NPC adapter fitted, without you being aware, and you assumed that that is what ALL 545s are like? Of course if you also use your 545 with normal large format bodies, that throws that theory out of the window!!!!!

^ i've only ever used it with my polaroid 600SE and it came with the camera...to be honest, it doesn't look as though anything it attached to it at all but who knows! i will have a look tonight too and let you know, but i have about 20 boxes of sheet film and use it all the time with my 545i...there's certainly nothing attached to the camera itself but maybe there is to the back, i have never looked and always assumed that it was just a regular back but who knows! i am intrigued now!

2008-07-17 // 10:51:11
sulfiteman
Well, I have a 545 back as well (which I use with my Zero Image 4x5 pinhole) but such a back does not mate directly with the 600SE and you need a MF-35 adapter by NPC or similar (which seem to be rarer than hen's teeth to come by) in order to fit the 545 to the 600SE (as illustrated by Skorj on the Filmwasters website) - so I am presuming you have a MF-35........or have you worked out some other way to do it? ........in which case I would LOVE to know how, so that I can do the same.....large format polas taken with a 600SE.......wonderful!!!

^ err...no...as far as i know its just a polaroid 545i back on my polaroid 600SE...it all clamps on and everything and then I use sheet film. there is no special adaptor or anything...i use all 54 sheet film in it...i am pretty sure there is no special adaptor because when i swap that back for the regular pack film one, the smaller back that came with the camera just fits straight on without me having to do anything else...i can only use sheet film, not 5x4 pack film...

2008-07-17 // 09:35:06
sulfiteman
How do you manage to use type 54 film in a 600SE?

^ because i have a 545 back for sheet film...!

2008-07-16 // 17:08:03
Valley-Forge
mmm, could not agree more, my girlfriend runs a 44 bed care home for Bupa, I just want to run out screaming ever time I go there, I think us men have it easy, generally we pop our clogs before getting to this stage. I'm off to Hengoed at about 5am in the morning, not far from Maesteg I think?. VF

^ Not far at all! avoid this place! its miserable... these places are just like death only slightly warmed up, truly horrible. Nan keeps on going on and on abut how she wished she had never moved from home. I was there for three days and never saw anyone else.... so sad. Nan is 85 today, and to think she is sitting there watching countdown at the end of that corridor drinking tea on her own makes me want to jump off a bridge!