A nice black box.
CAMERA FINDS #1: POLAROID 600SE
Photography intrigued me before I knew what it was, or even what intrigued meant. I liked things that were mechanical, or susceptible to being enhanced by imagination. A camera with no film certainly requires the latter, and cameras are mechanical in nature… sounds like the perfect toy, eh? My first exposure (that’s a photography related joke for you there – aren’t I generous?) to photography would likely be courtesy of my dad. He carted about his hefty Nikon F for most of my formative years, and I was used to having the big glass eye of it pointed my way. Diverging momentarily, the Nikon met a very unfortunate end, as many pieces of equipment of that era tended to do. Digital began to creep its way into our lives and combined with a bunch of lighter point and shoot cameras in our possession, the Nikon found itself being used less. Eventually it was packed away in its bag and stored on the top shelf of my parents’ wardrobe. Seems like a safe place, Christmas presents often dwelt there unharmed after all. Harm came to the Nikon regardless, and it came slowly. My parents purchased themselves a lovely Victorian era end of terrace house in the late 80s – lovelier now after decades of maintenance and refurbishment. The downside of such properties is often damp, and oh boy, did our house suffer. And so did the Nikon. May also be partly why my asthma was so bad back then… Anyway, their wardrobe aligned perfectly with the exposed side of the house and became damp central. Fungus eventually infested the camera and that was it… it functioned, but fungus in a camera is like fungus… anywhere. No good. I still have the Nikon, I dismantled it and cleaned it out some years later, but I’m not sure it went back together to the standards set by its makers. The second camera in my life was a Kodak Brownie Cresta 3. This was never once given the honour of taking actual photos, but for much of my pre-school life, it hung around my neck and functioned only in my mind.
Skip forward to my early twenties and I finally decided to take some photos for myself. I was making weekly trips to the local Jobcentre and found the experience quite miserable. I struggled for some time in the finding a job department, and while my interest in gaming kept me quite amused, I needed some form of creative outlet. My time at college was long since over, and I craved something to do! Ten or so years of photography related adventures later, I find myself here. I have since accumulated quite an array of cameras, and while my collection gathers dust, I thought I would revisit a project that I started many years ago – a blog on my camera finds. I thought that these posts might sit well along with the series on my university work, as some of the cameras I used then will feature here. For my first post (sort of a repost, as I have tried this before, but with less effort) I am going to look at the Polaroid 600 SE. I had written in my original attempt that when I was getting ready to write this post, I was surprised by how much time had passed since I acquired the camera. Almost a year had gone by the time I first thought of writing about it, and a further eight since then… It was a camera I rarely got to use at the time, and since then it has become more of a decorative piece - like most of my collection. This is largely in part due to the film required to use it – I had an enviable store of FP-100c back then, and I still have a little left, but it is being sold… so it may be that I never get to shoot with this thing again. Still, a purchase I am yet to regret! I purchased the 600 SE in an online auction and as always, you never know what the exact condition of the camera will be when it arrives. You place your trust in the photos, cross all crossable digits and appendages, and wait. Most purchases of this sort require a little maintenance upon receipt, and the 600 SE was no different. However, after a quick clean, and the addition of a replacement dark slide, the hefty beaut was ready to shoot!
The camera, as I mentioned, shoots FujiFilm FP-100C. It also shoots Polaroid film too, but as far as I know these are discontinued as well, although perhaps the Impossible project offers some options here? It is possible to shoot 120 film as well, if you have the appropriate back. This is something I am yet to purchase and with the state of things in regard to compatible instant film, perhaps it will be something worth investing in, if only to keep the camera functional. Either way, this is obviously an expensive camera to use, and was one of the reasons I didn’t use it all that often during shoots, although the main downside is its size and weight. Despite the bulky nature of the thing, the camera is very comfortable – its built-in handle and trigger see to this nicely and provide a rather unique shooting experience. The bright rangefinder makes framing and focusing easy and the Mamiya 127 lens captures a lovely image, especially when opened fully and in favourable lighting conditions.
Back when I was using this more regularly, I found that bringing it along with me, while also weighed down with my usual kit (which was a not un-heavy Canon 5DMkII, a few primes, and a 35mm SLR) it was a little too much to bear, and it made for slow transitions for both myself and the models I worked with. This also restricted my choice of locations back then, especially as I didn’t drive at the time. Despite its lack of use these days, the 600 SE is a fine addition to my collection and is definitely one of the more unique cameras I own. Above are a couple of examples from a shoot I did back in 2014 with Louise (more from this shoot can be seen here). The soft and almost dream-like quality to the photographs are an example of what you might expect from the camera. Shot on FP-100c – back when you could still get new stock!
I’ve got a bunch of cameras I could write about on here, let me know if this one was of interest and please do subscribe if you’d like to be notified when the next post is up! Have you ever shot with the 600/600 SE? If so, what did you think? And if you enjoyed this, you may find my previous post on my Journey into the Virtual World of interest too - and thank you for reading!
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