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Broken Polaroid Land 195

The Polaroid Land 195 is one of the "100-series" cameras, just like my automatic 360 and 450, however the 195 is fully manual. These cameras are fetching a pretty high price. Along with the 195 you have the 180 and 185, few of which were made, the 185 I believe being a personal product that Edwin Land himself would give to friends and colleagues only. Then there's the 190, and my 195. The 195 was made between 1971 and 1974 I believe and features this great lens with full manual control that made me have to get the camera (compared to the other 100-series cameras like my 360 and 450 which are automatic and even if you trick them to open up their apertures all the way, they only open as much as f8 which isn't that far open at all). It's an f3.8 Tuminon lens and I just loved the pictures I saw taken with it. The shallow depth of field shots really just stood out in my mind. So I managed to find a 195 at a local camera store which receives tons of used equipment which they sell on eBay. The guys were nice enough to sell it to me for $30, while on eBay they go for at least $300. Unfortunately, there was a problem. When you extended the bellows, the shutter housing wasn't parallel to the film plane. This means I could never focus the darn thing! These photos are taken before I got the camera fixed. It still managed to take OK shots, but the things I focused on weren't in focus, while the things behind were in focus. So annoying! haha.

COMMENTS
Caitbrowne said at 6:20 p.m. on Nov 23, 2006:
seems you hold your own even with broken equipment
Katerina said at 8:50 p.m. on Nov 23, 2006:
I second what Nimesh said; love the photo of the water. I love your dreamy, mysterious photos! Will have to look at your other tabblos to see if you've posted any shots taken after you had this camera fixed.
And did your polaroid shots of Concord come out?
Bonnie_B said at 11:52 p.m. on Nov 23, 2006:
honestly, with most of these shots, it doesn't matter that "the wrong thing" is in focus. They still work!
Siagian said at 1:24 a.m. on Nov 26, 2006:
an artist takes a broken paintbrush and creates art. great job here man!
Ryancheresnick said at 7:17 p.m. on Feb 9, 2007:
hey great photos. i like the one of the oler man.

I too have just bought a 195 and I am having the same problem. Where did you get yours fixed, can you send me any details that might help? I live in NYC.

best,

ryan
Engelgrafik said at 10:30 a.m. on Feb 10, 2007:
RYAN, I got it fixed at http://www.eastcamtech.com . I think he's right in your backyard. Michael is his name and he's really good.
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