The Polaroid Land "Automatic" 100

The Polaroid Land "Automatic" 100 was manufactured between 1963 and 1966, and takes Polaroid 100-type packfilm. Pictured here, you can see what it looks like when it is enclosed in its hard case, and also when it is out of the case and the bellows is fully extended. It was the first model in a series of folding rangefinder cameras and featured automatic exposure (although you have some control with a lighten/darken knob). Accessories include the usual remote shutter mechanisms, flashes, a variety of filters, and kits that allow closer focus - "portrait", to get you within 1.5 feet of your subject, and "close-up" to get you within about 9 inches (normal minimum focusing distance is about 3.5 feet). For the autoexposure feature, the camera requires batteries - a battery type which is near-to-completely obsolete by now. But the camera I use has been adapted to take regular AA batteries - I did not perform the adaptation on this particular camera, but I've read tutorials online about it and it appears to be a relatively simple process. I have another 100 that is not converted, and I may attempt it myself sometime in the near future.

I enjoy using this camera, but like pretty much all Polaroid cameras, it's a bit ungainly and cumbersome to carry around. I find I had to get used to accounting a bit for parallax error, but once you get the hang of that it's really a very easy camera to use. You can either get old Polaroid packfilm (still available, but at usurious prices) or from Fujifilm, who makes an instant film that fits Polaroid packfilm cameras, and apparently they have no plans to discontinue it.

After you take a picture you pull a series of tabs from an opening on the side that brings the image out through a pair of metal rollers, releasing the development chemicals encased in each picture and spreading it across the image. After the appropriate amount of time has passed - depending on temperature and type of film, this can take about 1-2 minutes - you separate the image from its backing and there it is - instant image! [Yeah I know, you could have fired off fifty digital images in that amount of time, humor me!]

Here's some examples of pictures taken with the camera:



Sometimes if you pull the print out too quickly, you get some smeared chemicals and spots (and sometimes you can misjudge the focus!):




And since you don't actually develop the image until you pull it out of the camera (unlike other Polaroid cams which instantly spit out the print whether you like it or not), you can experiment with multiple exposures:




I hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane - officially, it is the first trip, for my long-term Old Cameras Project, which *cough* I'm just about five months behind in starting it. Better late than never!