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How I hacked Polaroid Big Shot to shoot Instax film

Released in 1971, the Polaroid Big Shot was a funky, green plastic camera that was built for one thing: portraits. The plastic behemoth is simply designed, using a fixed focus 200mm, single element plastic meniscus lens. The grip has a stereoscopic rangefinder integrated in it, which makes framing and achieving focus easy. Focal length is fixed at approximately three feet, emphasizing the portrait centrality of this camera. The shutter speed is a static 1/52 second, combined with an adjustable aperture of f56, f36 or f24. A small aperture and rather slow shutter speed meant most “normally” lit photos would be underexposed, especially indoors, so most photos would require the use of a flash.

For the flash the Big Shot uses Magicubes, which are an explosive, four use, disposable flash cube. There is a large Fresnel diffuser for the flash that is built into the front of the camera, which softens shadows and makes the flash much less harsh. A favorite of Warhol, he used the camera to shoot dozens of portraits, often using the resulting Polaroids as basis for his screen-printing art.

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NONS SL645 instant camera uses vintage lenses and shoots Instax Mini film

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Perhaps you’re already familiar with NONS and their interesting SLR cameras that use Instax film. The company has just announced the SL645: a camera that lets you shoot Instax Mini film. Like NONS’s other products, it lets you change lenses, so it seems like a perfect match for those who love instant film photography and vintage lenses with equal passion. Alright then, let’s check it out and see what it has to offer.

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Jollylook is back with the Jollylook Pinhole – Their new DIY instant film pinhole camera kit

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It always makes me smile to see a new camera from Jollylook. We’ve featured a couple of their other cameras in the past including the original Jollylook in 2017 as well as the smarter Jollylook Auto in 2020. Now, the Ukrainian company has relocated to Slovakia and is announcing their newest camera, the Jollylook Pinhole – a DIY pinhole camera kit you can build yourself that also takes Fuji Instax film.

Jollylook founder, Evgeniy Ivanic says about the project that “the Jollylook Pinhole DIY kit brings back the pleasure of the process of building a camera and taking a photograph”. As with past Jollylook cameras, the Jollylook Pinhole comes with a vintage-inspired design but incorporates modern Fuji Instax film for as instant an analogue process as you can get.

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These CT scans reveal fantastic engineering inside instant cameras

Anything can be an artistic tool if you’re creative enough. While CT scanning is usually used for medical purposes, guys at Scan of the Month have used it for something completely unordinary.

In their latest series of scans, the team has performed CT scans on different types of instant cameras. Other than revealing the engineering behind each piece, the images look almost magical.

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NONS SL660 – Medium format Instax camera with a built-in frame-filling adapter for 35mm SLR lenses

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We’ve seen a couple of great projects from the folks at NONS over the last couple of years, like the original NONS SL42 in February 2020 followed by the NONS SL42 Mark II in 2021. These cameras shoot the 4:3 aspect 645 medium format Fuji Instax film. Now, NONS has launched their newest camera, the SL660 which takes the slightly larger 6×6 Fuji Instax square film.

Like the previous models, the NONS SL660 features a passive Canon EF mount with no electronic signal for autofocus or aperture control. The mount might seem like an odd choice, but it allows you to easily adapt to M42, Nikon F, Pentax K, CY as well as medium format system lenses through the use of adapters. and as with the previous models, this one’s launching on Kickstarter.

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Fujifilm teams up with Nintendo for a themed Instax printer for Nintendo Switch

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Well, this is an odd one. Fujifilm has announced an unlikely collaboration with Nintendo. They’re releasing a Nintendo-themed Instax Mini Link app that works via your smartphone for the Nintendo Switch. It’s not designed for printing photographs, though… Well, it can, offering a bunch of frames from a range of Nintendo games, but it’s primarily intended to let users print out scenes and characters from their Nintendo Switch console.

While the printer itself is the bog-standard Fuji Instax Mini Link in a custom colour scheme, but there is also going to be a Pikachu-themed silicone case for it (available as part of a bundle with the printer, not available separately). But the most shocking thing about the collaboration, as Fuji Rumors points out, is that the smartphone app actually seems to work – unlike their camera app.

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Fujifilm leaks themselves – photos and full specs of the upcoming Instax Mini 40

According to pttl.gr, Fujifilm has leaked themselves,  posting all of the upcoming Instax Mini 40 on the Instax website site a little early. Expected to be announced on April 7th, it looks like somebody was a little too eager with that publish button. The content has been removed from the Instax website now, although screenshots were captured by the folks at pttl.

Fujifilm has been teasing the camera on Instagram for a few days now, although there’s no word on a price yet. And while the camera might have been covered up in the Instagram post, the photos that temporarily appeared on the Instax website show the new camera from all angles, along with a complete list of specs.

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The NONS SL42 Mark II adds EF mount and actually fills the medium format Instax frame

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The initial launch of the first NONS SL42 was about this time last year. It was an M42 SLR that uses Fuji Instax Mini instant film to let you make instant prints with your interchangeable M42 lenses, and you were actually able to see what the lens sees through the viewfinder so that you know exactly what you were going to get in your shot

Well, there’s a new NONS SL42 Mark II version that’s popped up on Kickstarter. The M42 mount has been replaced by a passive EF mount, letting you mount pretty much whatever you want to it (M42, Nikon F, etc) through the use of adapters. But what’s really interesting is that this one comes with a “NONS Format Extender” (NFE), making your 135 format full-frame lens fill that 62x46mm medium format frame.

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This 3D printed doohicky lets you shoot split double exposures with the Instax Mini 90

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Split double exposures can be a lot of fun. They essentially involve covering half of the frame and taking a shot and then covering the other half of the frame and taking another – both shots contributing to a single exposure. There are all kinds of ways you can do them, and Lomography even includes a “Splitzer” tool for this with their wide-angle Lomo’Instant camera.

But what about other cameras? Photographer Guillermo Hernandez has designed one of his own for the Instax Mini 90 that he made using his 3D printer which lets you accomplish the task quite easily.

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