diy

Isaac Blankensmith writing in PetaPixel about building an Instax instant film back for a Hasselblad 500:

Instant photos are magical. They develop before your eyes. You can share them, gift them, spill water on them, draw on them. The only problem is that most instant cameras are pretty cheap — that’s why I’ve always wanted to hack my medium format camera to take instant photos with shallow depth of field and sharpness.

Since Fuji ceased production of their Polaroid-compatible peel-apart films a few years ago, there has been significant interest in a Fuji Instax back. At least two Kickstarters have been announced, Hasselblad Square Instant Film Back and Rezivot Instant Film Processor, but neither of those was successful.

@instantmediumformat on Instagram converted an old Mamiya Press Camera, but has offered few details for those who wish to follow. Blankensmith’s post is a pretty good starting point for people who’ve been considering building one for themselves–possibly people like me.

Flickr blog I discovered the Peephole fish eye group. The idea is simple: us a $5 door peephole to give your camera a fisheye lens. Here are the instructions:

1. Hold peephole against rim of camera lens.
2. Set camera to “macro”. (the image is actually displayed on the inside face of the convex lens of the peephole. The camera must focus on the foreground image rather than the background image.)
3. Zoom in to the point that the viewable “circle” is framed almost evenly.
4. For best results, brighter lighting will avoid unwanted noise (grain)
5. Enjoy and have fun.

You can buy a pricier model with the Lomo label on it (and if you go looking, you’ll find a “peephole reverser” which is probably useless for your photography…probably). Henry Gordon Dietz offers a lot more info.

Above is my first experiment with a peephole fisheye and my cheap video camera.

Mike Figgis‘ Fig Rig works equally well for guys in sneakers and guys in suits, but they’re not free, which is why you have to love Keith Lewis’ DIY version. PVC is sexy!