FEEL...

 Still trying to get the feel of things.

No matter what camera the attraction is feel.

Notice the keyword here?  FEEL

Like driving not operating a car.

The feel of the car, the gear shift, the suspension, the vibrations of an engine.

With mechanical watches.

Same as a car.  Seeing gears and levers moving to precision to tell time.

Fountain pens.

The feel.  The art of loading ink.  The result that requires you to get some sort of skill (although my chicken scratch is far from desirable).

Manual typewriters

Hit the key too hard and you break the surface of the paper.

Strike the key too soft, not much there.

Get it right and even, bliss

I find people are becoming more and more like biological computers.
Don't think - DO
You have to keep up with the speed to the computer
Our masters now are technological stuff.

A recent medical study have found that the average human now has an attention span of 8 seconds

The art of strategy to tactics is going away

Everyone just reacts

Sorry - not this person.
My career was in tech but now I am trying to be human

Getting off my a*s and shoot...

 

During the days of stress and anguish (care for dying parents and a stressful career), I would use photography as a means to relax.  The saying is that Street Photography is great in that you never know what you will encounter.  If you get nothing that day, it's ok because you got some exercise and time.

I finally decided to go and shoot.  My old unofficial office - The Presidio in San Francisco.
Being a weekend, the food trucks were out and grabbed a pretzel (since it's Oktoberfest in Deutschland)

Thing about shooting Instant film versus Digital or film.... Damn it's hard.

Digital is so easy to do - even in manual mode.
Don't get me wrong... great results especially if you know how to use your gear and take time to work on the art and composition.  

It takes so much more to try to get a shot.  Clandestine Street Photography - forget it.  If I took out the TLR Instant I might get away with it but with an SX70, people notice and actually are friendly to it because of how unique the camera is.

The limitations of Instant film is the challenge.  You really have to understand the medium and know that to get a good shot will require a lot of problem solving skills that photographers use to get "the shot"

The shot above is nothing.  Just a grab shot.

One thing is for certain... time for this OG to get out and shoot more !!!

You've come a long way baby....

When I was fortunate enough to run a Configuration Center for a computer company, I was taught Japanese manufacturing techniques.  The word Kaisen was used often.  Loosely translated it meant constant improvement.

This is something the new Polaroid has been doing now for a few years.

Had a chance to shoot with a pack of Polaroid iType Black and White from 2023.

Total crap.

Blurry, poor shades, uneven emulsion, took about 5 minutes to get something to look at, etc... 

Same shot taken with the same Polaroid iType Black and White from 2024

Big improvement

It takes about 15 seconds for something of the image to appear although you are still required to shield it from light, thus some of the magic of seeing it appear before your eyes is still missed.

The cool thing is that this film is somewhat predictable and provides some good results.

Kudo's to the Polaroid folks for continuing to improve the product.

When they get to a point where the original Polaroid Corporation Time Zero film was at, they will then finally see a tremendous growth.

The Final Breath...

 

Actually bought something on the Mercari site.  This is a Polaroid ONE 600 Pro.  The last instant camera that the original Polaroid Corporation engineered before going into bankruptcy.

It's all plastic but the design is different.  Actually it's a Polaroid Spectra that was reimagined using Polaroid 600 film.

Looks like the design thought was to round off the boxy On-Step design.  I like unique and different so this camera fills the bill.

Image quality is that of a Polaroid 600.  OK.  Was a lot better when the film was closer to what Instax is like today.

The whole idea is FUN !

Instax Wide Evo vs. Printing

 Decided to do some photo geek stuff today.

Took a photo using the Instax Wide Evo.  The photo is obviously from the Instax and above it is the printed digital file that the Instax Wide Evo used to create the instant photo.

It actually isn't too bad of a digital file and was able to quickly print it on the new Epson since it has a built in SD card slot (also a bunch of wireless ways of getting images to the printer via phone or any other device).

Just to compare, I also printed an image taken from the Fujifilm X100V (f2, 1/125s, ISO3200).

As expected, the Fuji did a far better job.

So what did all this prove?

The dreaded costs.... 

The Instax Wide (3 15/16" x 2 7/16") shot was about $1.10 (pre tariff).

The printed images using the Epson ET8550 (EcoTank) 4x6 was about $0.12

FYI - If printed on the portable photo dye-sub Canon Selphy 1300, cost about $0.57

The Fujifilm Instax Evo Wide is a good alternative for those wanting to have the ability to make an instant print on the go and yet still have the ability to re-print OR to have a digital file that is actually usable to play with later.

The big advantage is the fun factor - seeing it develop, having something tangible (if printed right away) that is now an actual artifact of a physical image taken at that time and that place.  This is something really important that only Instant film photography can give.

The Epson.  Quality, Costs, abilities.... cannot be equaled.

The really good thing about this printer is using a tank versus cartridges and the ability to print the image without having to use an editing software if the desire is a print ASAP.

Will this stop me from shooting Instant?  

NO WAY.

Instant film is indeed still the only TRUE photographic capture of a moment in time.

Granted, in this example I shot using a hybrid camera, but if done right this too can fall into the "one of a kind" photo that is more special than ANY film print OR Digital file.

Just thankful that Fujifilm and Polaroid exists and have even started to gain more traction with younger photographers discovering the medium.

This alone is a good thing ! 

POLAROID B&W and a STUFFED DONKEY?

 NO idea what the story is with this store's display.  One thing for certain is that I do like Polaroid's Black and White versus the Instax Monochrome.

SIMPLE. JUST SIMPLE...

 With all the insanity going on in the world.  Illogic and chaos ruling the day.  Getting ready to turn another chapter in life's journey.... a nice hot cup of cappuccino seems just right.

(Instax Wide Evo - Normal+Vignette)