Since I love to shoot instant and I
love the happy accidents, I am always looking for unique ways to
shoot. I ran across a terribly abused Graphex Mini Speed
Graphic(1939-1946) in a bargain bin last year. The tolex was
destroyed and there were lots of little things broken or missing, but
the lens was good. I thought it would be fun to try and shoot some
sheet film, and since I don't yet have a 4x5, this seemed a good
starting point. A year later my friend and photographer
extraordinaire Dennis Savage gave me a Mini Speed Graphic in a box of
stuff! The lens was toast, but the tolex looked great and using my
first Mini as an organ donor I was able to put together a pretty nice
little camera!
About a month ago, I started thinking
what if- what if the popular consumer grade integral instant film
Fuji Instax Mini would fit into these 2x3 holders? I could shoot some
shots and in about 5 minutes have a fully developed image! Today I
tried it and it was too easy. If you are into Lomography, instant
photography, lo-fi imagery, alternative photography, or you just like
to mess with stuff- this may be for you! You also could be among the
thousands who feel limited by the non-manual toy like feel of the
Fuji Instax Mini cameras.
This process is not without issues,
but if you wanted no issues you would just shoot with your i-phone
and instagram it. My little camera needs lots of tweaking to get rid
of light leaks, but I would expect that from a 75 year old leather
bellows.
The short and sweet is that the film
sits in there nice. I took a pack of instax into a changing bag with
5 2x3 film holders. I then unloaded the film from the instax and into the film holders one by one. I was very careful to
preserve the orientation in the bag. The only big warning I would
give is that one side of instax has the developing pod. I chose to
put that on the outside(where the end folds back down. I was careful
to shove it in there good and deep so very little of the pod would be
compressed when I added the darkslide. Once everything was loaded I
shot it like I would sheet film. When I was done I put the empty pack
and all of the film holders back into the bag along with an instax
camera. I reloaded the film, careful to get the orientation right.
Then I put the cartridge in the camera, turned on the camera, and
proceeded to shoot the camera in the bag until all of the film was
processed.
The results were fun, messy, and
gratifying. Though this was just a test, I know I am going to use
this “instant” process again and again!
Of note: the 800 film makes for some
great interior shots without flash, but outdoors it is very easy to
get overexposed with the limitations of the Speed Graphic. I may have
to size an ND filter for it.
Also of note: Fuji will have black
and white film for their instax mini this October!!!!
Thanks for this posting, it looks fun. But I'm wondering why none of the sample pictures have anything that could be called sharp in them? Do you think the softness is due to something particular to your camera (like the rangefinder or infinity stops are off), or something to do with the general use of Instax Mini film in those 2x3 holders (such as distance of film surface from focus plane)? THANKS
ReplyDeleteThough the Instax mini film is integral film, which is notorious for a softer look, that is not all that is causing the look. I did this as a "proof of concept". I honestly was surprised it would work at all. It could have been sharper with use of a ground glass, but I used the existing stop setup, which was not verified. If you take the time and use better equipment, your results could be much better! My later post "MUP and Goose get an update" has some more examples of shooting with the Instax film.
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