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Everything changed in 2016. The last production run of pack film left Fujifilm's factory and the manufacturing machines destroyed. Although efforts are being made to revive pack film, its days are effectively over. This site though will be dedicated to the goal of preventing pack film cameras from becoming film orphans by converting them to use other film formats.

Quiet talk about bellows

I started collecting Polaroid pack cameras back in 1984. The cameras themselves were only 20 years old and I didn't give a second thought about the bellows. Fast forward to today and another 42 years has passed! The first warning shot over the bow was a light leak in a roll film camera bellows (15 year older). I knew it was there for a while, and I finally replaced it recently with a bellows from a pack camera because they're newer, right? I didn't even think to check whether it also had pinholes.

Then on the most recent project, reviving an EE100 special, I replaced its pinhole ridden poorly designed bellows with one from a pack camera, not thinking to check it. When the resulting pictures had light leaks I checked the replaced bellows and sure enough, there were pinholes in it! I went through all of my pack film cameras and discovered the grim reality: the bellows on these 60+ year old pack film cameras are starting to fail, with half of the cameras having pinholes in them.

This hit me kind of hard. Sure, there are ways to plug pinholes using liquid electric tape or dyed fabric glue, or even black fabric tape such as hockey stick tape, but the days where I could just grab a pack camera and not have to worry about whether the bellows has developed a new pinhole are gone. Regular pinhole checks are going to have to be done, and never again will I be able to trust that the bellows will be light tight the next time I use it. Will the next time it's folded down and opened again produce another pinhole?

This is the 2nd big hit against Polaroid pack cameras, the first happening 10 years ago when pack film was discontinued. But rather than feeling sad about pack film, rather than chasing expensive, expired film packs, I decided to see whether a pack camera can shoot film again. That last 5 years has led me on a super fun journey of hacking these cameras so they can use Polaroid i-type, Instax wide, 120 and 35mm, and sheet film. All the while, the bellows have been deteriorating...

Any "fix" to the bellows will be temporary. Liquid tape or dyed glues will harden and crack and hockey tape will eventually fail as well. And that temporary nature of the fix means trust is broken. The only long term solution will be to replace the bellows. Anyone who has made a bellows knows it's not a trivial task. And although a custom bellows could be ordered and purchased, it cuts against the underlying idea that these cameras could be acquired and modified inexpensively to produce nice pictures.

This is somewhat of a watershed moment. Should these cameras be relegated to the shelf or is it worth the effort to develop the templates/system to replace the bellows? Perhaps this issue could lead to a procedure the equivalant of reskinning an SX-70 camera, allowing the customization of a pack camera. The big question is, "Is a pack camera worth the effort?" Many would say a resounding "No!" and list its issues: the f/8.8 lens, the recessed film plane, its riveted construction, the degrading capacitors in its shutter circuits, and the expense and degraded results from expired pack film.

But part of being human is that we are not just rational beings. Most arguments point to the obvious conclusion that it's time for these cameras to wind up on a shelf, or the garbage. But humans are not just driven by the rational process. There is an unseen side of man which transcends the brain and believes in things and ends up guiding us. All that to say that perhaps this is an opportunity to be human. Where will it lead?