How to Modify a Polaroid Land Camera to Take 35mm film

Yes you are probably wondering why I would do this, but It all started when I bought this camera off of Ebay for 20 bucks. I was buying it as a collectors item, but when I saw it i was dying to use it in some sort of way. It is too bad that polaroid stopped making the specific film for this camera around the 90s so I modified this camera to take normal 35 kodak roll film. 

I apologize if I have offended people by modifying this camera I am not trying to "Destroy history" I'm just trying to have fun with it. Thanks.
 

Step 1: Tools and Materials, what you will need:

Camera: a Polaroid land camera (mine is a model 150) 

Materials:
1 piece of leather about a 1/16''
1 sheet of sticky foam paper
1 sheet of tin foil
2 sheets of plain paper
2 decorative knobs of your choice ( to advance and rewind film)
1 dowel: 3/8
1 piece of hard wood 2x2'', 8''
Saran wrap
polymer clay
black silk fabric
white glue (Elmer's or tacky) and old brush  to apply it with
strong glue (Gorilla, Wood glue)
1 roll of film (for measuring purposes)

Tools:
sand paper
an awl (or something sharp and strong you can hit with a hammer[nail, screw])
a semi course round file
drill and pilot bits: 1/4, 3/8,  5/16,
1 small flat headed screwdriver
a fine ruler (goes up to 16th of an inch )
a squaring tool of some kind
hammer
a dremel and a bit to cut and sand metal 
safety glasses
X-acto blade 
1 sharp hand saw
air compressor or something to blow away metal shavings
Clamp

 

Comments

[gionwhorphin]

Very cool. I have an old 800 I was thinking of using for cyanotypes, but I might try this instead. I would really love to see some examples of pictures you've taken with this rig.

[kyre]

I'm currently doing some thing similar only going the way of 120 film and pano(ish) format :D

How do you count the frames?

[Marker1024]

Cool! Post an instructable when you are finished! What I did was after I developed film from my nikon film camera, I didn't cut the negative into strips instead I left it long to measure the frame's distance. I then put the negative back in the canister and into the camera. I pulled the film across and attached the negative to the spool using as little of the negative as possible (because the distance is much greater in this camera than most average film cameras so it won't be exact.) I then found a certain amount the knob needs to be turned for it to advance almost exactly. I drew a line on the knob so I knew how far I was turning it. Because there is no sprocket it is difficult to get the same distance every time. I just keep turning until it’s taught and the knobs don’t spin anymore.
ps sorry for the late response

[kyre]

If this is late, you should see some of the forum replys I'we gotten :P (2 years after the original post)

Your measuring method is much the same i used for my (failed) lomolubitel 120-135 conversion.

I'm just wondering, why frame it as a normal ish 35? the lens should cover a good bit length wise on a 35mm at least 12cm on the role at a time, my lomo gave me about 6cm.
Then again i suffer form a major pano fetish ;)

-kyre

[jmsaltzman]

Very nice conversion! I'd like to see some output though, should have some interesting optical effects with the smaller filmback.

[SeamusDubh]

Cool.
Makes me wonder what it takes to convert one of these to digital.

[Marker1024]

thanks, but probably an image processor and a lot of brains

[gmoon]

Nice project. FWI, they actually used to sell 35mm adapters for 2 1/4 (70mm) roll cameras, although I've never seen one for a polaroid. The adapters were probably marketed because Kodachrome was such a big hit initially, and wasn't available in the larger format at first...

I certain used to use a polaroid back for my medium format cameras, so it's fun to see something in the opposite direction.

It will be interesting to see where the 35mm format goes in the 10-20 years, given that it's rising cost and shrinking availability means it's likely to be used mostly by artists, rather than commercial photogs or consumers...