Land Camera Electronic Flash Mount

After you have modified an electronic flash to work with your Polaroid land camera, you will find that you need a way to mount it on the camera. I found that the easiest way to do this was to use the flashbulb unit as a base and modify it to support the electronic flash. This is relatively straight forward to do and I find that it attaches to the camera quite well. The two benefits of doing it this way is that the flashbulb unit has a custom built clip specifically to attach to the Polaroid and it also has the custom PC cable which is used to activate the automatic metering inside of the Land Camera for use with the flash.

Step 1: Go Get Stuff

You will need:
- Polaroid 268 flashbulb unit
- An electronic flash
- Hot shoe tripod adapter
- 1/4 x 1/2" bolt
- (x2) 1/4 washers
- 3/32" mono jack
- Black mat board triangle ***
- Spray mount
- Thread lock
- (x2) 3/32' mono plugs or 3/32" male-to-male mono cable

*** Cut out the triangle from the template posted below called "FlashMountTriangle.eps". It does not necessarily have to be Mat board. Any thick material that is 1/16" or thinner should work.

Step 2: Disassemble

Take apart the flashbulb unit until you are left with an empty plastic shell.

Make certain to set aside all of the parts some place safe as some of them will be used for reassembly.

Step 3: Break

There should be two plastic support tabs opposite each other on the inside of the case. These are not the posts used for the mounting screw, but two thin plastic tabs. Break both of these tabs out completely using pliers or diagonal cutters (see image notes for details).

Step 4: Attach

Center and drill a 1/4" hole on the top of the case, away from the side with triangle notch.

Put a washer into your bolt and then pass it through the hole from the inside of the case.

Put thread lock on the bolt that is protruding out of the case.

Fasten the hot shoe adapter mount tightly to the bolt. Make certain that your flash will be facing the notched triangle side when it slides into the hot shoe. If it is facing away from the triangle when it slides in, then it is backwards. Fix this.

Step 5: Button

For aesthetics glue the red button back into the case. I used a little bit of hot glue, but whatever you have on hand should be fine.

Step 6: Cover

Spray one side of the mat board triangle you cut out earlier (see template below) with spray mount.

Cover the triangle notched portion of the case with the triangle.

Wait for the glue to set.

Step 7: Solder

Solder the PC cable to the 3/32" jack. It is not so important as to which wire goes to which terminal because the circuit is basically just a switch.

However, for consistency sake, the white wire appeared to be continuous with the shielding on the plug, so I attached that to the grounding on the jack. I attached the black wire to tip.

Step 8: Install

Install the jack through the center hole of the mat board triangle and fasten it into place.

Step 9: Reassemble

Reinstall in the casing the metal bracket that the lid fastens to.

Slide the PC cable into its special slot on the lid.

Fasten the lid back on.

Step 10: 3/32" Cable

Get or make a 3/32" male-to-male mono cable.

Step 11: Put It All Together

The electronic flash slides into the hot shoe mount.

The 3/32" mono cable connect the electronic flash to the triangle panel.

You can test that it is working by turning on the electronic flash and shorting the connect on the PC cable with a screwdriver.