Yesterday one of my final presents from eBay arrived -- a minty Mamiya 127mm f/4.7 for the Polaroid 600SE body that I had acquired last month. As I had been hinting at, I have wanted to try out a full image Pola outfit for some time and started on that process by first picking up the body, then getting a replacement packfilm back (the first one I got did not have a dark slide) and now my chosen outfit is complete.

What is the G00SE?

The G00SE is the affectionate name for the Polaroid 600SE (see how the name lends itself to the nickname?), a camera that is nearly identical to the Mamiya Press camera family. Indeed, the 600SE was made by Mamiya for Polaroid so that Polaroid could have a professional-quality portrait camera with interchangeable lens system -- also made by Mamiya. There are two major differences between the 600SE and its closest cousin, the Mamiya Universal.

1) The lenses are not interchangeable between the Mamiya Press cameras and the 600SE -- something that continues infuriate fans of both systems today.

2) The brackets on the back of the 600SE that allow the mounting of various film backs are not the same as those on the Mamiya Press cameras. Unlike the lens issue, one can get adapters so that you can mount the same backs as the Mamiya Press cameras.

The other differences are essentially branding ones. Mine has a nice big Polaroid brand on it and no other camera can call itself a G00SE.

Why this big camera? Don't you have other Pola cameras?

I have always had a couple integral film Polaroids. These are the noisy instant party cameras everyone remembers that spat out film that developed in front of your eyes. The trouble with these is A) they didn't have much in the way of professional manual controls and B) that film is going the way of the dodo after this year (unless the Impossible Project becomes possible).

When I became seriously interested in Polas for art I acquired a preview back for my Mamiya 645 Pro-TL system. However, a Polaroid on a 645 back only uses a quarter of Pola image. For art purposes it is a waste of three dollars a shot so I ended up selling this recently to someone who did need it for its exposure preview use. Then last month I acquired the funky Miniportrait 203, the passport / ID camera that took double-images. Now we are seriously talking art ;)

The trouble with even that one was that the Miniportrait really has some serious limitations on what you can take and how you can take it -- three fixed shutter speeds, three apertures. Getting that Miniportrait was always a means toward an end, which was to be able to take full-image Polaroids with as much manual control as possible. The end result of my search is the 600SE.

It's only a box without a good lens

For more than a month the 600SE body was a lonely sight sitting on my shelf at work. It was essentially a big empty box with a hole in it. It had a rangefinder, triggering system, hole in the back for film and that's about it. Because it was a rangefinder, it didn't even have a mirror system as the viewfinder is separate from the lens. That means that there is no interruption in your view when you activate the shutter as your viewfinder is not in any way connected with the lens. Just so you know how to frame the picture, there is a slide on the viewfinder that changes visual guides within the view from 127mm to the other common lens, the 150mm. If you get the wide angle 75mm, you need to buy it with an add-on additional viewfinder made just for it.

External triggering

The 600SE even goes so far as to keep the triggering mechanism external to the body. The shutter release is activated from a big index-finger button on the left-handle and that flexes an external shutter release cable that is connected to a port on whatever lens you choose to mount. Incidentally, this is the first camera I've used that has a left-handed release. Usually, I focus with my left-hand on manual lenses. Now I will have to relearn this with my dominant hand.

Works with flash via PC cable

For flash users, there is no hot shoe. There are two cold shoes (non-powered) on the top of the body and one on top of the left handle. Any flash or Pocket Wizard you use with this camera must be triggered via a P/C sync cable. I'm used to this having done the same thing with my Ansco Speedex. Last night I successfully tested it with my Pocket Wizards and it was fine.

On the back

To fill the other hole in the 600SE's box are brackets that allow an instant pack film back. These were made all in different mounts but happily, the 600SE shares in common the same mount as the widely available Miniportrait cameras, which is why I got my 203. You can also mount a 4x5" instant film back for much larger images, though these are more rare and there is a dwindling supply of 4x5 instant film. The smaller instant pack film the 600SE uses, happily, is still made by Fuji.

The Mamiya 127mm f/4.7 -- not as telephoto as you may think

Finally, the 127mm will make all of this a happening system. I found out previously, when visiting with a local 600SE user Nizomi, that the 127mm is not as telephoto as one might think when used to the 35mm SLR world. It is in fact fairly wide, to my eyes about the equivalent to a 50mm. This one allows you to focus as close as 3.5 feet (1.1 meters). This means that it should be suitable as a portrait lens. I won't know for sure until I do start with some. The only negative to this lens is that it is fairly slow, at f/4.7. But then I will be shooting flash.

What's next?

So far, making mistakes like these: