This shot was taken in a very roundabout way. A few months ago I acquired the Polaroid 600SE, a heavy duty Polaroid portrait system with interchangeable lenses, probably the most sophisticated instant film camera ever made -- and promptly shelved it. For no reason really except that busy life countered ambition. But then awhile ago I began thinking of getting into the 6x7 medium format. I already have a couple 6x7 cameras but they are the older folder camera variety and certainly not modern; I never really used them that much and they remain just parts of my collection.

My options in 6x7 are of course huge but as my shelf space dwindles I decided to roll back a bit on my Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS).

Universal vs 600SE

I knew from before that the cousin of the Polaroid 600SE -- the nearly identical Mamiya Press system -- has many options for expanding out of instant film. Like the 600SE, the Mamiya Press cameras such as the Universal shoots packfilm that used to be manufactured by Polaroid and now is produced only by Fujifilm. Mamiya, however, had the foresight to build its Press system with the idea that it could fit a variety of other options including film backs from at least two systems. Polaroid, for some corporate reason, wanted the 600SE only to use instant film. No Mamiya Press lenses will fit the Polaroid and none of its backs will fit the Polaroid either.

But you can with an adapter

As with many things in the film world the solution has already been figured out. It turns out that the mounting scheme of the 600SE and the Universal is sufficiently close that you can acquire an adapter that will allow the
mounting of Universal backs and other rear-mounted appliances onto the 600SE. Mamiya itself made some of these adapters but also some of the existing Press adapters can be altered to mount on the 600SE. (If you do a search on "600SE and rollfilm" you will probably, like me, drown in a confusion of Gs, Ms, and other assorted combinations so for the sake of clarity here I can only talk about my solution.)

Going down the wrong path

At first the confusion that I mentioned above lead me down the wrong path. I had read somewhere that you need a "P" adapter in order to mount roll film. Without double-checking, I leapt onto that auction site and quickly acquired the first Mamiya "P" adapter I could find. After feeling pleased with myself I then realized, even as it was being shipped, that it was totally wrong. It was an adapter for the Press system, yes, but it would mount the Press back onto an RB67 camera, not my 600SE. Now feeling sorry for myself I contacted the seller to see if they knew what I should get. In fact, they did.

Difference between Press and 600SE mounts

On that auction site you will probably find a handful of M-adapters, with some vendors claiming that they will fit both the Mamiya Press or Universal and the 600SE. This is wrong. The M-adapter, can mount on a 600SE with modification. The difference between the M-adapter and a legitimate 600SE mount is in the claws that fit into the slots in the back of the camera. The 600SE requires "split" claws; the Press system has solid claws. The rest of the adapter is fine; it is only the mount that needs replacing or modifying.

For someone who has a workbench and the proper tools and the exact measurements you could probably cut an existing M-adapter claw set to mount on the 600SE. I don't, therefore it was very nice that Peter at Camera.japan (who had sold me the inapplicable P adapter) actually had extra 600SE-claws that he could swap for ones on a Press mount. So thanks to this nice vendor my roundabout solution came to me a couple weeks later.

The very flat S-shaped Press back

Several weeks before I finally could put it to use, I already had a minty Mamiya S-shaped Press back sitting on my office shelf. This is the flattest rollfilm back I've encountered yet and it's hard to expect any other film back could be flatter. It is barely a half-inch in diameter. There are many people who are crazy about film flatness in the same way as some people talk about sensors in the digital realm. For example, here is a scientific paper measuring the sub micron deviation of a film to the lens and the effect it has on depth of focus. It includes a topographic map of the film! I will save you the trouble of reading it; basically if your film is wobbly, it affects the sharpness of the image it records. This is why a back that transports the film with as little chance for movement as possible is prized. Well, I have yet to do any topographical surveys of my negatives so I will have to leave it to the image for results.

When I've shot more with this beast I will write another post on my trials and tribulations loading and shooting with it. I am slowly building a Polaroid 600SE Flickr set.