Polaroid 100-400 series

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This series of Polaroid cameras, starting with the Automatic Land Camera 100 and finishing at the Automatic Land Camera 450, all share:

  • Folding bellows
  • Automatic exposure, with an external 'Electric Eye' light-meter beside the lens
  • A design for Polaroid 100-series Packfilm (3¼×4¼-inch peel-apart instant film)

There is a very large variety within this vast range of essentially similar folding Polaroid models. The best 'standard' models are the 100, 250, 350, and 450 variants of the line.

These feature a coupled rangefinder designed by the German firm Zeiss Ikon, rigid metal bodies and 3 element glass lenses. Most other models, such as the 103, 220 or 430 have a much cheaper build quality and features including plastic lenses, rigid viewfinders, moulded plastic bodies and many lack a tripod socket.

All these cameras produce 7.2×9.5cm prints on Polaroid 100-series packfilm, and the more expensively produced models can be capable of very good results. Many accessories were made for these cameras including, but not limited to, portrait kits, close-up kits, and electric external flashes.

A few models to be aware of are the 180, 185, 190, and 195 cameras. These professional-model Polaroid Land Cameras are among the best cameras Polaroid has ever produced, and are vastly superior to the rest of the 100-400 line as they include much faster glass lenses, fully mechanical leaf shutters, and manual exposure functionality. These models lack the built-in light-meter the other models use to calculate exposure, and are capable of excellent results, on par with the best professional Polaroid cameras ever made - like the 600 SE.

Models 220, 360 and 420
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image by Marty4650 (Image rights)
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image by Douglas Elsberry (Image rights)
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image by Michael Raso (Image rights)


Viewfinder & Rangefinder variants

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Model 100
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Model 104
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Model 350
viewfinder images by Tim Williams (Image rights)

There are several main types of view and range finder used throughout the folding land camera series, the most common being a two-window split system (as featured on the Automatic 100) whereby the user first makes focus using a small window with a circular (or, more commonly, square) shifting ranged image, and then moves the eye to a larger non-parallax corrected viewfinder with marked frame-lines for composing the shot.

This type of viewfinder was on all the very early models in the series, and continued to be used on many of the mid- and low-tier models over the life cycle of the folding packfilm camera series. Both folding and non-folding models of this viewfinder type exist; the folding type is more common on early models with higher quality lenses.


The second, and one of the more uncommon types of viewfinder used was a single window non-rangefinder variant. This type of viewfinder was used on the 104, and used a type of zone-focusing system, with subject distance selectable within the viewfinder, and two vertically travelling lines designed to be used to mark the top of a subject's forehead and their chin, to ensure correct focusing for portraiture.

This zone-focusing viewfinder also features parallax-corrected marks for judging correct subject framing at different focal distances. In the instruction manual for the 104, Polaroid includes several illustrated tips on how to ensure correct use of the focusing system on varied subjects. This viewfinder type is non-folding, and so camera models with this type of viewfinder have a slightly different case design to those with folding optics.


The third type of viewfinder common in the series is that used on the 250, 350 and other 3-element glass lens models: a high quality Zeiss-Ikon designed, single-window, parallax-corrected combination range and viewfinder.

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Zeiss Ikon single-window rangefinder-viewfinder
image by Steve Harwood (Image rights)
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Zeiss finders
Top: Rev 1; Bottom: Rev 2
image by joanseda (Image rights)


Models

100 Series

200 Series

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Model 350
image by inkyfingerz (Image rights)

300 Series

400 Series

  • Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 420 (1972-1977)
  • Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 430 (1971-1977)
  • Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 440 (1971-1977)
  • Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 450 (1971-1975)
  • Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 455 (1975-1976)
  • Polaroid Countdown M70 Land Camera Automatic (1971-1973)
  • Polaroid Countdown M90 Land Camera Automatic (1971-1973)

100 Series Manual

accessories

  • #126 Development timer
  • #127 Development time
  • #128 Development timer
  • #191 Cable Release
  • #192 Self timer
  • #193 Cold Clip
  • #268 Flashgun
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Model 350 with external flash #268
image by Erich Z (Image rights)
  • #280 Flashgun
  • #471 Portrait Kit
  • #473 Close-Up Kit
  • #490 Flashgun
  • #516 Cloud Filter
  • #541 Portrait Kit
  • #543 Close-Up Kit for 430 and 440
  • #561 Portrait Kit for 450
  • #563 Close-Up Kit for 450
  • #581 Portrait Kit
  • #581A Portrait Kit
  • #583 Close-Up Kit
  • #583 Close-Up Kit
  • #583A Close-Up Kit
  • #585 UV Filter
  • #591 Portrait Kit for 180
  • #593 Close-Up Kit for 180
  • #595 Filter Kit with lens shade
  • #596 Orange Filter
  • #597 UV Filter
  • #628 Exposure meter
  • #1952 Portrait Kit for 195
  • #1951 Close-Up Kit for 195

Film

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image by joanseda (Image rights)
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image by joanseda (Image rights)
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image by joanseda (Image rights)
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image by joanseda (Image rights)
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image by joanseda (Image rights)
Type ISO Colour or B&W Other Information
T64 64 Colour Tungsten balance
084 3000 B&W
105 Negative: 32
Print: 75		 B&W B&W print with usable negative
renamed as 665 in 1977
107 3000 B&W
107C 3000 B&W Coater-less
108 75 Colour
108 80 Colour Polacolor 2, replaced by 669 in 2001
125i 125 Colour Passport and document
125i Silk 125 Colour Passport and document, matte finish
606 200 B&W Sepia
611 200 B&W low contrast for photographing video displays
612 20000 B&W high-speed and high contrast for photographing oscilloscope traces
661 80 Colour special program film not for retail sale
663 800 B&W
664 100 B&W
665 Negative: 32
Print: 80		 B&W PN film, has a reusable negative
667 3000 B&W
668 75 Colour
669 80 Colour
669 Silk 80 Colour Matte finish
672 400 B&W
679 100 Colour Replaced by 690
679 Silk 100 Colour Matte finish
681 80 Colour Plastic base print
689 100 Colour
690 125 Colour Replaced by newer 690 with ISO 100
690 100 Colour
691 80 Colour Transparent film
ID-UV 100 100 Colour Ultra violet security imprint (passport, documents)
ID-UV 80 Colour Ultra violet security imprint (passport, documents)
Studio Polaroid 125 Colour passport and document, replaced by 125i
100 Chocolate 80 B&W Brownish tone film, sold by unsaleable
100 Sepia 1600 B&W Sepia tone film, sold by unsaleable
100 Blue Silk 80 B&W blue & white tone (matte finish), sold by unsaleable

Links

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