Polaroid Land Camera 195

From Camera-wiki.org
Revision as of 04:05, 17 November 2013 by Tkmedia (talk | contribs) (rm stub, broken photo)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Polaroid Land Camera 195 bears a superficial resemblance to other folding cameras in the Polaroid 100-400 series; and like them it is designed to shoot 3¼×4¼" peel-apart instant film. But in fact it this was one of the highest-specification models ever made by Polaroid, intended for professional users. Desirable features include a metal body (with tripod socket), a fold-out rangefinder/viewfinder, and fully manual exposure settings rather than the photocell-controlled autoexposure typical of Polaroid's consumer cameras. Most significant is the 114mm f/3.8 Tominon lens (by Tomioka), which is significantly faster than the f/8.8 lens typically found in Polaroid's consumer-level models.

Because of the value and versatility of the 195, some users have replaced its original rangefinder/viewfinder with the top quality single-eyepiece viewfinder made by Zeiss, which Polaroid used on other models such as the Model 250 or 350. Because compatible packfilm from Fujifilm remains in production today (2011) the Model 195 has maintained a very high resale value (as have its siblings the 180 and 190).

Links