Instax Wide 300, old lenses, and how to develop instant film without a camera #instaxhack

Here's the deal. I experimented with Instax Mini film a year ago.

I put them in old cameras and hand developed in the dark by shoving the instant sheets through the rollers of a old Fuji PA-45 film back. It kinda worked. The results were literally uneven.

The PA-45 were too tight and did not spread the developing chemicals evenly throughout the sheet.

But finding a way to use Instax film, especially the Wide, was a goal I had from the start. I suppose I could have bought just a pack of Wide and tried it on my old 4x5 press camera BUT I decided to go whole hog and buy a camera too. Indeed, I could use it as a developer as opposed to using it has a camera.

But it got me thinking, why not put a good lens on it. The camera has lots of limitations. Only two focus settings. Fixed f stop. Plastic lens. Not exactly creative control.

So I looked up the samples online. Of course, there's that one using LEGO. Albertino is featured with some provocative examples and inspiring stuff.

Which of course got me thinking about putting to use some of my older lenses like this Jos Schneider & Co, Kreuznach 105mm f/4.5 Xenar with a Compur shutter.

But the thing is most of the camera hackers don't SHOW you how the mangled, modded cameras are attached to the mod parts. There are tantalizing images out there. They you wonder if YOU, or, well, me, can do it. I plan to try. And I'll show you. I have the camera, I have some lenses, I have LEGO. I'll do my best to show you how I go about it. Soon.