I spotted a listing on the local Craigslist that I couldn't pass up. It was for a new or nearly new Polaroid ProPack. This is one of those purchases that I didn't really care to overanalyze because at the heart of my attraction was -- this thing looks cool. It's a folder camera (yes, the folder action gets me again) and it takes instants. I did a bit of research prior and had discovered it also uses the peel-apart film that Fuji still produces so it isn't one of those Polaroids that is under the impending doom of no more film.

So last night I went to meet the seller. He had never used it -- he shot architecture -- so we both sat down to test it. I'm not a collector -- I actually want to use these machines. After some pushing and pulling we discovered how to load the Fuji FP-100C cartridge and then puzzled on how to actually take a picture. Unlike the other Polaroid I have, there is no whizzing no automatic mechanical noise. I pressed the shutter a handful of times waiting for some kind of feedback. There was none.

Not willing to accept failure (and still wanting to take home the ProPack anyway) I pulled the first strip from the pack and yanked out the first frame. My first exposure from a packfilm camera. I peeled apart the emulsion and voila .. a blurry terrible picture of the seller. Yay -- it exposed.

And then I pulled and pulled.

It turned out I had exposed a four frames. And here's the thing to realize about this film. It's bloody expensive bought locally. It was basically $2 an exposure on a very humble image-taking device. Well, that's the cost of art.

I guess I would have saved a bit of money by actually downloading and reading the manual -- but as I've written before: that's just not me. ;)

UPDATE

At the end of the pack, finally a good exposure.