Both my brother and I each have one of these. A VERY useful item in the
right hands. No, you don't have to sacrifice an OM body. Just pop off the
back and snap the NPC in its place. (uh, don't do this with film in the
OM). I keep mine on an old OM-1n. You get two exposures per sheet of
film, and the images are full-frame 35mm (the same as an unmounted slide).
When done, pop off the NPC and put the normal OM back on the camera and
you're good as new.
What are Polaroid backs good for? Here's an example.
My brother was hired by Amtrak to photograph the new Acela train at 30th
Street Station in Philadelphia. It was to be a night shot, so we would
have to paint the train with light with a portable strobe. We set up a
Sinar 4x5 and two OM-1's on Bogen tripods, all three with Polaroid backs
(one OM-1 in line with the Sinar, the second at a slightly different
angle). My brother tripped the shutters and I walked along the train with
a portable strobe, setting it off at predetermined spots, making sure not
to stop long enough to register on the film. When the first image was
done, all the cameras were stopped down one stop and the process repeated.
We then looked at the Polaroids to determine the how evenly lit the train
was, how the ambient light was affecting the image, and which "exposure"
(i.e., f-stop) looked the best. After making the necessary adjustments, we
did another round, filtering the color film with gel filters as suggested
by a Gossen color meter. Once we were satisfied that everything looked
good (after three rounds of Polaroids), the OM-1's were replaced with
OM-4's, with all three cameras loaded with Kodak 100ES film.
The resulting images were fantastic (and a tremendous hit with Amtrak).
The 35mm slides were used for magazine publication and the 4x5 images were
used to make 16x20 prints. When you only get one chance to do this (Amtrak
couldn't tie up the Acela trainset for more than a few hours) you HAVE to
get it right. This is where the Polaroid back is an absolute necessity.
It's also great to test macro shots with a bellows (although you have to
mount the camera with the Polaroid back upside down on the bellows).
Steve Troy
p.s. - to see some grat railroad shots all done on Olympus equipment, go to
http://www.dantroy.com/railroads/railroads.html.
I know this topic comes up from time to time, but does anyone want to offer
their opinion of this item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1260569168
- --p.j.
From: "gries":
I'd be curious to see how much it goes for since they are about $800
new. Also you have to sacrifice an existing OM body, which only adds to
the cost....
I suppose some use exists for this contraption, but I wonder how it
actually works out real time.
Tris
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