Mast Development Company Identification Camera

[kentop]

Hi. This is my first post here because I have something camera collectors may be interested in. I need people who know about such things to tell me about this camera.  Here is a video of the camera that I am talking about that I put up about a half an hour ago:  

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I have noticed that there are no Polaroid fans here. This isn't about the polaroid back, it's about the front of the camera and Gifford M. Mast in particular.





Newbie

Ken Bertschy

Retired Professional Photographer

[Stephen]

It is a rare beast, the Mast company where involved with 3D a lot, and a multi lens camera for passports is an easy modification. In the UK Shackleton and Williamson both made such cameras, Polaroid bought the designs for themselves in the end.
Trouble with Polaroid is the film and lack of it!...and where still made, the very high costs.

Stephen.

[kentop]

Nov 7, 2015 9:37:33 GMT -5 Stephen said:

It is a rare beast, the Mast company where involved with 3D a lot, and a multi lens camera for passports is an easy modification. In the UK Shackleton and Williamson both made such cameras, Polaroid bought the designs for themselves in the end.
Trouble with Polaroid is the film and lack of it!...and where still made, the very high costs.

Stephen.

Fuji 100C Professional Polaroid film costs about one dollar a picture, if you get it online, including shipping. That's not horrible. Walgreens printing of a 24 exposure roll of 35 mm film runs about 20 bucks if you want actual prints. The cost of a roll of 24 exposure 35mm film runs anywhere from three to ten bucks a roll. So, the costs for a polaroid print in your hand is just about equal to the cost of a 35mm print in your hand when all is said and done. Both film types are readily available on line. Polaroid film is still carried in camera stores in larger towns. I live in Tucson, Arizona,  population around 750,000, and I have absolutely no problem locally buying Polaroid film for my 210, and 320 Land Cameras.  The polaroid cameras themselves are cheap and plentiful around here. But I've never seen a Mast Development Camera. I am making another video to show it actually working when the replacement bulb for the aiming light gets here.

[Stephen]

A little different in the UK, the Fuji was not readily supplied whilst Polariod still made film. Also the type 100 fitting cameras were never as popular here that the States, tending to be a pro system, with very little mass market. Nowadays the film is back and costs a bit more here than the States, but there are fewer cameras still around that take the film. I have a couple of folders that still work, and I recover the negs to print from, by scanning (Domestic thick bleach removes the black layer).
It's extremely rare to find the Fuji film in retailers outside London now, mainly Ebay or Amazon on line.

Stephen

[camfiend]

Hi Ken
my reply may be a little late but every time I come on line I get side tracked reading old posts.. anyhow welcome
I wouldn't say there are NO polaroid fans here.. I have a fair collection now.. when I first started collecting I didn't think much of instant camera technology and never bothered to buy them or movie cameras but came across a box of half a dozen old polaroids at a clearing sale that needed a new home and were very cheap.. that was enough to get me started and so it goes...

[kentop]

Thanks for all the replies. I finally got that bulb replaced and did a video loading the camera and taking pictures at different distances and...nothing. The polaroids come out completely underexposed (near black, except for direct halogen bulbs making white spots on the film. So there's something wonky with the shutters. They move and looking from the film side, I can see the shutter click open and closed like they should. So, the shutters are too fast for the film. That's beyond my technical abilities, so I'm putting it up on Ebay tomorrow. I worked all day on it, trying to solve the underexposure problem and ran one and a half film packs through it. Still no solution. Maybe someone can rescue this camera. Polaroid film has recently dried up around here, too. A couples of stores said that they would not restock. That's a darn shame. Still, there's amazon prime, which I use.