Polaroid 600

Yo what up, welcome back to another episode. Well, I'm just going to come right out and say it. If you have access to those new Mountain Dew Doritos and want to hook a homie up, DM me. Well amigos, there's no easy way to say it. I've been having a lot of gas lately, which usually means it's time to face the music and just take a sh**. Hopefully by now you've realized that this is just a metaphor for buying new film cameras, where the sh** is a new camera and the gas is gear acquisition syndrome. Gear acquisition syndrome is a disease that many photographers and videographers face, where you feel the need to buy new cameras, probably because you need some excitement in your life. I won't lie to you, I'm guilty of it because I have no self-control. If you've ever been to an all-you-can-eat buffet with me, you've seen this firsthand. So yeah, I decided to pick up this Polaroid camera, so let's give it a go. Quick tip, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. These photos are going to be more slice-of-life, quarantine themed, and if after watching this video you're like, wow that was depressing as hell, then imagine living it. So I was thinking it'd be very fitting to shoot the first roll in my pink Polaroid camera with Polaroid pink film, but I looked it up and holy sh** what the hell. Yeah, quite a few of these shots didn't really turn out how I imagined. I think the biggest factor was that there wasn't a whole lot of available light, which is something I probably should have known going in. The film is 600 speed and after looking it up, the lens is somewhere around f14, so yeah, this beast is going to be hungry for light. This shot is my favorite from the first batch. It's kind of a happy accident in my opinion, because I couldn't hold still long enough for the long exposure. It kind of looks like the gas station is being washed away in the rain, which yes, that is my justification for a sh**ty photo. Overall, I think not too bad for my first batch of Polaroids, but I can do better. I will do better. No one is counting on me. Anyway, let me tell you, I had quite the inner monologue going about purchasing this camera. It haunted me for nights to the point where I couldn't sleep anymore, as I know I would just have another nightmare featuring a slow zoom in on the camera with the song, take a chance on me, playing on loop. You know what song I'm talking about. The song that will be stuck in your head for the next month. I think Takashi69 sings it. Why the nightmares and inner monologue, you may wonder. Alright, here it is. I'm not as much of a camera whore as I may lead you on to be. I love using different film cameras, but these days I'm actually quite picky when it comes to purchasing a new one. For me, the camera needs to be damn near perfect before I throw down any shmeckles on it. Because frankly, my biggest fear in life, besides the slow decay of all things as a result of the linearity of time, is winding up one day with 200 film cameras that I proudly display in my local dumpster because that's where I live because I can't afford rent anymore. So why did I pick up this camera? Well, I've never shot Polaroid before and I've always wanted to give it a go. And this camera is a Polaroid 600 camera, so that means it takes 600 speed film, which I think is a good range for the type of stuff I'm going to be shooting. And believe it or not, Polaroids can actually be used for more than just blackmail and as a convenient way to remember who to trust after you lost your memory in a Christopher Nolan movie. The second and probably most obvious reason is that it's pink and I've always wanted a camera that looked like my favorite drink, Pepto Bismol. So the sun was shining for the first time all week and I decided now is as good a time as any to give these Polaroids all the attention and light that they need. Thus, I loaded up the camera with more Color 600. Yeah, so I'm not too sure what happened on this one. There's like a white streak in the center. Maybe it's just a defective Polaroid. If anyone knows, let me know. Later on, we took Baxter for a walk as the sun was setting and these are some of my favorite shots for sure. So something that I thought was interesting about these photos, and I guess Polaroids in general, is that none of the shots really turned out how I imagined when I took the photo, but in an alternative way, they kind of look really cool, if that makes sense. It wasn't what I was aiming for, but they still turned out really awesome in a different way. Like how Rise of Skywalker was not really what I imagined, but it still turned out kind of cool in a different way. Okay, no, that movie sucked. I really dig the whole shooting process with this thing too. When you click the shutter and the Polaroid comes out, it's like it's giving birth to your child. Even the motor inside is screaming at you. And then you watch it develop over time and eventually it lets you down, just like all of our parents when they watched us grow up. Things I'm not a fan of, it costs about $20 to shoot a single pack of Color Polaroids. How many are in a pack, you may be wondering. It's eight. So yeah, not great prices. I guess you could argue that in the pack, you're also paying for the cartridge and the battery, but $20 is $20. You know what I'm saying? Black and white 600 film is less, so maybe I'll take a swing at that next time. Also, apparently this thing will fire the shutter if the lid is closed. What the f**k is that about? Another weird thing about this camera is that the shutter speed will go as low as 1 3rd of a second, but there's no tripod socket on this camera. So it seems like a weird thing to have because let's be honest, only a robot would be able to handhold 1 3rd of a second of a shutter speed. Anyway, I actually really enjoyed shooting Polaroids and I could potentially see a project being made out of this in the future. Now you may have watched this whole video and you might be thinking, wow, Jason has really shown some growth in this video in that he's finally accepting square as a legitimate format. Don't get me wrong, square format is for nerds I guess quarantine changes a man, but still f**k 6x6.