For quite some time I had been thinking about this:
Polaroid cameras are awesome, but I already have a bag full of old batteries, most of them containing still so much voltage in order to fuel another 2-3 cartridges (depending on your camera). Yes, there is a battery return program by the impossible project (which I highly recommend supporting though there are currently no free return envelopes…) taking care and eventually reusing some of the returned batteries (great!).
But I wanted to try a different approach. The idea is quite simple, but might also go against some part of the original polaroid concept.
Instead of having the battery coming with every cartridge of film (with the battery landing in trash rather sooner than later), why not power the camera externally with a standard rechargeable battery.
So this is what I did (and you can do this as well, if you are willing to take some irreversible modification to your camera):
Drill two holes in the bottom of your camera, right at the point where usual the cartridge battery connects with the camera.
Stick to cables through the holes (I used a piece of the audio cable from my stereo system).
Connect the other ends to a rechargeable battery with the right voltage (mine is 6 V, 750 mAH, I used this
Costs of modification: About 15 Euro (for battery and charger)
Time of modification: less than 5 minutes.
For using the camera this way with a new cartridge you need a changing bag in order to remove the fresh battery from the cartridge. Then you are ready to go.
Taking this further, I can see some advantages and possibilities:
More efficient use of power.
Battery outlasts even the most energy hungry photo sessions (I’m thinking of using my Polaroid ImagePro with multiple exposures and flash on each exposure)
No battery in the cartridge means: More space for film!
What needs to be done now?
First of all, I’d like you to weigh in. What are your thoughts on that concept? Does it make sense to you? And if you are from impossible, I really would like to talk to you about this in-depth. Please use Twitter or mail.
Second, please share this idea with your polaroid friends on- and offline, so I can find out what others are thinking about it.
Last but not least: This is a prototype, meaning I’m testing the concept. In a next step some cool looking and efficient product design would need to happen ;)
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