This a very special gear, the Polaroid MicroCam. It
allows to make photos from a standard microscope. As it's a SLR camera, you get what you see on your photo. The specs are:
- the lens is the equivalent of a 10x eyepiece - optically corrected glass lenses - single lens reflex viewing - automatic exposure range 1/60s to 16 min. - manual exposure up to 10h (!) - automatic color correction filtration for tungsten or tungsten/halogen light sources - exposure control (lighten/darken) is +/- 4 stops in 1/3 stop increments. - full field averaging light meter - LED display shows camera functions (choice of 6 languages)
The
camera uses a special format, 330 film, image size 10.2 x 7.2 cm, no
longer available. As it's an extra large 600 film, you can put 600 film
into an empty 330 cartridge. 600 film is just as long as 330 film, it's
only
less wide. The 330
film types were: 331: 400 ISO B&W, 337: 3200 ISO B&W, 339: 640
ISO colour.
Here is ow to load a 339 cartridge with 600 film:
you will need an empty 339 cartridge with its dark slide and a new 600
cartridge. Loading must be done in absolute darkness, but you can try
all steps with exposed film before.
As 339 film is a kind of
extra large 600 film, you can put 600 film into an empty 339 cartridge
by carefully aligning it to the left side, if you look at the cartridge
from above. Do not forget to put a dark slide at last, if you don't
want to waste one photo. 600 film is 600 ISO, 339 film setting works
fine.
Put an empty 339 cartridge on the table in front of you,
ejection side towards you. On top left there is a small slit in the
cartridge where to pusher of the camera will go. Put exposed photos
into the cartridge one by one, glossy (picture) side up, the broad
margin towards you. You have to insert them one by one through the slot
by pushing the metal spring down. This needs some experience. They have
to be aligned to the left because of the pusher. Put a dark slide last.
You can now load the cartridge into your cam and have a try whether the
camera ejects the slide and ejects a photo if you push the exposure
button. The camera won't know that you put exposed film.
If all
works fine, you can try in absolute darkness with unexposed film. Push
the dark slide of your new film out, do not squeeze the films too much.
If you keep the 600 slide at your hand, you can try just to take one or
two unexposed photos from your 600 cassette and re-install the dark
slide on top of the rest in your 600 cartridge. So these are safe. Then
put the one or two unexposed films into your 339 cartridge and put a
339 dark slide on top of it. If you don't have one, an old exposed 339
photo does the job as well. Done and ready for shooting.
Most MicroCams were delivered with a converter 12 volt to 120 volt, so if you
live in Europe, pay attention to not plug it into 230 volt without
another converter. But any 12 volt to 230 volt converter of 1.3 A would
do. The 12 volt plug is standard and easy to find. The camera needs a stable power supply, otherwise it will complain.
Some pictures:
The Polaroid MicroCam. Film compartment on top, LCD screen and panel, eyepiece and shutter release.
Seen from the back. You have to lift the eyepiece from your microscope and fix the MicroCam on the tube instead.
