I got to wondering, is there still Polaroid film available? I got myself down to Tempe camera and bought one of the two remaining (outdated) boxes of Type 52 sheet film, and loaded up the Polaroid 545 film back, and shoved it into the antique Crown Graphic camera:
The camera (and film) is so manual! First I had to, um, focus... Yeah, that's right, look at the upside down, dim image through a piece of frosted glass, and move the lens in and out until the image was sharp. Then I had to take light meter readings from the orange, and transfer those readings to the aperature and shutter dials on the front of the lens. Then insert the film, cock the shutter, open the dark slide in front of the film, release the shutter, close the dark slide, put the film back into develop mode, pull the film, wait 22 seconds, peel, coat and look:
