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    • Bronica SQ Instax Back
    • Polaroid 110A Instax Conversion

Polaroid 110A to 4x5 Conversion (for Lomography's Lomograflok)

I decided I wanted to get more use out of my new Lomograflok back, but the only 4x5 cameras I had around were monorail cameras. My shoulder can't withstand the weight of a 6x7 SLR so I know I wouldn't want to tote my monorail camera around. .

After browsing through a couple of resources, I determined that I was up for the challenge of following the steps outlined in some of the blogs and pictures and decided it was time to find a polaroid 110A or B to hack. A quick search on eBay, and I had one at my doorstep in a week.

It needed some work, the front lens cap was spray painted in black, and there were blobs of dust all over the camera (which might have been mold but I didn't want to think about that). I quickly cleaned everything I could get to with isopropyl wipes, including the viewfinder and rangefinder internals.

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These are the blogs I followed, and their corresponding Thingiverse links:
  • Morten Kolve, who not only sells his parts on eBay but also provided instructions and parts for free that covered most of the conversion process. I especially liked the lack of physical modifications required (read: no grinding) to get the back to properly fit.
    • https://film.kolve.org/darkroomdiy/polaroid-110-convert-to-4x5/
    • https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3969849
  • Albert Cornelissen, who has some excellent photos documenting his process and who's infinity focus adjustment insert I needed to install to account for the fact that the Lomograflok's film plane is a good half inch behind where the typical 4x5 film plane is.
    • https://cornelissen.me/writing/ph/110conversion.html
    • https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5177231

Some thing I did differently:
  • Drilled out the rivets on the hinges -- in retrospect this would have been best done with the right side hinge only, as the left side hinge doesn't interfere with much except your hand (but you can make a grip to cover this, as Albert did)
Step one, remove the hinge! (I decided to remove the hinge pin first because I was afraid it would be too much of an angle to drill at.
I decided to drill out the rivets on the right side of the camera. The hinge is fairly easy to remove after that.
I did drill out the rivets; on the left side of the camera the hinge is adhered to the cover material and is much harder to separate.
Showing the holes from the drilled out rivets, post countersink holes.
Showing where the rivets needed to be drilled out in order to install a different infinity focus plate.
The detached cover that houses the rangefinder optics. These pieces of glass needed to be cleaned!
110A, from the front
110A from the back, slightly modified to accommodate the brackets I had lying around to hold onto the lomograflok back.
Some pictures; I initially forgot to account for the additional depth the focusing plane of the lomograflok needed.
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