Polaroid 195 SE Land Camera

Polaroid introduced the 195 Land Camera in 1974 as a successor to the 180 Land Camera of 1965. It was Polaroid's last professional model (other than the Mamiya Universal Press-derived 600/600SE), and the swan song for the metal folding pack camera design first introduced in 1963, as simpler plastic models like The Reporter and EE-100 would replace this design by the end of the decade. Production ended in 1976 at over 10,000 units.

 

From the body to the lensboard: it's a standard, American-made, metal-body packfilm camera with Polaroid's standard two-window view/rangefinder on top (the 180 had the Zeiss-Ikon single-window view and rangefinder, however they were out of business by 1974) , and mechanical countdown timer on back. The lens and shutter assembly was made in Japan, then shipped over to the US to be mated with the rest of the camera. In international markets: its sister model is the 190, with an electronic timer on the back.

 

The honker on the front of this is a 114mm Tominon 4-element glass lens with full manual control, that will open from f/60 all the way to f/3.8 -- more than half a stop wider than the 180, and five stops wider than any consumer model Land Camera. I'm fairly certain this was the fastest lens Polaroid ever put on its cameras. It also includes sync capabilities for both flashbulbs or electronic flash, and has a 10-second self timer. This particular camera has an EV window which indicates it's a later SE-model.

 

The other week I finally scored this one after several failed attempts, it's been on the top of my camera bucket list for years. I've just started playing with it and will give it a proper review once I've put some miles on it.

Done