Lomography Monday: Polaroid Land Camera J66

Polaroid Land Camera Model J66 is a fixed-focus, auto-exposure camera for Type 47 (3000-speed black and white) roll film. While this film is no longer produced, you may find some on eBay -- but it will be long expired. Over 900,000 of these cameras were produced between 1961 and 1963. Original price: $89.95. Here are some technical characteristics:  

Lens: 114mm f/19 or f/14.5 meniscus (single-element) plastic

Shutter: pneumatic rotary; 1/15 - 1/1000

Flash: built-in hinged tilt-out flashgun for AG-1 bulbs

Automatic exposure; shutter speed controlled by selenium cell; manual control not possible.

Designed only for use with 3000-speed (B&W) film, though a color adapter kit (#660) was made available later in the product's life.

Flip-up viewfinder with projected framelines

Simple two-position zone focus.

Polished steel body with grey textured covering.

This was a very popular camera at its time-- it was easy to use, didn't need batteries, had a built-in flashgun, and was somewhat less expensive than the other Polaroid cameras at the time.

As you can see on this photo, our roll of film expired in the 70s, we got lucky enough to end up with two developed shots. The quality doesn't need any comments. But the experiment was worth it.