ended up acquiring a Polaroid Pathfinder 110a yesterday for a bizarrely low price and am pleased to find that while it absolutely needs a good cleaning (ESPECIALLY the viewfinder and rangefinder assembly, jesus christ you can not see through it at all) the lens appears to be in very good condition, if a little dirty.
it came with a roll of type 47 film which expired in August 1963, giving me a hint about when the camera was last used. i want to shoot with it even though i'm fully aware it's likely been sitting in a florida attic for the last 60 years and is probably not going to work at all. my long term plan is to do the Fairly Standard conversion to let it shoot instax wide, since you can actually buy that.
the cleaning aspects sort of terrify me since i'm not especially confident about the entire disassembly process (IT'S A COMPLICATED BEAST) but i want to be able to use it, and part of that is making it so i can actually see what i'm pointing at. exciting and scary. excited to make it work.
