I've wanted to do a Polaroid 250 conversion for years since first seeing the Sabre made by Chaminox.
There were several challenges that I wanted this camera to address to insure its usability and integration into my digital setup.
In addition to lightweight and hand 'holdability' I really wanted to be able to (quickly) change film holders with one hand and comfortably carry over the camera my shoulder when I'm not shooting. As cool as the Sabre is, it's reliant on either a Grafmatic or special holders that are screamed in place. After trying a bunch options, I ended up using friends CNC mill to cut a flange that held the film holder and allowed for a 1x1x1/8 inch angle aluminum frame to be built around it. This keeps stray light to a minimum and makes for a really robust standard. Modified springs from Nielson frames were installed to keep the film holder firmly in place while making it really easy to 'one-hand' them.
The camera uses one of my favorite little (and super affordable) lenses the 125mm f/5.6 Fujinon? Using a custom cam provided by Swiss camera builder @oscaroweson (builder of the super cool @panomicron) the Zeiss rangefinder is dead on.
Weighing in at just 1010 grams or 2.22 pounds it's lighter then my last lightweight 4x5 but with a fully functioning rangefinder! I can't find the weight of the Sabre anywhere but I'd be curious to see how this compares.
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