and it only a polaroid.

Wow, what a thrill! Buy some used equipment on eBay, read a few books on LF and the Zone system (then wait a week for SK Grimes to reassemble self-repaired shut ter attempt)....and whammo! I'm taking big ol' pictures!

With all the equipment in one place for the first time, I just had to mess aroun d and go see if I could actually take a decent picture with some Polaroid #54.

Even used the new (used) Pentax V spot meter I got off eBay, plus used Toyo 45A (new bellows installed by myself) and both used lenses. What a hoot! It works!

Ah, but one question arises: The focus on the polaroids looks pretty good to my naked eyes, even wearing my reading glasses, but when I look with an 8x lupe, it doesn't look so sharp anymore. These are just landscape shots, and I focued on the GG with a lupe, shot at f32 @8. The whole thing looks equally soft with the lupe. So...am I just seeing the graininess of polaroid film with a too strong lu pe? or, maybe the camera moved? I took 6 different shots in all, and they all pr etty sharp with naked eye, and even with a regular magnifying glass. Is an 8x lu pe just to close?

For my first try, I was very pleased with the exposures using recommended times on polaroid package. Any comments/experiance with expanding or contracting polar oid times?