This camera was a beautiful treasure gifted by a friend who had found it in his basement. It happened to be the exact camera needed to proof flash photographs taken in the studio. Back in the day, before digital cameras, photographers used polaroid cameras like this one to "check" their exposures. You'd set up your shot and check shutter timing and lens openings along with film speed to make sure you were going to get the shot you wanted. Flash photography could be very unpredictable, you never knew exactly where weird shadows would show up or if your lighting set up was right. Using the polaroid would give insurance that the photos you were taking on your film camera were going to come out the way you wanted them to.
After receiving the camera, it had to have the back section modified to fit the polaroid film packets available at the time. The black section is the modified area and not original to the camera.
This particular model was probably made in the 1960's. It was solid metal with a Carl Zeiss lense. The logo on the built in lense cover was gorgeous.
One of the type of films available for this camera allowed for black and white photography. Not only could you get a black and white snap shot but a negative would accompany the image and you could use it to develop photographs.
If you wanted to change film packets, you had to place the camera into a light proof changing bag and change out the films. To develop the black and white negative, you had to keep a container of water close by and wash off the negative.
With digital photography, things are much simpler, you can adjust everything on your camera and proof images from a lighting set up right there in the camera. These old polaroids are now obsolete and the films are no longer available.
It was alot of fun learning how to use the 110A tho. It was a beautiful machine. You get a great understanding of photography starting from the basics. This camera had a great run and helped a lot of photos get made.
