Land Camera Polaroid Colorpack 80

 Good news! My Displate store is online with 10 posters and more on the way. And even more good news, my Picfair store has new images available for digital purchase.

So for a metal print of my drawings on Displate: https://displate.com/artist/BFennSW?art=66e809bf952d9

To buy prints or digital copies of my photos on Picfair: https://photosbybfenn.picfair.com/ 

Not only will you get some cool merchandise, but you will also be supporting this online museum.

Thank you for the support. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Going from one camera that almost made photography easier to get into, to a camera that sort of accomplished this. This post will be looking at the Polaroid Colorpack 80.

I already went through the history of the Polaroid company in my Polaroid SX-70 camera post. So, I will jump directly into this camera’s history.

The Colorpack series, in Polaroid’s catalogue, was part of the non-folding cameras, that were plastic and inexpensive (Science Museum Group). The first Colorpack camera that I can find is the Polaroid Colorpack II, which came out in 1969 (Kuhn 2004), which seems to be based off of the Polaroid Swinger’s design.

Polaroid Colorpack II. Image Source: 
https://fk-secondhand.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/077654_polaroid_colorpack_ii_sofortbildkamera_02.jpg

Which makes sense seeing that the Swinger was “…the first truly inexpensive instant camera, a fact that helped fuel its enormous popularity and made it one of the top-selling cameras of all time. The Swinger was especially successful in the youth market due to its low price, stylish appearance and super fantastic ‘Meet the Swinger’ jingle sung by Barry Manilow in a television advertisement featuring a young Ali MacGraw…” (Leona 2025).

And this seemed to work, because it lead to more variations, that have cosmetic and some technical differences. Polaroid released the Colorpack III-V, between the years of 1969-75, then released The Colorpack in 1975 (Instant Options 2015).

 There were also the Colorpack EE models, the Colorpack 100 and 200 (Wikipedia), the M6, the Super Colorpack and IV, then there were also the 80 series (which this post’s camera is a part of) and many more. But the reader should also keep in mind that there are also other cameras similar to the Colorpack cameras, that go by other names, such as the Super Swinger Color (Kuhn 2004).

Polaroid Colorpack EE88. Image Source:
https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/theodorebruceauctions/96/760496/H3561-L355358548_original.JPG

Polaroid Colorpack 100. Image Source: 
https://assets.catawiki.com/image/cw_normal/plain/assets/catawiki/assets/2020/9/30/4/c/0/4c0df70d-d56e-4196-a417-924e3ced2c95.jpg

Polaroid Colorpack M6. Image Source:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/83/7d/07/837d0751d634f038c37036019063256b.jpg

Polaroid Super Colorpack. Image Source:
https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA5N1gxMzAy/z/fGoAAOSwQaBfhe8N/$_57.JPG?set_id=8800005007

Polaroid Super Color Swinger. Image Source:
https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/Polaroid-Super-Colour-Swinger-I.jpg

The non-foldable, Colorpack (and adjacent cameras) are a long list, similar to Kodak’s Brownie or Instamatic series, maybe just with less variety in designs and looks.

Now let’s have a look at the camera at hand, the Colorpack 80, which came out in 1971-1976 and its body is “made of injection moulded polystyrene and metal...” (vads). The size of the camera is 150 x 140 x 155mm (vads) and has a weight close to 300-500g.

This camera was the first in the 80 series, and was followed up by the 82 (which is similar to the 80, but had a timer), 85 (similar to the 82) and the 88 (which was, like the 82 similar to the 80, except it was only made for film with an ASA of 75). These cameras were also produced in 1971, but ended a year before the 80 in 1975 (Kuhn 2004 and Instant Options).

Polaroid Colorpack 82. Image Source:
https://en.polaroid-passion.com/images/appareils-polaroid/polaroid-colorpack-82.jpg

Polaroid Colorpack 85. Image Source:
https://www.concordia.ca/content/concordia/en/finearts/research-creation/visual-collections-repository/photographic-teaching-collection/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_502661954/grid-container-parsys/image_1755895705.img.jpg/1717788526403.jpg

Polaroid Colorpack 88. Image Source:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Q9c9rHbeeTetzXglx9H9mncnBLCXe7vtdSL11fCoRFoozE6bLqbnOsGMVaIilr-_2RfV5u1SbChvXU6AIQVH0ihHxWoeT6xezG3dQ4T3

The 80 series were a part of the non-foldable international Colorpack (or colour film cameras) sold outside of the USA. And as a result, the Colorpack 80 is based off of the first Colorpack’s (the Colorpack II) design, with a few minor changes. These changes being: “Smaller body; uses ‘square’ format film packs only…” and “Body is black in color…” (Kuhn 2004).

One thing that stands out and that I’ve mentioned, is that this camera is part of the non-foldable or Rigid-bodied range of polaroid cameras, which gives it the disadvantage of making it hard to pack and can be irritating to carry around, considering that the Colorpack 80 is almost the same size as the Kodamatic 980L!

But this Rigid-body has a pro. Because the Colorpack was a part of the Polaroid Peel-apart instant film (Vintage and Other Things 2025), but according to Stratski (2014), you can “hack” the Colorpack 80 to take Fuji FP-100 film.

So now if we compare the Colorpack cameras to the older Peel-apart Polaroid cameras, that can also be converted to take the Fuji film, we find that they are “…complicated to use and take a hard-to-find battery. Also, they tended to put too much pressure on the plastic Fujifilm film packs, making it very hard to pull the first few prints out of the camera. Rigid-bodied packfilm cameras don’t have these problems, but almost all of them come with plastic lenses that lead to soft results that distort in the corners…” (Grey 2014).

But now let’s have a closer look at the camera itself. Starting with the front.

The lens-

Since it is similar to the Colorpack II, we can assume so is the lens, which means that the Colorpack 80 also has a 3-element coated lens, but plastic instead of glass (Grey 2014). And according to Halgand (2023), some Colorpack cameras use a Fresnel lens, which is a lens named after Augustin Jean Fresnel (Henderson 2023), who “…realized that if I have a really big thick lens, it’ll still be the same lens even if I take out a parallel-sided strip…” and “…if I can take out one parallel-sided strip, why not take out many parallel-sided strips?” (Zhang 2021).

This means that manufactures, take a lens and just hollow it out and it would be the same lens, but as Zhang (2021), further points out: “…this new hollow lens will be quite weak compared to a solid lens. The solution? Collapse the two sides together for a jagged, ultra-thin, lens that’s optically equivalent to the original large, thick, solid lens.”

Fresnel Lens example. Image Source:
https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2021/03/fresnelcompact.jpg

The reason for the use of this lens is because of the flashcube on the Colorpack, because the Fresnel lens “…focus light into a narrower beam, great for maximizing light intensity from a portable, battery-powered device…” and “…help photographers better focus and compose photos by increasing the brightness of the image projected by the lens onto the camera’s ground glass…” (Zhang 2021).

This lens is also used on the Polaroid SX-70 camera, which is ideal seeing that this lens is “Flat on one side and ridged on the other: This design allows the lens to be thin and lightweight, making it perfect for applications where a bulky lens just won't do…” (Henderson 2023). This is also the reason why Canon and Nikon use these lenses for their smaller cameras “…to reduce the size of telephoto lenses, which are traditionally large and bulky…” (Zhang 2021). And since the Colorpack 80 uses the Flashcube and is focused on being lightweight, we can safely assume that it has a Fresnel lens.

The lens is also where the Colorpack II and 80, differ. The II’s focal range is measured in feet, whereas the 80 is in meters. These readings are on the top of the lens and has a range of 1-9 meters and to infinity. There is even an indicator on the 1.5m mark that lets the user know that this is the optimal setting for taking portrait photo.

The lens focus settings also seem to work with a mirror system, that reflects the number off two mirrors into the viewfinder, so that the user knows what number they are on through a little magnifying glass at the bottom. This is like the Colorpack II works.

Colorpack II viewfinder POV. Page 9 of the manual.

Not only that, but the numbers are split into two colours on the lens, white and black. The 1m and 4.5-9m and infinity are on black and the 1.2-3m are on white. Now there are two possibilities, one, is that this is a stylistic chose to fit with the camera’s overall colour scheme or it is an indication for the user to let them know that they should darken or lighten the exposure before taking the picture.

Speaking of lighting and darkening-

This setting can be found next to the lens. This setting is similar to the light and dark setting on the SX-70, except this camera has a default, or optimal indicator, known as the normal position. This setting is also known as the L/D-control and it is advised, that the only time this setting should be used is when “On the back of some color film packs you may find printed instructions advising you to set the L/D control one mark toward LIGHTEN for all pictures made with that pack. Please follow that advice; it's important…” (Colorpack II manual).

This setting darkens or lightens the exposure of the camera. The L/D-control, is also where the electric eye is, that can automatically sense the lighting and set the correct exposure for the user.

Then above the lens is the viewfinder, which is a downgrade from the SX-70, because it isn’t an SLR, meaning that the user doesn’t see what the lens is seeing, like the Kodamatic 980L.

 But the Colorpack 80, still has a one up on the Kodamatic, or should I say two. Because the 80’s viewfinder is right above the lens (making it more accurate than the 980L), the user can also see the focus setting (at least to my understanding, it can do that) and it has a red square or colour spot, that can be used to take a perfect portrait of someone, by placing “…the Color Spot on the person's face, move closer or back up until it covers from the top of the head to the chin...” (Colorpack II manual).

Colorpack II POV with Color Spot. Page 11 of the manual.

On top-

Here is the shutter release, and lock. To lock and unlock the shutter, the user just twists the knob to the symbols indicating which is which. 

The shutter is a either an electric shutter like the Colorpack II, because according to Halgand (2023), it has a transistorized electronic shutter for automatic exposure,  the shutter on the II needs batteries, whereas the 80, appears to not need it and if I fire the shutter on the 80, it seems to have a Rotary shutter similar to the Brownie model 1 and the Halina Roy. Maybe it has both? And the speed of the shutter is, when automated by the electronic eye, anywhere between 1 second and 1/500 second (Halgand 2023)!

Next to that is the ASA/ISO setting slider or film selector. This helps set the f/stop, for a black and white film, with an ASA of 3000 and a colour film, with an ASA of 75 (Halgand 2023). By sliding the lever, instead of aperture leaves (similar to the Sinpo PQ-3, the Agfa Clack, the Kodak Brownie No.2 and the Solar DX-3) a plate with two holes punched in it will slide over the shutter, and set the f/stop. The two f/stops are f/9 for the colour film and f/60 for the black and white film (Halgand 2023).

In front of this slider is the second mirror that reflects the focus setting into the viewfinder. And next to that is the instructions on how to use the flashcubes.

Speaking of the flash, let’s move to the side of the camera-

This is where the flashcube socket, where a PFC4 flashcube (similar to the Instamatic 104 and the Halina Roy) was used.

The PFC4 was similar to the Blue dot that Kodak used, in that it had four bulbs that can be fired back to back and needed batteries to fire (Cress Photo 2025), but the PFC4 is different because of the connector that was a bit different.

PFC4 flashcubes. Image Source:
https://assets.lastdodo.com/image/ld_large/plain/assets/catalog/assets/2020/4/21/e/b/6/pdf_eb65279e-83ba-11ea-9153-ebc232c1ecdd.jpg

This is a mix between a downgrade and an upgrade, because the SX-70, took a flashbar with 10 bulbs instead of four, but took up a lot of space, whereas the 80 uses a lighter and smaller flashcube.

Now for the back-

Here is the film compartment and the compartment cover.

This cover also differentiates the Colorpack 80 form the II, with the Coldclip that has a guide in six different languishes. 

The coldclip is the metallic piece that the guide is printed on, that can slide out of the cover and is “Intended for keeping film warm during development in cold weather. Instructions for use are printed on the Cold-Clip itself. Originally supplied with all cameras but was also available separately from Polaroid in case of loss/damage…” (Scotti).

Also on the film compartment is the ring, where the wrist strap goes and on this strap is a handle.

Above the cover is the viewfinder, with an adjustable eye piece (vads), for comfort.

To open the film compartment, one must unclip the back lock located on the side of the camera.

Next to the back lock is the slot where the film is pulled out.

In the film compartment is where you will find the battery holder, that takes two AA batteries, to power the flashcubes and the electric eye.

 

And in the door or the cover, is the developer spreader and rollers.

This camera has an 8.2 x 8.6 square format and uses 87 film (black and white) and Polacolor type 88 film.

Polaroid Polacolor type 88 packfilm. Image Source:
https://cdn.wallapop.com/images/10420/ht/fg/__/c10420p1077355723/i5287901280.jpg?pictureSize=W640

This is Peel-apart film, which is similar to the instant film (see my Kodamatic 980L post), but is a bit different. For one, the film has to be manually pulled out and comes with in two parts, a negative (transparent) and a positive print inside and envelope (Levi Cyr-Redcross 2024).

Peel-apart film example. Image Source:
https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2018/12/peelapartsample-800x518.jpg

 The 87 and 88 films seem to work the same as a standard (integral), except that the process takes place in a sealed envelope, that has a piece of paper (the negative, where the chemicals are deposited when done developing) that protects it from double exposure (and develops the image onto the positive), and that has to be peeled away.

So instead of an acid that eats away the opacifiers, that darkens the photo and prevents double exposure and other chemicals, these chemicals go onto the negative, that is then thrown away.

Example of a fully developed Peel-apart film.
Image Source: 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgljyvGNbgSC_CJLPMBIdJjw248U1AlBqCl2LRiaPip1CPkXiTtjPajnDxngotIb14Xee0rWbWoSHqfS2gn_j-mkptmVBENzwmSuKKKShNSp9Ip0UO39JZNvM46BQIRpCV64Jb4gA/s1600/108_2.jpg

If we look at the Fuji FP-100, it works like this: “The film passes through rollers which squeeze a chemical emulsion across the surface of the film to develop the image as you wait...” (Verhoeve 2021), just like the SX-70 film, and then “…After about 90 seconds you peel the backing off to reveal the photograph. Immediately after peeling the backing starts fading to black…” (Verhoeve 2021). This backing carrier is also “covered in gooey chemicals and usually thrown away right after…” (Verhoeve 2021).

FP-100 Fuji Peel-apart film. Image Source:
https://figitalrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/fullsizerender.jpg

What sets it apart from the older peel-apart or pull-apart film is that it doesn’t have to be prepared, the film cartage can just be inserted, like so:

Page 6 of the Colorpack II manual.

Page 7 of the Colorpack II manual.

Page 12 of the Colorpack II manual.

Page 13 of the Colorpack II manual.

Page 14 of the Colorpack II manual.

Top of page 15 of the Colorpack II manual.

*But this is how I understand it, so I could be wrong.*

Now both films have different development times, the 87, is around 30 seconds and the 88 is 60 seconds. And both have 8 exposures (Halgand 2023) and according to Camera-wiki, was produced between 1971-1981, but then the 87 was brought back in 2004-2006.

And that is the Colorpack 80. It is a cool camera, but is also a downgrade, in my opinion, because the SX-70, is not only an SLR and uses Integral film, which does not require the extra steps of the 80. Even the Kodamatic 980L uses Integral film!

Out of the three instant cameras on this post so far, I still recommend the SX-70, due to its size and compatibility. Then I would recommend the Kodamatic 980L because it is collapsible and the use of Integral film. But the Colorpack 80, still one ups the Kodamatic 980L, with the viewfinder being more accurate, and not as awkward to hold. And the 80 uses less batteries. But the 980L still has a built-in flash and as mentioned: is collapsible! I know I am harping on this fact, but the whole point of instant camera, is that it can be taken anywhere, without hassle or taking up space, because most users are not professional photographers.

Now if the Colorpack 80 were just a bit smaller, I would reconsider and put it above the Kodamatic, but since it is almost the same size, I’ll have to give the second place to the 980L, due to its folding capabilities.

Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree and why.

Thank you for making it to the end, and as always, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it. 

If you want to help this site out, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/OnlineCurator

Please see the Please help this site post on this blog, for more information.

Or if you want to help in another way, please visit my Displate Store or my Picfair store to but digital or physical copies of my work. Thank you for the support.

List of sources:

Camera-wiki. Polaroid instant film. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Polaroid_instant_film#cite_note-pma2004-1

Cress Photo. 2025. Philips Flashbulbs. https://flashbulbs.com/philips-flashbulb-data/#:~:text=The%20PFC4%20flash%20unit%20is,require%20a%20battery%20for%20ignition.

Grey, J. 2014. Polaroid Colorpack II. https://blog.jimgrey.net/2014/03/10/polaroid-colorpack-ii/

Halgand, S. 2023. Polaroid Colorpack 80. https://www.collection-appareils.fr/x/html/page_standard.php?id_appareil=162

Henderson, A. 2023. How Does a Fresnel Lens Work? The Magic Behind the Glass. https://science.howstuffworks.com/question244.htm

Instant Options. Packfilm Cameras. https://www.instantoptions.com/landlist/cameras/packfilm/rigid.php

Kuhn, M. 2004. The Land List -- Packfilm Cameras. http://www.landlist.ch/landlist/landdcam-pack.htm

Leona. 2025. The Polaroid Swinger Camera. https://www.thrift-ola.com/2012/09/the-polaroid-swinger-camera/

Levi Cyr-Redcross. 2024. What is peel apart film? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XiT_sEwQ4Y&t=9s

Mike. 2024. Polaroid ColorPack II Manual. https://butkus.org/chinon/polaroid_cameras/colorpack_ii/colorpack_ii.htm

Science Museum Group. Polaroid Colorpack II camera. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8238612/polaroid-colorpack-ii-camera

Stratski. 2014. Hacking a Polaroid 80-Series Camera to Take Fuji FP film. https://www.lomography.com/magazine/280487-hacking-a-polaroid-80-series-camera-to-take-fuji-fp-film

vads. Polaroid Colorpack 80 Land camera. https://www.vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/MODIP/id/2371/#:~:text=Object%20Description&text=A%20Polaroid%20Colorpack%2080%20Land,than%20having%20to%20be%20developed.&text=Everyday%20objects%2C%20such%20as%20those,@aub.ac.uk.&text=MoDiP%20has%20done%20its%20utmost,@aub.ac.uk.

Verhoeve, W. 2021. Process 026 ☼ Bleaching FP100c Instant Film To Create Negatives. https://wesley.substack.com/p/process-026-experiments-bleaching

Vintage and other Things. 2025. Polaroid Colorpack 80 Camera. https://vintageandotherthings.eu/products/polaroid-colorpack-80-camera

Wikipedia. List of Polaroid instant cameras. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polaroid_instant_cameras

Zhang, M. 2016. Fujifilm is Putting an End to Its FP-100C Peel-Apart Instant Film. https://petapixel.com/2016/02/29/fujifilm-putting-end-fp-100c-peel-apart-instant-film/

Zhang, M. 2021. How a Fresnel Lens Works, Explained with a Simple Blackboard Model. https://petapixel.com/2021/03/15/how-a-fresnel-lens-works-explained-with-a-simple-blackboard-model/