About ObscuraFlex™

Toby Wilkins - Creator and Founder

ObscuraFlex™ is the brainchild and passion project of Toby Wilkins, a Portland based British filmmaker, vintage camera enthusiast, and amateur inventor.

As a dyslexic child who, as a student, struggled to maintain a C-average, Toby left school at seventeen to attend a technical college where he developed a passion for cameras, computers, design, photography, technology, art, and all things creative.

The History

In 2017, disheartened by the photographic industry's abandonment of the peel-apart Polaroid film which had been his photography medium of choice for decades, Toby began brainstorming ways to continue using his beloved 1960s Polaroid Land Camera and 1940s Graflex 4x5 to capture the world around him. 

Within days Toby had created the first working cardboard prototype of what would become the ObscuraFlex™ adapter.

The First Working Prototype - 2017

The first ObscuraFlex Polaroid Adapter Prototype

From this make-shift prototype Wilkins worked to refine the adapter through dozens of iterations, and hundreds of experiments, eventually achieving success with adapters for not just his workhorse Polaroids, but for various antique large format cameras including the Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 and Polaroid 600SE.

Delighted with this success, Wilkins turned his attention back to shooting, using the various adapters to complete art projects such as the street trash photo essay "One Man's Trash" and several portrait works, while continuing the fine-tune the design and materials behind them.

"One Man's Trash" Photo Essay

Happy with the ability to instantly shoot stills and video with a whole collection of vintage and discarded cameras, life went on.

Until...

The Rebirth

In February 2024 Toby posted a series of short video reels on Instagram and TikTok that featured various prototype adapters in action.

The videos became an instant viral hit with an audience of professional photographers and vintage camera enthusiasts, garnering millions of views, likes, and comments.

In a matter or weeks this wave of positive reaction gave the project new life. People loved the idea of resurrecting their abandoned Graflex 4x5s and hand-me-down Polaroid Land Cameras gathering dust in attics and thrift stores.

Toby set to work updating the designs, exploring small-batch manufacturing technologies, and new materials while sharing updates with an enthusiastic group of potential end-users.

The Future

Toby hopes to bring the ObscuraFlex™ adapter to a small but enthusiastic group of photographers and hobbyists.

He's determined to solve the challenges presented by the current trend in multi-lens phones, and future-proof against their ever-changing form factor with his twist-lock modular system. This will take a lot of work, some mathematics and physics, and a significant investment of time and money. In the meantime the adapter is available – in small batches – for simpler single-lens phones and a selection of the most common vintage and large format cameras.

The underlying technology for the ObscuraFlex™ can theoretically be applied to any medium to large-format camera, and a plan to expand the range of supported models is underway. The short list includes:

  • Mamiya Universal Press 6x7cm
  • Mamiya Super 23 6x9cm
  • Toyo-View 4x5in
  • Linhof Technica 4x5in
  • Wista Technical 4x5in

Join the mailing list (below) to be kept in the loop, and above all... have fun, and keep making art.