I had posted a few months ago that Polaroid was going to start making instant film again, but it was not the kind of film I was hoping to use. It was for their 300 product, which does not work in the SX-70 or 600 series cameras.
Meanwhile, The Impossible Project (which I'll call "TIP" from here on out) has rescued a Polaroid plant in Enschede, Netherlands, from destruction and has been starting to make film for old Polaroid cameras, and have recently released a color version of their film that works in the SX-70, and can be made to work in 600 series cameras with a little light-sensor trickery. A 600-series color film is in the works, according to TIP.
I have put a few pictures here in small sizes, but you can see all my trials with the TIP film on my Flickr page. If you are looking at this blog post much after August 2010, look in my set "Impossible Project/Polaroid."
I ordered 3 packs of the PX 70 Color Shade/First Flush film for the SX-70, and one pack of PX 600 Silver Shade film. Each pack contains 8 exposures. I have to hand it to TIP: They got the film to me in just three days! And even though they are still building the film packs using the remaining stock of Polaroid batteries, the packs I've used so far are functioning fine. I understand that they plan to start making new battery packs at some point.
So far, I have gone through the Silver Shade and one and a half of the Color Shade packs. And it's been a little bit of a fun learning experience for me, because unlike my fantastic, does-everything DSLR, I am once again forced to think about exposure more critically. The Polaroid also has a fixed, short telephoto lens on it, and the format is nearly square, which is different than what I been accustomed to with my DSLR. I also put a restriction on myself that I would not be tempted to digitally alter the photos, even just fixing basic stuff like straightening crooked horizons.
The first film I tried in my daughter's cast off Polaroid OneStep Express was the PX 600 Silver Shade. Despite its name, the pictures come out with a dark sepia toning, which lends kind of an eerie, ghostly look to the photos. I really like this look.
Here are some shots of using the PX 600 Silver Shade and the OneStep Express.
The film, being somewhat experimental, has imperfections, but I prefer to think of them as "character traits." Each picture seems to be unique in where and how the imperfections appear. Sometimes there are small individual white dots, other times they are patches of red dots in the shadow areas, and in one instance, a huge blob of something in the emulsion. And the chemicals in the film do not appear to be spread evenly by the camera's ejection rollers, at least in my first pack of Silver Shade. You can see dark bands around the perimeter of the photos where the camera'a ejector rollers apply less pressure to the emulsion due to the extra thickness of the white border layers. The color shots from the PX 70 film seem to have a more even application of the chemistry, but they still show some darkness at the edges, particularly in the underexposed shots. All in all, I still think it gives the pictures an interesting feel.
Then I moved on to the PX 70 Color Shade in the OneStep Express. The PX 70 film is rated at ISO 125, and the camera is designed for ISO 640, causing the shots come out underexposed by about 2 or 3 stops even with the camera set to maximum overexposure, which is limited to a change from normal of about 1.5 stops. So further trickery would have to be done by partially covering the light sensor on the front of the camera with some electrical tape or similar. I tried putting my finger over the entire sensor and got a large amount of overexposure, with the picture becoming extremely washed out.
Now, one thing about the PX 70 Color Shade film: It is extremely sensitive to light as it is ejected from the camera, unlike the Polaroid films. For whatever reason, the Silver Shade is not quite so sensitive as the Color Shade. It's not that the Silver Shade is perfect, though. It is wildly sensitive to temperature during development, which can be highly interesting. You can see this effect when comparing my Silver Shade shots to one another. When I was shooting the Silver Shade, ambient temps were around 88F/31C, but I was putting them in my air conditioned car as soon as I could, but conditions were not controlled at all, so some variation occurred. And I'm okay with that! This is fun stuff!
According to TIP, they say the first 10 seconds after the shot are critical, and recommend placing some kind of cover, at least as simple as your hand, over the film and immediately placing it in a pocket or other dark place. On their site, they have a couple suggestions on how to do this here.
I made a crude box out of cardboard and masking tape for the OneStep Express. Yes, it is ugly and could use refinement, but it works!
After the first pack or so, I was hooked! But I was a little frustrated by the OneStep Express camera, being that it had a fixed focus and sub-par (probably plastic) lens. It's kind of like using a self-developing Holga.
Maybe I should check into getting an SX-70….
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