film like polaroid polagraph

Hi

dose anybody know of a current film like polagraph
a negative film will be fine but with a similar look i.e very contrasty but grainy in the midtones

thanks

robin

How about pushing ISO400 film and developing in xtol?

That's funny: it is the second time in 24 hours that someone asks for this type of film.
Yesterday I was at a stall specialising in film and film cameras (FilmsNotDead) when someone asked for these instant films.

You might try Fomapan 400 or 100 pushed to 400.
You can get them at Silverprint or Process Supplies here in London.

I was a big Polagraph fan back in the day. Short answer, for film - nothing. Nothing looks even close to it. And yeah, I've tried.

But... try shooting with Ilford 3200 35mm. Do some testing to dial in the bizarro tonal range and contrast of it. Then find some lithable paper (Check Tim Rudman's newsletter or do an ebay crap shoot of expired papers), get some lith developer.

Beyond the way that lith printing can emulate that look, it also emulates that sort of excitement of Polagraph... standing by that processor, wondering what the hell you'd get. Watching lith slowly develop works the same endorphins in my brain.

EDIT: occurred to me after posting this: polagraph and lith developer are both intended for "halftone" - ish uses (polagraph was designed to photograph slides and charts for slideshows, unlike polapan). Maybe there's a symbioses there...

Polagraph:



And a lith print on old Agfa Brovira - not trying to emulate Polagraph with this one, but gives you an idea:

I wonder if testing Delta 3200 in different developers and agitations could help. Perhaps Rodinal to give a good crisp grain and edge or even print dev? But maybe rating 1000 at the most, maybe less, to get more detail in the shadows. I remember making internegs for a client to print his Polagraphs about twenty years ago. However, they were then lith printed using a condenser enlarger so maybe that's why I'm thinking strong tight grain.

Similar to Ricardo, I was having a conversation with a friend just last week about this film. As a press photographer, he used it now and again to ensure a deadline, of course always in the wrong lighting conditions due to the nature of press work. Incredibly delicate stuff as I remember.

Yes, that emulsion would lift if you looked at it too hard - most of my shots are in glass slides (the sleeved film seems fine though). I have 2 rolls in the freezer, probably dead.

I imagine you could get in the ball park, Delta is pretty amazing film and I have run it in Rodinal (but at 3200, so no shadow detail and difficult to print negs - grain that big, each chunk seems like the developer treats it as a separate little shadow).

Part of the beauty of Polagraph was that warm color, too (thus I'm digging through my slides to dupe some for lith printing - I have some papers that warm up really well in lith). Printing it in color was always pretty astounding. One of my friends is one of the top food & bev shooters in the US (all those Velvia-cocktail photos in the TGI Fridays menus are him), he'd do gallery shows of nudes with Polagraph that were stunning printed up big. I have one framed, it's a treasure for sure.

It was a simply glorious film. That and Ektachrome 320T are the ones that make my heart hurt. 320T pushed 3 or four stops was a thing of insane beauty.