New55 still alive?

[Peter de Groot]

Interesting read from the guys at Famous Format:
famousformat.com/2018/09/17/looking-for-a-ship-part-i/

 

[Sirius Glass]

Of course, because we know that square is the perfect format.

 

[Peter de Groot]

No talk about perfect format. Famous Format hints at Type55 which was a famous format. New55 came a long way to fill that gap and now it might be revived or at least they are working behind the scenes to explore what is possible. If polaroid didn't pull the plug on the pods delivery their last kickstarter campaign would have brought some serious improvements to the film. This articles is a careful but possitve note saying the project has not been scrapped completely.

 

[pentaxuser]

Interesting read. Peter, and it certainly sounds as if your last sentence in #3 may be justified.

pentaxuser

 

[Peter de Groot]

Thanks. I am really excited as I loved New55. Even with al the shortcomings and defects. But I am just a sucker for those imperfections. If they can find the right resources it might get better then it was. And I will have back one of my farorite films.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

The last box of New55 negatives, all exposed and processed very nicely. I would be happy to see it come back.

 

[adelorenzo]

I was seeing people using this FF monobath on Instagram and wondered where it came from. This is really interesting. I still have ~6 boxes of the old New55 kicking around, I got a batch with bad pods which makes them difficult to process so I kind of lost enthusiasm. I'm also down to my last box of their Atomic-X film which I have had excellent results with.

 

[Nodda Duma]

New55’s biggest issue was thinking in terms of a 1999-sized market. When I explained to Sam that they needed to switch their thinking to the realities of the modern film market, I saw it on his face when it clicked. I wasn’t quite convinced that my sonic welder suggestion would work — they would test that and find out it wouldn’t as explained in the blog. More importantly, I helped knock them out of their “thinking inside the box” rut and opened them up to considering smaller — and exponentially better / cheaper — production equipment for the pods.

I wish them the best of luck. Companies like New55 are driving innovation and backfill now in the new reality of the film market. Fuji and Kodak really aren’t (or even showing interest in doing so). That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In many ways this is a much healthier, albeit smaller, industry than when it was dominated by a single yellow monolith.

-Jason

 

[EdSawyer]

IMNSHO, their biggest issue was lack of quality product, and overpricing of what they were trying to sell. If they solved those things, the rest would come easy.

 

[vdonovan]

No talk about perfect format. Famous Format hints at Type55 which was a famous format. New55 came a long way to fill that gap and now it might be revived or at least they are working behind the scenes to explore what is possible. If polaroid didn't pull the plug on the pods delivery their last kickstarter campaign would have brought some serious improvements to the film. This articles is a careful but possitve note saying the project has not been scrapped completely.

I don't think it was Polaroid that New55 were buying pods from. It was 20x24 Studio, who years ago bought the pod machines and the last pod material stock from Polaroid. Prior to the recent merger with Impossible project, the Polaroid Corporation was only a licensing company. They manufactured nothing, had no assets beyond the brand name.

 

[Peter de Groot]

I don't think it was Polaroid that New55 were buying pods from. It was 20x24 Studio, who years ago bought the pod machines and the last pod material stock from Polaroid. Prior to the recent merger with Impossible project, the Polaroid Corporation was only a licensing company. They manufactured nothing, had no assets beyond the brand name.

Yes I meant Studio 20x24. I stand corrected

 

[Peter de Groot]

IMNSHO, their biggest issue was lack of quality product, and overpricing of what they were trying to sell. If they solved those things, the rest would come easy.

I can see your point. However with such smal markets for this kind of film a company just doesn't have the luxury of developing a complete and flawles product. That is too expensive and too time consuming. New55 just like Impossible and undoubtley Kaps with the FP100c restart need to sell products that are not 100% good to make money and keep developing the film to perfection. If you don't like that idea that is fine. But these companies do their stinking best to develop a good product. I get that it is expensive stuff and that it might fail. I like the imperfections of the film although sometimes it can be rather annoying. But thinking of the bigger picture I applaud them for even trying to do this. It is too easy to critise someone for trying. But this is how I think about it.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I loved the old Polaroid type 55 and looks like New55 PN is no longer made. What would be cool if someone made a kit to load conventional film into envelopes that would fit into old Polaroid 545 holders. I've used Kodak Readload film and it's quite nice with 2 sheets per envelop.

 

[EdSawyer]

"What would be cool if someone made a kit to load conventional film into envelopes that would fit into old Polaroid 545 holders."

What would be the point of that? It would be more prone to failure than regular holders, and at least as much work to load... maybe only upside might be less weight?

 

[EdSawyer]

The "so-so" quality product (new55) has no place in the market, really. At least not if it's going to be sold for anything close to "full" price. If they can't make it well, they should not sell it until they can. And yeah, I am not a buyer for that sort of stuff, but if it was on-point quality-wise, I would be. Generally I don't feel the need to subsidize their experiments to try to get it right, out of any altruistic nature or shared-benefit reasons. Why waste the time and $ on that when one can buy old polaroid type 55 and FP100c in the meantime? Yeah, eventually those will disappear so the time to use them is now. Maybe new55 can get decent in the interim.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

"What would be cool if someone made a kit to load conventional film into envelopes that would fit into old Polaroid 545 holders."

What would be the point of that? It would be more prone to failure than regular holders, and at least as much work to load... maybe only upside might be less weight?

That's the only upside. There is an old solution of using Grafmatic holders too.

 

[Lee Rust]

I can see your point. However with such smal markets for this kind of film a company just doesn't have the luxury of developing a complete and flawles product. That is too expensive and too time consuming. New55 just like Impossible and undoubtley Kaps with the FP100c restart need to sell products that are not 100% good to make money and keep developing the film to perfection. If you don't like that idea that is fine. But these companies do their stinking best to develop a good product. I get that it is expensive stuff and that it might fail. I like the imperfections of the film although sometimes it can be rather annoying. But thinking of the bigger picture I applaud them for even trying to do this. It is too easy to critise someone for trying. But this is how I think about it.

We were all very spoiled by the flood of wonderful photo products invented and distributed worldwide throughout the analog era. Remember that none of them would have appeared without millions or even billions in mass market sales to support expensive product research and development. Now that the film photography business is a tiny shadow of its former self with very limited profitability, any further significant advancements will most likely be the product of entrepreneurial passion and private donations.

Images produced by the first few generations of the Impossible films generally looked quite dreadful but it was clear that they were on the right track. Three or four iterations later, the current Polaroid Originals films are vastly improved, almost to the point of parity with the original Polaroid. Likewise, the New55 effort was heroic and did quite well with very limited resources. Every one of us who purchased and used these imperfect products or gave thru Kickstarter were volunteer financial contributors and field research assistants.

However, do not be fooled into thinking that the money spent on these things is some kind of 'investment' with big future returns. It is mostly a gift. The real return will be the pleasure of using the final products of those few manufacturers who are able to maintain the delicate balance of costs vs sales with modest profits in a constantly shifting marketplace.

For film photographers, the cheap ride is over.

 

[Peter de Groot]

The "so-so" quality product (new55) has no place in the market, really. At least not if it's going to be sold for anything close to "full" price. If they can't make it well, they should not sell it until they can. And yeah, I am not a buyer for that sort of stuff, but if it was on-point quality-wise, I would be. Generally I don't feel the need to subsidize their experiments to try to get it right, out of any altruistic nature or shared-benefit reasons. Why waste the time and $ on that when one can buy old polaroid type 55 and FP100c in the meantime? Yeah, eventually those will disappear so the time to use them is now. Maybe new55 can get decent in the interim.

Well it is not wasting time and money. It is investing in a future good product. Same way Impossible had to do. What you want is simply not possible anymore. New55 needs the money to be able keep on perfecting the product. Nowadays developing a new instantfilm is a crowdsourcing event instead of a company finacially fuelled event. However if you don't want to partake in that that is fine of course.

 

[erian]

"What would be cool if someone made a kit to load conventional film into envelopes that would fit into old Polaroid 545 holders."

What would be the point of that? It would be more prone to failure than regular holders, and at least as much work to load... maybe only upside might be less weight?

The main benefits would be the weight an the volume.

 

[EdSawyer]

I'll partake when it's a real product. Until then others can supply the charity funding.

People seem to think things like this can only come back as some sort of crowdfunding thing, but that's not the case. There just needs to be a viable business plan and funding from investors, both of which will be necessary regardless of where the $ comes from.

Crowdfunding is probably the worst possible way to approach this endeavor (or almost any endeavor, really.) Of course it's possible with other methods, like venture capital. People regularly raise more money than this for ridiculously stupid ideas like hooking your dog's water dish up to the internet so you can refill it via a bluetooth connected faucet, or other equally idiotic ideas. If those can get traction, something like instant 4x5 could.

Find someone willing to throw $10M at it, and it is easily doable. They aren't going to get there on shoestring-funded half-assed crowdfunding and marketeering.

 

[Peter de Groot]

Well i read the article that they are doing just that. Finding an investor to get everything going again. I'm sure there is a decent business plan. That is what read into it. But i don't agree that it is an option to get a flawles product before starting to sell film. But I guess we have to agree to disagree on that point

 

[Peter de Groot]

Part 2 has been published: They are getting closer to starting again:
http://famousformat.com/2018/11/11/...5D8d4mqPbOr6Nrd9s07eHJOlB2WGa8pMhOrwg4vkjT5Z8

 

[erian]

I am glad that they did not give up and have improved upon their initial process.

 

[Peter de Groot]

Me too.I hope they find a good way to produce pods. Reading the article they are almost there. So yay!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

That is good news. Thanks for posting the link.