Polaroid 100 Film

[braxus]

I'm aware Fuji discontinued FP100 film. Both color and B&W. Is Poloroid making this instant film again? This is the old 3x4 peel apart stuff. I have a 100 Land camera that uses it and like to get a back for a Mamiya RZ67 as well, if I can still get film.

 

[braxus]

Just read a link that said Poloroid has no interest in making this film. And the One Instant film that does make it isn't worth buying because of quality control and what you end up with.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

The black and white stuff from Polaroid that I stick in my SX-70 isn't too bad. Not as good as original Polaroid. Colour, on the other hand, is crap.

 

[Donald Qualls]

No one is making multi-image peel-apart packs any more. Likely never will again.

The market for peel-apart these days is only semi-pro and prosumer large format users wanting to verify lighting and focus plane with a print before exposing a negative or chrome they won't be able to see until long after they've left the location -- and who have some reasonnot to use digital for this. As such, single frames fill the bill and might possibly come back at least to the level of New55 or OneInstant -- and they were always a little haphazard in terms of things like chemical spread.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

And the level of New55 ain't nothing to cheer about...Almost $100 Cdn for 5 shots, too!

 

[BrianShaw]

The market for peel-apart these days is only semi-pro and prosumer large format users wanting to verify

well, yes… and more. There is a community of artists who did Polaroid transfer that was put out of business. If only the current/future material would support that!

 

[Donald Qualls]

well, yes… and more. There is a community of artists who did Polaroid transfer that was put out of business. If only the current/future material would support that!

The same happened when Kodak (was there ever another source?) discontinued their dye transfer printing materials. One or two artists were able to buy up nearly all the remaining stock; everyone else was left out in the cold. I sympathize -- but photographic manufacturing is a business like any other, and it can't operate at a continued loss or put multiple millions into product development when the payback period is likely to be decades (or never).

 

[tezzasmall]

I haven't got either a RZ67 or a Polaroid back for it, but have kept regular browsing to see if this idea for other camera come to anything.

These two relevant bits that I've found for the RZ67 might be of interest:



and

https://www.rezivot.com/

Terry S

 

[nbagno]

And the level of New55 ain't nothing to cheer about...Almost $100 Cdn for 5 shots, too!

New55 has stolen my money and lots of others. And, they are still taking orders. A license to steal.

 

[Geissi]

Hi, i am interested to try production Peelapart films at home. Is the chemical pod open source? Who knows what i have to mix for "more less" working a fixed monobath? I searched a lot in google, but i can not find something useful. Please help

 

[Donald Qualls]

New55 started their pods from my HC-110 monobath; the recipe is posted around various places. It uses HC-110, Ilford Rapid Fixer (could be any rapid fixer), and household clear ammonia (this is essentially the same as their first commercial monobath product). Obviously what's in the pods isn't that, but it could be close -- some PQ developer with ammonium thiosulfate for the fixer component. It's gelled with something like hydroxymethyl cellulose or carboxymethyl cellulose (the gel agent in KY Jelly). Most likely the alkali has been substituted to sodium hydroxide -- higher pH makes it work faster.

The hard parts of this are to make the packet come together correctly when you pull the tab, package it to be light tight and fit/work in the Polaroid camera backs, and have a receptor sheet (the final print) that's opaque and accepts the migrating silver dissolved by the fixer to form the positive image. Eliminating some of these steps has seemed necessary to DIY peel-aparts I've seen on video or in articles. New55 spent a bunch of money and time making their product work like the 4x5 peel-apart single shots, and in the end (from what I've seen -- never bought any myself) they wound up with a product that was in some ways better than Type 55 (print and negative same speed, for instance). Now if only they could produce and deliver...

 

[richyd]

I love experimenting with ways of using current instant print films in older instant cameras or backs or even just jamming a sheet in the back. I have some 405 and 545 backs and still a few packs of film but have been experimenting with Instax, the colour fidelity is so impressive and is the best instant film available except the B&W where the current Polaroid stuff outshines it.

I just acquired a Polaroid 180 and worked out that you can place a sheet of Instax Wide in an old film pack holder (have loads as I never thrown anything away) then I process it in a Fuji instax wide camera I bought for parts but works fine. I experimented a bit further and created a sort of film pack with one sheet in the open aperture with the pressure plate back over it, then a pile of 3 or 4 more sheets on top of that. You need a changing bag, but can then shuffle the sheets between shots, sort of a bag mag style, then take the lot out, place into an Instax cartridge and process in the Fuji camera.

I have just found on Thingiverse a 3D print design holder that will do one sheet at at time but with a dark slide so you don't need a changing bag between shots, just a load of the printed holders with the film then transfer to an Instax camera for processing.

I also tried a sheet of 1/4 plate film in an old holder, fits ideally, and that worked great and again have seen a 3D print design for a back to fit a Land type camera, which would mean no messing with the focal plane and lens position and rangefinder adjustment.

 

[richyd]

Oh, if you want to produce your own peelapart, I did find something on Instructables, I think, years ago using what Donald has described above. Always meant to try it using old pods (never throwing away again) which would be fun but just take up too much time.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

New55 started their pods from my HC-110 monobath; the recipe is posted around various places. It uses HC-110, Ilford Rapid Fixer (could be any rapid fixer), and household clear ammonia (this is essentially the same as their first commercial monobath product). Obviously what's in the pods isn't that, but it could be close -- some PQ developer with ammonium thiosulfate for the fixer component. It's gelled with something like hydroxymethyl cellulose or carboxymethyl cellulose (the gel agent in KY Jelly). Most likely the alkali has been substituted to sodium hydroxide -- higher pH makes it work faster.

The hard parts of this are to make the packet come together correctly when you pull the tab, package it to be light tight and fit/work in the Polaroid camera backs, and have a receptor sheet (the final print) that's opaque and accepts the migrating silver dissolved by the fixer to form the positive image. Eliminating some of these steps has seemed necessary to DIY peel-aparts I've seen on video or in articles. New55 spent a bunch of money and time making their product work like the 4x5 peel-apart single shots, and in the end (from what I've seen -- never bought any myself) they wound up with a product that was in some ways better than Type 55 (print and negative same speed, for instance). Now if only they could produce and deliver...

That's interesting Donald, that it was your monobath they were using. It's a pity the pods dried out as quick as they did for me. Five years later all the pods dried up in an unopened box that I was comparing with Polaroid Type 55, expired in 2008. The Polaroid stuff worked beautifully (as shown in my youtube video). I had to chuck out the entire box of New55... (I removed the sheet film first though as they were perfectly fine!).

 

[Donald Qualls]

Pretty sure by the time they started actually filling orders for New55 (before they stopped filling orders) their pods were no longer based on HC-110, if they ever were. But pods drying out is one of the thousand things that Polaroid had worked out over the 50+ years they made peel-apart film, that lay in wait to bite the various folks who have tried to recreate this wonderful product.