Polaroid 55

[David Hall]

Howdy Wise Ones...

I was playing around with some 55 tonight (really bored, as you see from attachment) and now I am wondering about expanding/contracting development with it. Other than the 25 seconds it takes to cook, is there anything you can do to affect it?

dgh

 

[Ole]

If you haven't coated it, leave it lying about for a few weeks before you do. It gives a strange kind of split-tone fading which is at least interesting...

 

[Tom Duffy]

David,
if that's the pos/neg film, I understand (second hand) that's it responds well to selenium toning to boost contrast.

 

[David Hall]

55 is the Pos/Neg film, and I mean how do you affect the contrast of the negative. Sel toning is a good idea. Any others?

dgh'

 

[hbc]

hi david look up view camera magazine they did a good article on t/p55.this was about a year ago i think the longer it develops it increases in contrast.

 

[MikeK]

You do not have to use the polaroid developer. You can carefully peel the film away from the packet and develop it in a regular developer. It is a really fine grain film and works really well with D76 diluted 1:1.

Way back someone told me this is the sam emulsion and the long demised Panatomic X. Also, this method works well on old expired film especially when the polaroid gel has hardened.

Mike

 

[fhovie]

Last weedend I shot tulips - 8 sheets of PN55 and saved the negs - dumped them in Sodium Sulfite bath. I then shot a bunch of FP4 - same set-up - Pyro - etc. I had heard that the PN55 was very fine grain - It was no finer than the FP4 in Pyro - Of course it is probably a bad test - I bought the film on e-bay - It is well over 15 years expired! Still - The images were good enough to deserve a fair amount of darkroom time. -Frank