The Impossible Project: 22 March 2010

[Rolleiflexible]

Ann, I agree -- I offered my remarks
(which I've shared with the company)
with the hope that they do succeed,
and do not trip themselves up. The
important thing is the product and
one hopes they do not get in the way
of their own success.

 

[AgX]

how wonderful they are preserving the polariod collection.

Seemingly this is not about the collection in the USA which we have been discussing about here at Apug.

 

[Brian Legge]

I really hope the price drops a bit. The existing Fuji film is a price point I can justify shooting regularly enough to keep buying film. I can usually get it for closer to $1-1.50 a shot. The new film, at $2-3 dollars a shot (plus shipping) is a little harder to swallow. I'll probably pick up a few packs for my wife's 450 to show support if nothing else.

I've never used an SX70/680/690. I wouldn't mind picking one up but imagine I could easily go through a few packs of film just finding a working camera and testing it. That would get expensive quickly on top of regular use costs. I really want them to be successful, but I think I may be too cheap to really be a big supporter so far.

Edit: I want to emphasize that I'm thrilled they pulled this off and don't want to sound ungrateful. I just want this to become something sustainable - for both them and photographers.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

as an aside, you all complain and complain about the loses and at least they are trying to do something, lets, take a deep breath and see what happens give them a break!

Bullseye...

There seems to be a small contingent here who constantly put down any attempts by anyone at resurrection of any analog products anywhere. Too many technical hurdles, they lament. No markets for them, they predict. Not enough ROI, they pontificate. This is wrong. That is wrong. The other thing is wrong. And gosh, nothing else is even close to perfect. Why, they shouldn't even be trying. What's wrong with them? Don't they realize it's a hopeless cause?

Lodima would never make it. (I think it's shipping as I type this?)

Adox MCC would never make it. (Has shipped and garnered fabulous reviews.)

Impossible would never make it. (Now announced and about to begin shipping.)

The sad fact for this contingent is that there are individuals out there - other than themselves - who have the intelligence, experience, drive, ambition, and resources - or are willing to do what it takes to acquire those - to actually pull some of these resurrections off. Not every attempt will succeed, of course. But the only way to guarantee failure is to never try in the first place.

And that would also be the defining difference between the "work of the critic" and the results of the "man who does things."

Ken

 

[Ektagraphic]

I'm with you Ken!! Let's get pumped up instead of down and shoot and print with these new films and papers!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Ken;

I agree, but I also know how hard it is to start something like this. I wish them all the best, but I'll reserve any comments until someone more objective tests it out.

PE

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

I agree, but I also know how hard it is to start something like this. I wish them all the best, but I'll reserve any comments until someone more objective tests it out.

And in the case of Impossible, as all - or nearly all - of them are ex-Polaroid employees, no one anywhere in the world should have been in a better position to know the degree of difficulty going in than they. And yet they chose to attempt it anyway.

Good on them.

I've never been a Polaroid user. But I'm so impressed with Impossible's can-do mindset that I will be purchasing some of their initial product versions without waiting for someone else's objective tests. If for no other reason than simply to support kindred spirits. And also to have a bit of fun with an old Sonar One-Step I still have.

And who knows? Having been thus sufficiently impressed to try it, maybe I'll be impressed enough to continue using it. And isn't that any film company's marketing dream?

At least those film companies who want to market and sell their films...

Ken

 

[Ektagraphic]

Just ordered some film!!! I can't wait to see the results of it! The SX-70 film is the only film out right now and the 600 film will be out in about 6 weeks they said......

 

[Shaggysk8]

6 weeeeeeeksssss!!!! damn it

 

[guyjr]

I think 600 cameras and SX-70 cameras can be modified to accept the other type of film, or rather the film packs modified. Been doing a bit of research myself into these cameras, as I'd like to try this film out too. My instant film pack addiction just added a new friend.

 

[photomem]

I just ordered a pack of the First Flush.. 11 bloody dollars for shipping to Memphis? What?

 

[Q.G.]

Have you checked postal rates recently? That's cheap.
The film however is not.

I appluad the Impossible guys for what they did. But fear that this will be not a revival of film for the old instant film crowd, but rather something we've seen happen with Lomography before: something nice, turned into something fashionable, and thus too expensive.

 

[Darkroom317]

I just ordered a pack of the First Flush.. 11 bloody dollars for shipping to Memphis? What?

They wanted $25 in shipping to Rogers. I'm not terribly far from Memphis.

I hope it's cheaper when they open their store in New York

 

[photomem]

Want to have a pack shipped to my house and ill stick it in a USPS envelope and send it to you?

 

[Darkroom317]

Want to have a pack shipped to my house and ill stick it in a USPS envelope and send it to you?

Just double-checked the website. It's now only $11 for shipping here.

 

[sepiareverb]

I've ordered a few packs, seems to be $11 shipping to the US. Best news for analog photography all month!

 

[Brian Legge]

Definitely something odd going on with shipping prices. I was set to order two packs, saw the shipping was $11 and decided to add a third. On adding a third, shipping jumped up to $25. I went with two packs.

After seeing these posts, I went back to the site to see if it order count specific. 1-3 packs showed up as $11 now.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

6 weeeeeeeksssss!!!! damn it

AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will be a different person in 6 weeks; I wants it now!!

 

[guyjr]

Wow - they are down to their last 16 packs as of now. Great first run!

 

[tessar]

Re the Impossible shipping costs: I wanted to try a pack of PX, not unreasonable at $21 USD. Then I found out the shipping rate to Canada was $50 USD! Having lived in Holland, I know that postage to Canada costs no more than postage to the US. Seems strange.

 

[Ektagraphic]

Could have been an error. They were having some website issues....

 

[fLOVE]

This quote "Being the only company worldwide capable of manufacturing analog Instant Film" is blatantly incorrect. Fuji currently manufactures instant films, and Kodak can but will not!

Well, the sale starts soon. I wish them luck.

PE

They mean integral instant film, in theory anyone could, but they'd have to build a $10M machine and have all the know how of what to put into it first. So as far as integral film goes....it's very true.

 

[fLOVE]

Btw, I actually attended the event, it was a lot of fun.

 

[Akki14]

They mean integral instant film, in theory anyone could, but they'd have to build a $10M machine and have all the know how of what to put into it first. So as far as integral film goes....it's very true.

... Fuji makes instax. That's integral film.

 

[DennisGrieder]

Bullseye...

There seems to be a small contingent here who constantly put down any attempts by anyone at resurrection of any analog products anywhere. Too many technical hurdles, they lament. No markets for them, they predict. Not enough ROI, they pontificate. This is wrong. That is wrong. The other thing is wrong. And gosh, nothing else is even close to perfect. Why, they shouldn't even be trying. What's wrong with them? Don't they realize it's a hopeless cause?

Lodima would never make it. (I think it's shipping as I type this?)

Adox MCC would never make it. (Has shipped and garnered fabulous reviews.)

Impossible would never make it. (Now announced and about to begin shipping.)

The sad fact for this contingent is that there are individuals out there - other than themselves - who have the intelligence, experience, drive, ambition, and resources - or are willing to do what it takes to acquire those - to actually pull some of these resurrections off. Not every attempt will succeed, of course. But the only way to guarantee failure is to never try in the first place.

And that would also be the defining difference between the "work of the critic" and the results of the "man who does things."

Ken

"the only way to guarantee failure is to never try in the first place."

i'll be keeping that in mind for the rest of my life.