The Impossible Project, and film photography, makes the Washington Post

Interesting article on the progress of analog photography.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...8ec-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html?hpid=z2

"There’s also a sense of backlash against digital technology, and the emergence of what might be called a 'slow photo' movement."

"Tim, who took my picture, is a creative director with an ad agency and shoots digital all the time for work. Shooting on his Polaroid has made him look at pictures differently. 'I used to go out and shoot 300 photos, bam, bam, bam,' he says. 'With film, you can't do that. It’s too expensive. You have to slow down. You have to think before you shoot.' "



Ken

What that article does nor say: it was neither the idea nor the knowledge of those former employees to start Impossible. Both came from outside.

AgX said:

What that article does nor say: it was neither the idea nor the knowledge of those former employees to start Impossible. Both came from outside.

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not sure what your point is beyond historical background. The project started, it seems to be succeeding. That's what matters.

Might not be a bad idea for folks on APUG to look around for opportunities to teach younger folk about film. When someone says "can you still get film for that?" say "Sure, would you like to learn more about it?"

That article is about engagement into analogue photography. Exactly that was lacking in that case.

A new trend, what does that mean?

A generalized new interest in film photography? A new interest by some people at some places?

I'd say, the latter. Even here in Germany with a stronger hold to analogue photography there are dealers which keep their films under the counter due to scarceness of request. Others have some films still on their shelves but would never order instant film (Fuji Instax). Others have not only analogue cameras in the shopwindow (Instax) but even plain type 135 next to it.
One dealer in a hipster shop took the Lomography range out of his sales programm due to lack of interest, a photo shop in another but similar city just expanded vastly his Lomography range.

I see Polaroid cameras all the time at my local thrift shop. But I know nothing about which formats are/are not available and don't really dare to buy any of them. I figure it might be fun, but I remember all the shitty Polaroids my mom made back in the 70's and really don't want to repeat that. Is there anything that would appeal to the f64 crowd (you know what I mean) or is this all Lomo type stuff? If I can make some quality images, Ok, but I am not the slightest bit interested in the hipster/lomo world. Is this stuff ready for prime time?

I've wasted several hundreds of dollars on impossible film but willing to try again at a later date...
I gave it my best
Peter

Surely others here had to have noticed that heretical paragraph about "Instant Lab."

pbromaghin said:

I see Polaroid cameras all the time at my local thrift shop. But I know nothing about which formats are/are not available and don't really dare to buy any of them. I figure it might be fun, but I remember all the shitty Polaroids my mom made back in the 70's and really don't want to repeat that. Is there anything that would appeal to the f64 crowd (you know what I mean) or is this all Lomo type stuff? If I can make some quality images, Ok, but I am not the slightest bit interested in the hipster/lomo world. Is this stuff ready for prime time?

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It's possible that you could find the resolution and grain of the Fuji (FP100C and FP3000B, 100ASA color and 3000ASA mono) (AKA peel-aparts) acceptable but you have to realize a couple things. One, its hard to manage the negatives out in the field without some sort of custom-built holder as they are floppy and wet and gooey and fragile until they dry, at which point they are floppy and fragile and easily scratched. He negs can be bleached into a printable form but that's yet another step. The prints tend to be grainier and less sharp and just a bit more "Lomo."

Back in the day, Polaroid made peel-aparts and made backs to fit Hasselblads, RB/RZ67, other medium and large format cams, plus their own medium format interchangeable lens rangefinder: 600 SE. They called their peel-apart Type 100 in general, but there were a bazillion different types of film that all were 3x4 and had either just a print or print plus neg.

Of course, then there is the Impossible stuff (integral). There are three main types of Polaroid/Impossible film, two of which fit the same cameras. Spectra has the biggest film area, the SX70 folding has the best glass lens and the best design, and the folding 600/660/etc and plastic SX70 cams generally suck.

All these films above are diffusion materials. This causes the reduced resolution and sharpness.

pbromaghin said:

I see Polaroid cameras all the time at my local thrift shop. But I know nothing about which formats are/are not available and don't really dare to buy any of them.

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The Dead Link Removed is a pretty exhaustive reference on which cameras use which format. The Type 100 pack film cameras will take the Fuji packs.

AgX said:

A new trend, what does that mean?

A generalized new interest in film photography? A new interest by some people at some places?

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A general new interest in film photography? Unfortunately not, at least not yet.
But a new interest in instant film photography, yes, absolutely.
Growth rates of 20-25% p.a. both for Instax film and Impossible Project (CEO Kaps said in an interview).
Fuji Instax:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/08/22/shake-it-like-a-polaroid-fujifilm-eyes-instant-gratification/

As instant film was the film type declared to be dead already in 2008 by all "experts", the impressive resurgence of instant film can give us some hope for conventional film, too.
But the film manufacturers, the film distributors (Freestyle, ars-imago, ag-photographic, silverprint, Fotoimpex, Maco etc.), the labs and we film enthusiasts have to do much more in marketing for film to achieve such a real film resurgence.
Impossible and Fuji have been successful because they started massive campaigns for instant film. And they did this quite clever.

AgX said:

I'd say, the latter. Even here in Germany with a stronger hold to analogue photography there are dealers which keep their films under the counter due to scarceness of request. Others have some films still on their shelves but would never order instant film (Fuji Instax). Others have not only analogue cameras in the shopwindow (Instax) but even plain type 135 next to it.

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My experiences in Germany have been quite different. Much better situation there than in most other countries I've been (especially much better compared to the US and other European countries).

You are right, Germany is still in a very good position concerning local film availability in general, even in small places. (Though not for Instax.) It is getting worse here too though.

But I have never ever seen anybody with an Instax camera. Actually I only once saw somebody with a film camera at all this year.
An experience which has to be taken into account to make the picture.