Littman to make Polaroid Type 55 film?

[bmattock]

Weird story...

http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/5217/living-large.html

Living Large
For film director Zack Snyder, the 4x5 format is a way of life.

By Russell Hart
March 28, 2008

That's all cool, it tells how the director of movies like "300" and "Dawn of the Dead" like to shoot 4x5 film, and especially how he likes to shoot a Littman-converted Polaroid 110 camera. Neat.

But more interesting to me was what comes at the end of first page of the article:

Though the Littman is a Polaroid by birth, it can shoot any wet-process 4x5 film or even accept a high-resolution digital back -- important considerations given Polaroid's recent decision to stop making instant films. Fuji, which already produces a variety of compatible instant films, will probably pick up the manufacturing slack, and Littman himself is angling for the license to make Type 55 Positive/Negative film.

Well, now.

http://www.littman45single.com/

I find that fascinating. What little I know of Mr. Littman comes from reading the posts he appears to have made on places like PN and other discussion forums over the years, threatening legal action against anyone who converts a Polaroid camera to shoot 4x5 film, behaving oddly, and just generally being bothersome and making it clear he's litigious.

Now he wants to make Polaroid Type 55 film? Egads.

I can't wait to see what comes of this story, if anything.

 

[amateriat]

I'm with you on this, Bill. Really odd guy, but if he puts his money where his eccentricities lie in this case, who are we to argue? (Unless he charges some mad-crazy prices for product, but let's just wait and see if this is for real or not).


- Barrett

 

[JeffGreene]

Barrett:

If it's anything like the price of his cameras $5000 plus, then I think we have cause for worry.

 

[David Goldfarb]

Better Ilford or Fuji who have some idea about coating film take over the Type 55 patents.

Meanwhile, I've been experimenting with monobath processing, which comes pretty close to the convenience of Type 55 for negs. The main difference is that you have to be able to get the film into the monobath in the dark, but it could be done in a darkbox or film changing tent. If you shoot Readyload/Quickload, then you've also got the convenience of a packet film.

Unfortunately, there is no 4x5" film quite like the Type 55 neg film, which is generally thought to be similar to Panatomic-X, but the monobath process is in part responsible for the sharp look of Type 55, so it seems promising. I've tried Fortepan 400, Efke PL100, and TXP, and I've had the best results with TXP, and I think it's because it's a modern hardened emulsion, which is important for monobath processing. So next I think I'll try some medium speed modern films.

I've posted some results over on APUG in this thread--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/18177-monobath-developers.html