Polaroid comeback ?!?! tease

Godfrey said:
With all the whining and complaining I read in this thread, it's a wonder that any of you call yourselves "film enthusiasts" at all.

The Impossible Project has done what no one else did: They brought Polaroid integral instant film back from the dead. At $2.30 per exposure, the price isn't cheap but it's not all that far out of bounds compared to original Polaroid integral film ... It used to cost $.70-$.85 per exposure when it was last made and, accounting for inflation, if it had stayed in production it would have been $1.25-$1.50 now. So a dollar premium for having to completely re-invent it in a ridiculously short period of time and then sell it in volumes barely approaching 1/20th of what Polaroid film sold in back in the day isn't all that bad.

Quality and consistency could certainly be a lot better, but not even Polaroid could make the original film any more ... the materials to do so are no longer available even if you had all the formulations, etc. The Impossible Project's B&W films (a product never even made by Polaroid for integral film cameras, btw) are really quite good and very consistent as of two-three years ago, and their latest color films are passably good quality and consistent. Lots of work yet to do, but remember it took Polaroid 20 years to devise integral films (and $2B dollars) where TIP has struggled with doing the same job in a quarter the time and at 20% of that funding.

While I fight with the TIP films occasionally and have to work hard to get results I'm after sometimes, I don't see any point to saying that TIP is a failure or not producing the goods. I've worked through close to 2000 exposures now and gotten many many excellent photographs from these films with my original and upgraded Polaroid cameras, and with the Impossible I-1 camera as well, so I laud their efforts and integrity.

Frankly, if I wanted excellent photographs and no struggles at all, I'd dump all this old film junk completely and concentrate exclusively on any good modern digital camera for my picture taking. But I enjoy working with film, with all its diverse expressions, inconsistencies, inherent weaknesses, and defects. In many ways, it's those things which make film photography still worth pursuing.
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Very well said.

Jim B.
 
Godfrey said:
The Impossible Project's B&W films (a product never even made by Polaroid for integral film cameras, btw) are really quite good and very consistent as of two-three years ago, and their latest color films are passably good quality and consistent.
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i really want IP to do well, and i REALLY want their products to improve. the B&W has rather little dynamic range. awful tonal range, low tonal separation in the highlights and shadows. meanwhile, the color is very sensitive to storage conditions, so much so that it's usually gone off by the time you buy it at the store. very inconsistent in my experience. you can see the extreme variance on flickr, too.
 
Polaroid's site has a countdown with still a few hours to go, I looked at it earlier today and it should end around 2AM 14th Sept Central European time...


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robert blu said:
Thanks Prest 400, so still 5 hours....I'll wait until tomorrow and I'll have a good sleep tonight :)
robert
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You are welcome Robert. I was initially puzzled, as it is the 14th for us Europe and the rest towards the East; but still 13th for US and that time would be around 8PM East Coast.

Let's see. I mostly expect (what really would be the least) a whole lineup of Polaroid Instant film from what was impossible.

I lost track of the generations but there was some beta color testing this spring-summer. Possible they found it rather good and a decent Time Zero successor.

Some speculate possible cheaper pricing, which would be very welcome. Not too wealthy here, so shot little IP and prioritised MF color instead... Though I still have a couple 2015 mfd packs in the fridge from a sale.
 
Prest_400 said:
.....I lost track of the generations but there was some beta color testing this spring-summer. Possible they found it rather good and a decent Time Zero successor.......
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I beta-tested this new color film back in the spring. Maybe a tad too warm (which was my main comment back to IP), but overall, I liked it.

Interestingly, a B&W conversion made from this beta color film (in PS) gives me a better B&W image than what I get from shooting normal IP B&W film.

Jim B.
 
There's all sorts of new products on the polaroid.com web site now:

New Polaroid branded instant films in all the usual Impossible types...
New One Step camera...
New on-line magazine...
New Polaroid corporate look, as mentioned above....

So it looks like Impossible Project has simply moved most of their products to the Polaroid brand, which is smart marketing.

I can only hope that they also found the older chemical formulations to go back to. The beauty of chemistry is that suppliers will mix anything for the money, so I hope the 600 and Spectra films will develop more quickly, as they once did in their heyday. Oh, the MSRP's for the film packs appear to have dropped slightly too. I might have to buy a pack of color Spectra film for a little nostalgia.

Scott
 
skucera said:
.........I can only hope that they also found the older chemical formulations to go back to. The beauty of chemistry is that suppliers will mix anything for the money, so I hope the 600 and Spectra films will develop more quickly, as they once did in their heyday. Oh, the MSRP's for the film packs appear to have dropped slightly too. I might have to buy a pack of color Spectra film for a little nostalgia........
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Most likely that won’t happen. Many of the chemicals used with the original Polaroid instant films are no longer produced because of environmental reasons. Many small independent companies, which supplied various materials for the original Polaroid films, are also no longer around. So what IP has come up with, and will come up with, is all we will get.

What caught my eye is the big price drop on all of their films. That I do like.

Jim B.
 
raid said:
Is Polaroid selling this type of film?
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Big name change. Impossible Project is now Polaroid (IP bought out the Polaroid name several months back).

Today’s announcement was to introduce the new “name” and to reintroduce re-badged films and cameras (and a new camera).

Nobody makes the old peel-apart Polaroid films for the 250 and other Polaroid cameras. When Fuji shut down production of FP-100C last year, that was the final nail was in the coffin for peel-apart films.

Jim B.
 
$99 for the One Step2, that's not too bad ... and it even looks great!

polaroidonestep2feat.jpg
 
I think they know they're competing against Instax, and against all the old Polaroid cameras in thrift shops and grandparent's closets.

Scott
 
Mackinaw said:
Big name change. Impossible Project is now Polaroid (IP bought out the Polaroid name several months back).

Today’s announcement was to introduce the new “name” and to reintroduce re-badged films and cameras (and a new camera).

Nobody makes the old peel-apart Polaroid films for the 250 and other Polaroid cameras. When Fuji shut down production of FP-100C last year, that was the final nail was in the coffin for peel-apart films.

Jim B.
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I was aware of the end of 100C film, Jim, but I did not know if Impossible Project has a new film for the old cameras.
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZAO2fZHXb2/?taken-by=brooklynfilmcamera

Huge news today, y’all. Will break it down into three main bulletpoints and then expand on things a bit more. So! 1️⃣ Firstly, and most notably, Impossible has now become Polaroid Originals. There is no more Impossible Project; they are now an arm of Polaroid simply called Polaroid Originals (find them on instagram at @polaroidoriginals_). 2️⃣ They have rolled out a new generation of film (15-20 min development time for color, 4 min for B&W, improved sharpness, contrast, color saturation) and have dramatically lowered the cost of film down to $18.99 per pack for 600 and SX-70 films, $19.99 for Spectra, and $15.99 for i-Type films (which can be used only in the i-1 Camera, the Instant Lab, and the OneStep 2). This brings us to number three. 3️⃣ They have just announced a new camera called the OneStep 2. It’s $99, comes in either White or Gray and is modeled after the original Polaroid SX-70 OneStep design. It appears to be built on top of an i-1 base, features a built-in flash, a 2-foot minimum focus distance, +/- exposure compensation, and looks great design-wise. ➡️ So holy moly… there’s a whole lot to say. This is fantastic!! New, improved, *cheaper* film for all the Polaroid camera systems across the board! Also, the fact that it is now simply called “Polaroid film” is actually quite a big deal. Your average consumer will “get it” right from the start and this will help expand the user base in a big way. We expect more R&D to come from this and expect to see the film quality improving at a much greater pace than it has been over the past 7 years that Impossible has been making film. The OneStep 2 looks cute and seems to be a decent camera. The i-1 was a huge disappointment in our opinion, but it seems this one may have landed. It’s affordable, uses i-Type film ($3 cheaper per pack than 600), and isn’t trying to be anything it’s not; it’s a simple camera that does a simple thing, just like the original OneStep. And, as for the rebrand - I am extremely happy for them. This is an incredible snake-eats-it’s-own-tail kind of moment and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. Polaroid is making film again. Today is a historic moment. ✨ #PolaroidOriginals (emphasis added)
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yay, good news. :D
 
I still have maybe 50-60 packs of Fuji FP 100 and maybe 20 of FP 3000 (bought when it still was 10 EUR per pack) to use with my converted Polaroid Pathfinder. When I finish those then maybe... just maybe...
 
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