There is a tonne of iconic film stocks that have been released and are no longer with us; I’m thinking Kodak Plus-X, Kodak Panatomic-X, almost the entire line of Polaroid Film. And among those Polaroid films, the one that probably hurt the hardest when it saw cancellation in 2008 is Type 55. Type 55 is a unique film even among Polaroid instant films in that it produces a usable print (obviously) but also a usable negative. And it is a legend that the negative used in Type 55 is based on Kodak Panatomic-X. It is also among those films that I wish I got toRead More →

One of the more interesting aspects of working with old Polaroid stock is that sometimes you get duds. While this past Saturday I wanted to get some cameras shot for the next three CCR blogs so that I can have them up before heading to Europe in four weeks, I also decided to take the rest of my 1997 expired Polaroid Type 55 4×5 stock along to shoot while on the road. Despite having a lot left, the stock being nearly twenty years out of date, there were a lot of duds, not enough chemistry spread, or none at all. But when all was saidRead More →