So, over the past two years, I've slowly become obsessed with Polaroids. I bought a 1960's 220 Land Camera a few years ago, and off and on used Fujifilm pack films (mostly FP-100C and FP-3000B) to take pictures on trips, of friends and occasionally as a second camera on shoots. I love the land cameras and have now amassed about 10 different models and just about every accessory available for them. I love the manual focus and just the manual process of pulling each photo.
I'd never really cared for the "newer" types of polaroids (the 1980's $29 autofocus/point and shoot type) that shoot integral films--the most recognizable type of Polaroid film (the square image that develops immediately.) That is until I discovered the SX-70. I saw this awesome long-form commercial filmed by Charles and Ray Eames, and I became obsessed with owning one. I finally got one for a decent price from shopgoodwill.com and just hoped it worked. The only problem was film. Polaroid ceased production on film a couple years ago, so the options for film are either finding some leftover (mostly expired) film or the Impossible Project. I'd been reading about and following the Impossible Project since they purchased Polaroid's factories, but since Fuji was still producing peel-apart films and I didn't have a camera that used integral film, I didn't really have a need for it. Well, now that my SX-70 was on it's way, I decided to order some PX-70--the first color film produced by Impossible to test out my camera and see if it even works. As fate would have it, my SX-70 and film from Impossible arrived merely hours apart from each other! My first few shots got caught in the camera (old rollers that probably hadn't been used in years), but the third shot turned out well.
Since it's the first flush of the film, and they are still working out the chemistry, the film has some definite quirks. It's usually very low contrast, has color casts, and sometimes has a textural look to it. The images tend to have a soft focus look, even if I have it perfectly in focus (this is more apparent on wide shots.) The film has to be shielded from light immediately, and can continue to develop for the first few days. I love the quirks. I love the color tones. I love it, and I'm hooked. I'm almost done with my first three packs, and I've already ordered more. Here's two of my favorite shots so far--one of my sister and one of my brother. These are straight scans--no manipulations or adjustments in Photoshop at all. Both of these were shot on overcast days, which seem to provide the best results.
Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 10:49PM 
