For those interested in Alex's thesis work on Polaroid preservation, check out his site! He's also looking for more samples, and information around older polaroids film types to grow this resource: www.polaroidpreservationproject.com/

Something worth mentioning is that Ansel Adams _loved_ the Polaroid type 55 stuff - he used to shoot it all the time when it was available and raved about it in his retrospective print collections and certain editions of his "The Camera" series. He thought it was fantastic that he could visually see if his exposure was accurate right out in the field, and having a real negative plus an instant print was something very endearing to him.

Polaroid film expired super quick back in the day. When it was around, few people refrigerated it because the boxes were huge! You would need to dedicate a refrigerator to just holding Polaroid. So they mostly sat on a shelf until you could use them. They deteriorated very quickly, usually in less than a year. Type 54, a very common B&W polaroid, had trouble with the print surface sticking to the negative as you peeled it away. Type 55, although hailed as wonderful, was difficult stuff to work with. Not only was it sticky and the prints required coating with a special chemical brush, but you had to expose different depending on whether you wanted to prioritize the print or the negative. And the print didn't look that great even at its best. Type 54 made a gorgeous print though. Typically, one would shoot Type 54 for client approval, then shoot typical sheet film for the final shot. The ancient boxes still on ebay are very tempting, but I know that they just won't work. Polaroid doesn't work after a year at room temperature. After 25 years? I'm surprised you are seeing anything.

Aww I miss those lovely days gone by. Shooting pack film. The sun always shining, the air filled with the fishy odour of caustic goo. One flap of wind and the negative has stuck to you. I never shot 4x5. It looks so good. I love the colours. If you ever need flash cubes I have 100s.

My parents and my grandparents never used Polaroid cameras but they were a lot of fun growing up when I ran into them. I’m hopeful as I start my journey into 4x5 and beyond that some of these products are still around. Large format is so cool; I want to take someone’s portrait at the park, sign it, and give it to them.

Cheers Noah. It was typically used a a proofing tool to check exposure & composition. It was a very disposable product and the waste was incredible. It wasn’t cheap, even back then, but the client was always charged heavily for each Polaroid used.

Wonderful experiment and process. Really enjoyed the video.

Fun video. Nice to some results in hand. i've seen some at elderly folks homes as they turn 70, 80+ or 90 and then move into assisted living in boxes. I never saw a mobile phone with password taped on the back or an active cloud account with password written down in a a photo an otherwise empty album

I was a major fan of type 55!!! The regular print only stuff was amazing too ... I miss those foil wrapped boxes!!!

i miss those polaroids! As a pro, we used it to test the light for correct exposure by shooting polaroids first before shooting film. Nowadays, we just look at the back of the screen to see if the exposure is good or not to make corrections.

Yoo! I thought I recognized that park, just saw your PO box. Thanks for sharing this! That's so cool!

Amazing video as always!

I used a lot of type 55 and type 52 in the old days with my Toyo View camera. Type 55 yielded both a positive and a negative, but the negative was more like 25 ASA while the positive gave decent prints at ASA 50. It is a shame that Polaroid went the way it went. I am more sad that the film pack 41 or even the Fuji equivalent have all bitten the dust.

i had several varieties of these, worked for few labs, an college photo dept, so think used for some special shots/portraits, and maybe hundreds of student portraits? i bot old pac of sumptin for my graflex to revive hoby to do . ol tyme one hour portraits with 4x5 film and develop in tent. thanx for memories.

Would love to check out that thesis!

Polaroid type 55 was the best film ever made, it gave you a working negative!

THESIS IS COMING!

I have an old 545 holder and bought a few packs of the film. I wound up having the fridge I had them stored in tripping a breaker and it ruined the film. I was so disappointed. I only managed to use a couple of shots before that happened. Wish they still made that film. that was over 20 years ago though maybe 1998 or so.

I can’t imagine a world where I would be burnt out on shooting peel apart. I could shoot this stuff every second of every day and never get bored of it!

Before the turn of the century (1990's) I worked for a photo studio that used Polaroid 4X5 for immigration photos. Other than that, the only Polaroid film used was 100/660-series peel-apart pack film. Do I miss those days? Only when I get the urge to use 100/660-series pack film in a adapted Polaroid 110A camera. Oh well, stranger comebacks have happened.

A friend of mine shot Fuji peel apart film and experimented successfuly with saving the negatives, then life got in the way and he ended up selling his remaining stock to a friend.

The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/analogresurgence09211

Awesome! BUT Alex pulled those B&W out wayyyy too fast, probably the pod didn’t break. It’s totally possible when you pull too fast that the pod does not break fully. Otherwise, Awesome shots!

gets pretty magical at 4:58!

Bro thank you

Great episode. Just curious... did you extend developing time because of the age of the stock, or did you use standard times?

Yay Alex! 2:55 you know he's right

I found this tintype kit that I'm interested in trying and thought it might be something you'd be interested in trying and could possibly make a video about it. It's the Rockland Colloid Tintype parlor kit

I don't know how the situation is up in Canada but here in Europe/ Germany analog film became quite expensive 10-12 euro for a kodak color plus 36ex. What do you guys think, when will the prices drop again and what caused this increase? It was pretty hard for me to find information about this on the internet.

I know where that music in your intro comes from!!!

The artifact in the center is from the pods. Someone explained it to me awhile ago but I can’t remember the specifics.

Hey Noah, did you ever hear of the Newland camera project? they are great guys which who an adapter to use modern polaroid originals film on Land polaroid series

I really support what Famous Format is trying to do but I tried to order (and paid for) their monobath which is still listed on their web shop. When I asked about my order I got a really vague e-mail about it. I think others have had similar issues. I get it, they have a huge hill to climb and I'm all about helping them out but that can't be an excuse for a bad customer experience. It's a bummer and I really hope they're successful ultimately but they have a long way to go I think :/

The bar across each photo is from the pods pressing down on the neg/pos over the years. The first photo of a pack doesn't usually have this problem :D

Hey do you know anything about the Polaroid Badge Making cameras? I’ve bought a Polaroid lot on eBay and it includes one of these guys. Was this the one that the DMV used?

Is there any more recent news of 4x5 peel-apart sheet development anywhere?

Will Alex post his thesis on-line so we can read it? I would love to. Nice shots... Off all the things I used to shoot but now cannot... Kodak Kodachrome Super8 is number one... but Polaroid peal-apart is a close second.

Hi. Could you please tell me where I found Polaroid 59 films? I

Great

The end of production of Polaroid 4x5 film made the world a worse place.

What is your friend’s thesis titled and can I read it anywhere?!

I never clicked on a video so fast.

I'd be really interested in reading Alex's thesis if it gets made available!

Kind of sad thinking that I'll never shoot that format. But never say never!

Single shot peel apart film seems like the way to go in the future. New55 and one instant seem to have that down pretty well. I just wonder if Polaroid themselves would ever try to attempt 4x5 peel apart film.

today children we are shooting on outdated Polaroid film the results of which let you experienced Andy Warhol's psychedelic days.

I feel that you don't talk much about what's really interesting with this film, and that's the negative and what you can do with that after you scanned it =)

You should do discord

Can Kodak just take over this market please

Boy, better bring a big garbage bag to the shoot. I get that people miss that stuff but that's a lot of waste.

The real polaroid was a great company.....not the same now....#fakepolaroid

Your, rollers need, cleaning.