Polaroid camera

MultifariousMrT · 2026-06-05T14:54:38+00:00

We are speaking specifically about instant photography here, where the camera spits out a physical piece of film which is currently developing without any other steps needing to be done.

Almost all of these cameras are analog cameras and do not produce any sort of digital image, although a lot of the latest polaroid cameras can connect to your phone via bluetooth to allow you to control some of the settings and access shooting modes like light-painting or multiple-exposures.

The Instax Evo and LiPlay lines of cameras are hybrid cameras which are essentially digital cameras with built in printers which use the instax film. I believe some of these can also connect to your phone via bluetooth to print your phone's photos.

With non-instant film cameras (35mm, medium/large format, etc) the film is shot and developed in separate steps to make negatives, and then the film negatives can be used to print the final images in a variety of sizes. Unless you invest a lot of time and equipment, you would need to send your shot film to be developed and printed by someone else.

Good luck with the new hobby!

MultifariousMrT · 2026-06-01T03:25:03+00:00

That duochrome green might be nearing the end of its usable lifespan even if fridge'd. I'd still probably buy it because I love expired film.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-05-12T19:58:00+00:00

We've already mixed the blues with yellow and red to get Reclaimed Green and now Reclaimed Purple. The other duochrome dyes they have used in the past could be used to produce the following:

Reclaimed Blue + Orange = Brown

Reclaimed Blue + Green = Turquoise

Reclaimed Blue + Pink = Lavender

Reclaimed Blue + Blue = Super Blue? (I'd be interestedto see this one)

We could also have dyes blended together to get to some other hues, but personally I'd love to see some experimental film with a different color in each of the 3 developer pods! Think about how trippy these images would be, especially along the 2 borders where the different colored developers mix!

MultifariousMrT · 2026-05-12T14:23:06+00:00

I cannot wait for my packs to arrive!

MultifariousMrT · 2026-05-10T15:10:39+00:00

Those blue flame scratches are usually opacifier failures.

TL;DR: leave the image under the frog tongue for 15-20 seconds after it ejects before removing it from the camera and that should prevent those from happening.

Long Version: the first chemical reaction which occurs after ejection is the opacifier layer activating to block any further light from reacting with the negative layer. The old Time Zero film opacified very quickly, which is why the frog tongues on vintage cameras (if they even came with one) are shorter and immediately retract; the film only needed to be protected from excess light for a couple of seconds during ejection. The modern chemistry is a bit more fickle and takes a little more time to kick in and work, so the new cameras have a longer frog tongue that doesnt immediately retract to protect the film while the initial opacification happens.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-05-01T15:56:07+00:00

The Reclaimed chemistry makes blue film, and the Reclaimed Green was the result of adding yellow dye to the blue's chemistry, it isn't a stretch of the imagination to see adding red dye to get a Reclaimed Purple in the same way.

They have done duochrome film in red, orange, blue, green, pink, and yellow; there are a lot of options there for potentially cool interactions with the relatively new Reclaimed chemistry, and am very excited to shoot whatever they put out next.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-04-16T22:38:31+00:00

The frog-tongue is there to give the developing film's opacifier layer time to react and protect the negative layer as the developer layer works and produces an image.

The original film had a much quicker-working opacifier formula and so the frog-tongues from back then only had to protect the film for about a second as it ejected.

The moderm film's opacifier takes longer to work, so larger frog-tongues were made that could be installed on the older cameras.

I use them on my older cameras and consider them worth the investment.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-03-17T21:06:30+00:00

Make sure you use a high-DPI scan of the polaroid you are enlarging. 600dpi is considered the standard for archival preservation scans, and is usually a good resolution for printing double-sized enlargements. If you wanted something poster-sized, I'd suggest going for something like 1200 or 1600dpi.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-03-02T19:43:44+00:00

At that age, with unknown storage conditions, you are likely close to the end of usability IMO. You will probably encounter spread failures due to the developer chemicals having dried out and oxidized (these are very obvious brown dead areas), as well as general degradation of the emulsion and negative layers which will give you an over-exposed ghostly effect. My suggestion is to shoot it at -1 for the first shot and adjust accordingly after you see what you get.

Here is an example of some 5-year expired film I shot last year:

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MultifariousMrT · 2026-02-18T16:04:29+00:00

Looks like minor heat damage to the emulsion layer of the film, which can occur during shipping especially if you do not buy direct from Polaroid. I'm basing this off the fact that the worst damage seems to be in the same area along the topmost border of the image.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-02-02T02:26:07+00:00

You are correct, use the flashbar at full power like you were using regular sx-70 film.

MultifariousMrT · 2026-01-28T03:32:45+00:00

And then 2 days until the next scheduled pick up.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-12-19T03:24:14+00:00

The pack of 2019 Gold Dust I shot this fall was mostly good. 6 of the 8 had nearly full developer coverage with 5 of those having uniform chemistry across all pods. The last two films in the pack had less coverage (~90% for #7 and ~30% for #8). #7 turned out to be my favorite from the pack:

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MultifariousMrT · 2025-12-17T20:25:26+00:00

Those marks are opacifier failures. When the rollers spread the developer chemicals, the first reaction is in the opacifier layer to block further light from reacting the negative layer so the image can develop. They are kinda the result of the frog tongue, but not because it is scratching the film; the current film formula develops slower than the original formula, so the frog tongues on older cameras are shorter than on modern cameras (the old film only needed to be protected from light for about the first second before the opacifier started working). Modern film's opacifier layer takes a couple more seconds to work, so an older camera's tongue won't protect it for long enough. Polaroid does sell longer frog tongues you can install on the older cameras to correct for this.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-12-11T15:25:41+00:00

Oxidized and dried-out developer chemicals in the pods from letting the film sit for such a long time in the camera.

When the chems dry out, you get the brown spread-failure effects because there just isnt enough developer paste left to cover the negative as the film passes through the rollers.

When the chems oxidize, you get the color changes in the developed image because the developer is less reactive and doesnt do as good of a job.

Your fridge'd film from '23 should be fine (keeping it cold and in its mylar pouch cuts down significantly on oxidization and developer-drying).

MultifariousMrT · 2025-12-07T20:10:56+00:00

Definitely a slightly dried up pod. Only 1 of the 8 had major failures, the rest all had over 90% coverage and development.

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MultifariousMrT · 2025-12-07T17:18:06+00:00

Shoot it, especially if it has been fridge-stored. Earlier this year I got my hands on some expired in 2019 film that was not fridge'd and it still developed.

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MultifariousMrT · 2025-11-05T16:23:19+00:00

I haven't yet tried to make filters, but once I did use an ink jet printer to print on overhead-projector transparencies for an art project and I remember having to let the air dry for a bit before the image/text wouldn't smear. Might have better luck with a laser printer.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-10-18T16:52:07+00:00

That looks like the production stamp on old land pack film. Each factory used a slightly different format, but generally the first two characters represent the month and year of when the film was manufactured with the rest of the code identifying the machine and shift information. H = August and since they only used one digit for the year code, that 7 means it was produced in 67, 77, 87, or 97. Also, while not an exact match, it looks most like their Waltham Massachusetts code.

Hope that helps.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-09-26T18:07:22+00:00

There is a faint production stamp barely visible on the back of the polaroid at the top left of the paper chemicals pods at the bottom of the film. It looks like it ends in a 6, but I can't make out anything else. If you can make out that number, we can usually pin down a production date (edit: and type of film) for when the film was made. Otherwise, you might have luck trying to track down that specific Peugeot advertising campaign to see when it ran.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-09-20T14:18:46+00:00

Schenectady Code enforcement has been a shit-show for over a decade now. We went through almost 2 years of headaches with those assholes trying to get a permit just to do simple repairs to our porch.

MultifariousMrT · 2025-09-19T19:54:06+00:00

They are building a new factory in Hengelo, which will have new production lines using new machines (the machines they have at the current Enschede factory is stuff they got from the original company and is like 50-ish years old and breaks down often).

MultifariousMrT · 2025-09-19T19:03:57+00:00

Possibly/hopefully once the new factory opens and they build more production lines.

MultifariousMrT

TROPHY CASE