Polaroid, the film that went missing, is back. Well, to a degree. The original Polaroid film stopped production a while back now, and film was getting scarce. Along came the Impossible Project, which has gained plenty of air time from camera shops to the interwebs and blogs like this one. They have recently released their first offerings, much to the joy of all Polaroid camera owners. I looked at purchasing a few packets of the B&W film, but found shipping to be madly expensive. I could have just about flown over and back cheaper (Disclaimer, that MAY be a slight exaggeration!) Luckily, the luck of the Irish smiled upon me in the shape of my good mate Pete, from sunny Galway. He generously sent me out a pack of the IMPOSSIBLE – PX Silver Shade film that I had been wanting. Score!

Now, being the impatient bastard that I am, I ripped open the package, jammed the film into my aging SX-70 camera and off I went. I am sure there is a beautifully worded quote somewhere about haste and waste, but it doesn’t come to mind. Lets just say the first shot that slid noisily from the bottom of the camera didn’t do the things I expected.

As you can see, well actually, you can see very little, but it is an over exposed mess. Ah crap! One shot down, only seven left. As I stood shivering, watching the deep blue of the exposed area turn slowly white, I was wondering what I had done wrong. Not wanting to risk another 12.5% of the shots left, I thought I would jump in the car and drive to work and have a think about it. Half way to work, I saw a couple of very young calves standing right against the fence line. I braced myself against the chill and lept from the car. Click! Whirrrrr. Out pops another shot. I stand there, looking at the deep blue turn bright sepia again. Oh for the love of baby cows, what the hell was going wrong? I trudge back to comforting warmth of the car. I drive a further 10 minutes to work, my brain a mess. Pete was going to drown me in a tub of Guinness if I stuff all eight shots up. I jam the first two duds into my pocket, grab the camera and my work pass and jump out of the warmth of the car to head into work.

Oooh, look, an interesting cloud formation all around the comms tower that stands above my work giving cancer to all the birds that nest in it. I can’t help myself, here goes another 12.5% of the film. Click! Whirrrr…

I wont repeat what I said when this one popped out of the camera and into my freezing mitt. The $10 camera damn near went for a fly across the car park. I walked into work a broken man. I was beginning to think the “Impossible Project” was a very good description of this film. I fell into my chair and pulled the 1st three shots out of my pocket. Poo! Bum and wiss! I was not having a good start to the day. Right, off to the web site to see if others are having issues.

You may be wondering why some of the text above is in italics. Well they are all clues. Here is a grab from the web site…

The chemistry of the PX Silver Shade films is very sensitive to temperature.

For most balanced results, it is recommended to provide a medium room temperature of 17-24°C (63-75°F)

In extreme cold (10°C and below), the image will become very light, quickly resulting in almost white tones, erasing most contrast. Use with caution.

In extreme heat (27°C and above), the image will turn very dark and change to reddish, orange, and yellowish shades of extreme contrast
TIP: When shooting in extreme temperatures, you can put the image in your pocket to warm it when out in the cold and keep it in the shade or cool water to avoid too much heat when in hot surroundings.

Oh, or more to the point, d’oh! It was all of 6?C that morning going to work. I was a fair way, temperature wise, from the 17-24°C that I should have been using the film in. Insert facepalm here. What a goose.

I had 5 shots left. What to do. I checked the weather forecast, top temps of 17?C that day. Well, things are looking up. I took the camera down to the car, hoping it would absorb a few more degrees of warmth during the day.

Knock off time. I am excited. I have actually read a bit more about it, and I am determined to get the film out of the camera and into a warm dark pocket, post haste. I head back to a place that I thought would produce Polaroidy goodness. The brides car has an outside temperature reading on the console, so you can imagine my joy when it read 17?C on the way home. I got to the destination, there was an old shed, some silos, a few cows and a country road. This isn’t Polaroidy goodness, this is Polaroid Gold!

I line up a shot of an old shed. Ansell Adams would kick the lid off the coffin to see this masterpiece. Click! Whirrr..and straight into a snuggly and dark pocket. Ha. Nailed it. I knew I was carrying in my left pocket a shot that would burst into Flickr’s Explore faster than you could say Impossible Bloody Project. I took 3 more shots of exactly the things I spoke of earlier. Silos, a road and a cow. I actually kept them all in my pocket all the way home, and didn’t take them out until I got into a darkened room. I was giddy with anticipation. Here they come.

The shed shot. As it came out of the pocket. You’ve got to be kidding me. The world around me was starting to look over exposed and lacked contrast. Devastated is probably not too strong a word to describe the way I felt. I know I had ruined 37.5% of the shots in the morning, and I had another 37.5% in my left pocket. I wont go into it any further as it will depress you and your loved ones. Lets just say I was disappointed in the results. Here are the other three shots from that afternoon, complete with some digital shenanigans to try and fix them up.

I have played with the levels on this shot above to try and tidy it up. It is a long way from what I was expecting from a monochrome film.

I converted one side of this shot to B&W to show the difference.

And this was more like what I was expecting to see. I am sure some of the Photoshop gurus could tart it up to look even better, but you get my drift.

I still have one shot left in the camera, but I am scared to use it. I have to soon because the camera has found a new home, and I need to wrap it up and send it off. I will try and take another shot when I cook dinner tonight to see if I have any luck in a toasty warm environment.

Impossible Project, I’ll say.

Plenty of people have had stunning success with this film. I think, given what I know now, I could produce a lot better images in a warmer environment. Don’t bork at using the new Polaroid film just because I was a dickhead and jumped in before I researched it. Have a go. It may well be Possible after all.