Now because I obviously have heaps of time and absolutely no work to do I figured I would poke around and see what the rumor mill has to say about this whole polapremium business. What I have to say is that people initially seem to be about as skeptical as I am at first. That is not to say that there aren’t a few metric tonnes of hope floating about out there. Near as I can decipher from random rumors, and peeps in the know dropping hints, is that Polaroid and Unsaleable.com have teamed up to release a last run of instant films. Rumor is saying that a release of a type 600 and possibly a replacement film for the SX70’s (that is not to say that they are releasing time zero again, my guess would be that they are releasing a type 600 that either has a built in ND filter or is a slower film closer to time zero’s ISO 150). It does seem however that the focus is going to be on the continuation of the integral films (non peel apart films) with little to no mention of pack films.
The British Journal of Photography recently published that Unsaleable.com (who is indirectly the registered owner of polapremium.com btw) was able to convince Polaroid to “produce an outstanding amount of breathtaking film, before closing down their factories” “Many of these films are completely new products, never produced before” – spokesperson for polapremium.com
This is all super awesome except I am concerned that this is going to be nothing more then a short term run of Polaroid films that will quickly run out and within a year we will be left where we are right now. I also worry that the price is going to be an unbelievable ridiculous and arbitrary amount that would also make the long-term use of these films impractical for most, which is not unlike unsaleable to do.
What I hope to see is a return of square film formats like the type 87 or 84 because all my pack film cameras (with the exception of my land camera of course) shoot square leaving a black edge on the photo. I would like the Polaroid to be the finished product but that stupid black edge is so ugly. It gets to the point that I don’t shoot Polaroid with my Mamiya or Holga anymore (other than for the very few precious remaining boxes of type 84/87 I have left in my fridge).
One other possible bit of good news, that I am hoping is true, is that Polaroid may have licensed out production of type 664 and 667 films to Fuji. The 664 I don’t really care about but in my humble opinion the 667 is a far superior Black & White then the Fuji FP 3000B. In fact the 667 is the only medium format Polaroid brand pack film that I am sad to see go. I would also love to see the large format 8X10 etc.. come back but here I know that I am dreaming! :)
In my humble opinion what Polaroid should have done is stopped shipping date sensitive product to every Wal-Mart, London Drugs, and small town photo store in the world, and instead moved to an entire mail/internet ordering system. Condensed the entire instant film section of the company down to their two remaining factories and have two shipping departments and a kick ass website/online presence. Instead of having a large bloated company with sales offices all over the bloody world doing god knows what, streamline the whole thing down to the bear necessities. It is not like the bulk of us die-hard Polaroid users haven’t been internet ordering our precious film for the last couple of years as it is. I don’t claim to know how it all works but I will be shooting film/Polaroid till it becomes too expensive to do so. The difficulty is I am super cheap, and this sorta work makes me absolutely no money, so I fear that day is too quickly approaching.
OH GOD I WANT TO TELL YOU EVERYTHING. But I can’t. Yet.
Unsaleable isn’t all that unreasonable. Doc, one of the head honchos, is making it his life’s work to have instant film available at a reasonable price. He has to make a living, yeah, but Unsaleable is one of the cheapest places in Europe to get film. Not the cheapest, no, but one of the cheapest. Part of why it hurts those of us in Fortress North America so much is the damn exchange rate. Shipping is costly, too…but in my experience the speed + quality of packing + reliability make it worth while. Plus, they ship everything from Austria (or possibly warehouses in Hungary). With larger orders, the shipping is more reasonable per pack/per shot. But then, you’re forking out more for film. Not ideal, I know.
Fuji will be producing three films that will be as close as possible to 125i and two other T100s but not identical, and different from Fuji’s current line, but nobody seems to know when they’ll start production, let alone when they’ll start selling it. I do know that the Mexico plant (where the packfilm was made) is dead and gone, with parts having been and being sold piecemeal, so likely what’s coming from PolaPremium in that regard will be a last gasp thing, and then it’s all Fuji. Some of the integral stuff that PolaPremium will be selling is stuff that was made after the factory finished it’s last run of normal recipe 600 & Spectra films…there’ll be some interesting experimental films.
I agree about what Polaroid should have done. It’s one of several things that should have been done a decade or more back, and probably would have saved the company. They should’ve stopped producing so damned many cheap shitty 600 cameras and focused on the Spectra models, the SX70 models, and the good packfilm models…basically cutting the production models in half. Also…PolaVision. That was just stupid to do. Some bad decisions by Land (er, technically the whole film side of Polaroid was a Land whim, but…) and then lots of bad management post-Land, and some protectionist job action by the chemical engineers (or so I’ve heard), and then the first of the buy-outs, and now we have Polaroid of today…the CEO and his friends in jail on fraud charges…and the company all but reduced to a brand to be slapped onto third-party electronics. From one of the best hi-tech companies in the world to almost nothing in 30-odd years. Sigh.
MAN YOU HAVE TO STOP MAKING ME SO EXCITED!!!! :) I didn’t care about it in the least a week ago, mostly because I simply don’t have time :) but your hints and uber excitement is very very very contagious. Now I cant wait :) I get that unsalable is caught in a tough spot and I don’t blame them for the $30 pack of ten. I get that small runs and lower volume increases price. I get all that, same token I so can’t justify 3 bux a photo no matter how good it is. I don’t even spend that on 4×5 stuff. I make a great living as a photographer and not a single dollar of it comes from Polaroid so ya got see where I am coming from. Cant wait till tomorrow so we can see what the excitement is about!
I do see where you’re coming from, no worries. I just have to remind people sometimes because there’s a lot of unwarranted bashing of Unsaleable on this side of the pond—it wasn’t really directed at you personally.
LESS THAN 40,000 SECONDS!!!!!!
unsaleable is down – “transfer in progress”… 17.000 seconds to go. This is VERY exciting…
ohhh 9200 2 go!!! :) ooooh so can’t wait!!
Since Fuji announced that they are not going to formulate any new pack film, their current line a pack films will be rebranded with the Polaroid name.
So Fuji FP-3000B will be packaged under the T667 name. That is why Polaroid said that their “re-released” pack films will be slightly different.
Not only is this the most logical explanation, but it is also the simplest, and backed up by press releases/journal articles.
Basically, we get the same exact film under a different name, and we have to pay extra money for it (some of which goes to Polaroid, which I do not care for, since it is not the old Polaroid company).
I also face the dilemma of shooting full-frame with my Polaroid 360 or getting a much much sharper picture, albeit a 7.2 cm square with my RB67.
As for any new films from Polapremium, I can bet money that they are going to sell that 600 “Softtone” film, which I can bet more money is a defective product, much like Artistic TZ. People, Polaroids were quality products that should not fade into oblivion in just a few months under normal storage conditions. Anyway, I await to be blown away with some amazing new film…which hopefully is not defective…especially with those prices; however, I was substantially let down by the timer going to zero and no new product being unveiled.
We shall see what the bleak future of all that is Polaroid holds.
I started commenting on this but it turned into a rant and well i figured it should be its own post. http://www.jerkwithacamera.com/2008/11/28/polapremium-3/
“a few metric tonnes of hope floating about out there” That’s a beautiful image, I wanted to thank you for it. As far as film goes, get a second hand deep freeze and fill-er-up. Cheers from Kits!