Blog

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips where Impossible USA’s camera resource manager Frank Love provides helpful advice in order to get the best out of your Polaroid camera and Impossible film. This week: Sudden + Unexpected Camera Kak or S.U.C.K….

Have you ever put a brand new pack of film into your camera just to have it shoot every single frame of that pack right back out at you? This SUCKs doesn’t it? I refer to this as S.U.C.K. or Sudden + Unexpected Camera Kak, kak being another word for vomit that begins with a ‘k’ so the acronym works.

Now while my acronym may be somewhat made up, the actual problem of S.U.C.K. is very real. It’s real because you feel the pain of your precious film that cost you precious money being spit back at you…

• 
• 

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s camera resource manager Frank Love provides you with helpful tips and advice on how to get the best out of your Polaroid camera and Impossible film. This week: the importance of shielding…

For anyone who’s never heard of SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder, it is a disorder in which people can feel down…or SAD in the winter months of the year because there is far less light from the sun reaching us than there is in the warmer summer months. The lack of Vitamin D one gets from exposure to natural sunlight can affect one’s mood. Now, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s Spring, and Summer is approaching, which means that, depending on the day and weather, there will be A LOT more light out there. This will make a lot of people happy, but it has the opposite effect on Impossible film. With Impossible film, there is another consideration, a different kind of reaction from exposure to sunlight.

First, it means you’ll likely need to do something that you may have stopped doing over the past few months if you’ve been shooting Color Protection (CP) film, and that’s shielding your photos from light. While the new CP formula is markedly better at resisting light in its opacification layer…it’s not 100% just yet.

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s camera resource manager Frank Love provides helpful hints and advice on how to get the absolute best out of your Polaroid camera and Impossible film. This week… 8×10 film: To peel, or not to peel?

Whether ‘tis nobler to peel your film, or to let it cure on its own, this is for each of you to decide.

There is a lot of talk about whether or not you should peel your 8×10 Impossible film, specifically the Silver Shade. This may not seem surprising to many at first, as you may think “hasn’t 8×10 always been peel apart?”, but herein lies the confusion. To be clear, Impossible 8×10 Film is an integral film format, just like SX-70, 600, and Spectra film. The only difference aside from size is that the film comes to you as a separate negative and ‘positive’ sheet, while with the smaller formats, these pieces are already one piece put together.

Welcome back to Dr. Love Tips where Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides insight and advice on how to get the best out of your Polaroid cameras and Impossible film. This week: SX-70 Troubleshooting Guide!

After some requests, and many general inquiries, we have created a comprehensive online troubleshooting guide for your SX-70. Simply bookmark the link, and you can always access the guide from anywhere you have an internet connection. You can also download as a PDF, or print it out.

Read through the guide in its entirety before you begin troubleshooting, but as any problem pops up, you will become more familiar with issues that may arise and how you can resolve them.

The goal here is first and foremost to keep everyone shooting with their cameras, and right after that, it’s to prevent people from wasting their precious film to an inexplicable problem that may be easily remedied.

So with that said, here is the SX-70 Troubleshooting Guide. Please feel free to submit questions and feedback on things that may be added or clarified.

As always, Keep your rollers clean,

-f

Greetings, friends, and welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides you with advice and insight on how to get the best out of your Polaroid cameras and Impossible film. This entry: Push it! Push it Real Good…

Taking some cues from our Flickr thread, we’ve had some people write in asking about how to shoot SX-70 or 100 speed film in their 600 cameras. Whatever your reasons, be it you’re in a pinch and SX-70 is what’s available, or you want to bring one less camera with you, or you’re going for a different look than your SX-70 gets you, there is always something you can do to trick your camera to think how you want it to…or at least close to it.

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, our ongoing series in which Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank love addresses common film and camera questions. This week: The Secret of the Ooze.

We’ve had some people write in recently saying they had a frame of film here and there occasionally with blue liquid ooze coming out of the back top of the frame.

This ooze is in fact the developer chemistry. It is stored in 3 ‘pods’ at the base of the film. It is this that actually gave instant integral film that fat border on the bottom, purely from a functional standpoint.

The reason the chemistry occasionally oozes out the top, is very similar to why you’ll get the ‘undeveloped patch’. You see, the chemistry is spread from the pods through the frame as the film passes through the rollers of the camera. Now the amount and thickness of this spread is taken to an exact science, however, there are always some variables that can affect this. If shooting in cooler or warmer temperatures, or from one camera’s set of looser rollers to another’s tighter set, this can affect the spreading thickness. Also, if rollers are dirty, this creates uneven spots of spreading on the frame, which lead to white spots on your photos, but can also unevenly distribute the rest of the chemistry.

Depending on the circumstances, you can either be left with insufficient coverage, and the ‘undeveloped patch’, OR you can end up on the opposite extreme,...Read All

• 

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, our ongoing series in which Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides you with valuable insight into the workings of instant film and cameras. This week: Why 8 Photos?

Many people have asked us…”Why only 8 frames instead of the traditional 10?”

The answer here is simple…yet complex. The simple answer is that there just isn’t room to put 10 frames of Impossible Film into a pack. Well then, how did Polaroid fit 10 frames into the same cartridge?

Here is where it gets a little more complex. Polaroid made nearly all their own materials, engineered collectively over 17 years; they were able to produce film that could eject out into direct sunlight moments after being exposed without harming the film, begin processing and stop all on its own…truly amazing. They had also done this with 10 frames of film to a cartridge.

In Impossible’s case, everything was there: cameras, cartridge size, and general functionality. The hard part here is that the old way of making the film was gone, no way back, everything for the film had to be re-engineered from scratch. So Impossible began a journey to create film that could function within these constraints, within this system of cartridges and cameras. There is very very little room for change in this system, but as the materials that go into the film HAD to change, it’s not surprising that the final product did vary a little from Polaroid’s.

The main difference is...Read All

Greetings from LoveLand! Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides you with helpful advice and insight into your Polaroid cameras and how to get the best out of Impossible film. This week, Frank talks about rejuvenating your camera’s rollers…

For anyone with an SX-70, folding or not, you have Polaroid’s ‘First Draft’ at roller design.

These are rollers that work by having a sort of teflon coating on the top roller. It’s this material that ‘grips’ the film as it’s ejecting to move it through the rollers for processing.

It’s time for another edition of Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides you with advice on how to get the most out of your Polaroid camera and Impossible film. This week: Shooting Checklist.

Yo, Camera Checklist, one-two, what is this?

Thanks to our Flickr thread looking for suggestions, we got a topic request for a ‘Shooting Checklist’. In effect, something people can use to make sure they have everything set before shooting. I think when it comes to being prepared, there’s more than one ‘list’, there’s the checklist for when you leave the house, and then there’s the checklist you have for every time you take a shot.

• 

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides you with advice on how to get the best out of your Impossible images. This week: Dry Age Revisited…

We wanted to give a follow up to our initial post which explains the use of the Dry Age Kit with our films.

As the weather has gotten warmer for many of you, we wanted to remind people of the importance of care for their images to ensure the best results stay that way. If you look to the original Dry Aging post, it explains the principal concept and cause for shifting, but we want to get more specific to ensure people can execute the best practices for preservation.…

Photo by James Matthew Carroll

Continuing our Impossible Workshop series, we are pleased to announce the return of a classic workshop on one of our favorite cameras, the Polaroid 600 camera. The Impossible Project will hold a three hour interactive workshop on maximizing Impossible film in the Polaroid 600 Camera.

Welcome back to Dr. Love’s Tips, our ever-popular series in which Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager provides advice to help you get the most out of your instant film experience. This week, Dr. Love focuses on shooting in hot weather…

Now that most everyone is enjoying warmer weather, and with the introduction of our COOL Films, a lot of people have been asking about best practices for shooting on those balmy summer days.

Just to start, COOL film is meant to be stored cool for best results, but once you’re taking it out to go shoot, you do NOT need to carry along a little lunch cooler to keep the film…

• 

After some testing here at Impossible, we’ve come to realize our latest version of the new PZ 680 COOL film has some unique properties that we thought we should address. Here’s Dr. Love…

Some of the conventional wisdom that has come to be associated with how to work with our films, may actually lead to making your images look worse instead of better. Some things we want to point out are…

1. The film is NOT fast, as we originally reported. It actually tests a little slow. It is however VERY sensitive in opacification failure, EVEN with the use of a Frog Tongue. Be very careful to shield completely!
2. If you have tried adjustments to counteract blown highlights and crushed blacks (little latitude and range), there are some things that you might be doing that actually compound the problem.

Let’s talk about PX, baby!

Tackling the Impossible takes time, dedication and expertise − and we can all get by with a little help from our friends. Come join in on the ever-growing Impossible community for our next monthly Analog Feedback Night.

Next Thursday, May 31st, come by the NYC Space to show off your work. Talk film and photography with like minded instant enthusiasts over a few beers. Discover new camera and film secrets, geek out and maybe even get your work featured on The Impossible Blog – this is your chance to connect with other artists and photographers involved in the instant film community!

WHEN: THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
WHERE: Impossible Project Space NYC 425 Broadway, 5th Floor Between Howard & Canal Streets
RSVP: Email rsvp@theimpossibleproject.com or call +1 212 219 3254
FREE and open to the public!

• 
• 
• 
• 

To celebrate the recent opening of Traces of Time, the vibrant new exhibition to open on our South wall, photographers and fellow travelers Varial and Fabrice Nadjari will visit the NYC Space to talk about their experience shooting Impossible film in the remote deserts and villages of the Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan. Guests will have the opportunity to ask the artists about their shooting and survival techniques and hear the inside story on their adventure. If you haven’t had a chance to see this unique exhibition, Traces of Time will be showing in the NYC Space until June 1st.

While you prepare your burning questions for the artists, check out their story on The New York Times LENS blog or listen to their interview on NPR!

WHEN: THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
WHERE: Impossible Project Space NYC 425 Broadway, 5th Floor Between Howard & Canal Streets
RSVP: Email rsvp@theimpossibleproject.com or call +1 212 219 3254
FREE and open to the public!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Last weekend we were lucky enough to host TWO special events with Italian maestro and analog instant master photographer Maurzio Galimberti at the NYC Space.

During his visit to New York, Maurizio shared his experiences and thoughts on the instant analog medium and on his transition from Polaroid to Impossible films. Some lucky guests were selected as subjects for some of his unique instant mosaic work, and the Impossible team was there to capture a video of the action.

To send him off in style, The NYC Space will host one final event with Maurizio, a farewell pizza party and documentary screening!

Come by The Impossible Project NYC Space on Tuesday the 22nd of May for a one time screening of a wonderful documentary on the photographic life of Maurizio Galimberti. If you missed the chance to meet him earlier this month, now’s your chance to eat pizza and drink some beers with Maurizio himself at this informal event.

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI DOCUMENTARY & PIZZA PARTY!

WHEN: TUESDAY, MAY 22ND, 2012 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
WHERE: Impossible Project NYC Space, 425 Broadway, 5th Floor Between Howard & Canal Street
FREE and open to the public!

Hello again, Dr. Love fans! This week, Dr. Love talks about the occasional hiccups you may experience when using the Impossible Flash Bar by Mint with your SX-70…

We’ve had several people write in asking for some help in how to use their new Impossible Mint Flashbars. For many people, they are only now using a flash on their cameras for the first time. Either that, or they haven’t used a flash for a long while.

It is not uncommon to encounter some issues when first trying a flash on your camera. These cameras as you all know are old, and even ones repaired to the best of anyone’s ability can show some quirks when first using a flash again.

Photo by Kisha Bari

Master an Iconic Tool in the History of Analog Photography!

The Impossible Project NYC Space is excited to welcome back a classic workshop on the most celebrated of Polaroid cameras, the SX-70. On Sunday, May 20th, the Impossible team will host a three hour interactive workshop on maximizing Impossible film in the Polaroid Sx-70 Camera. Our introductory workshops are designed to give you the confidence you need to let your imagination run wild! We’ll discuss the features of the SX-70 camera and focus on shooting techniques to ensure you achieve the best results out of the newest Impossible films available.

Photo by Adam Custins

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Last week at the NYC Space we had our first ever Analog Feedback Night. Impossible photographers and enthusiasts gathered to discuss their images in an informal open table discussion. The night was a warm gathering of like minded individuals and an excellent way for people to meet other passionate Impossible photographers. We discussed shooting methods, differences in film types, and the advantages and disadvantages of shooting analog instant film in various settings. Adam Custins came in with his portfolio and talked about how he integrates instant film into his commercial work. Dave Knapik was preparing for an art exhibition (up now!) and requested input about framing and presentation methods. We also had some great imagery shown by Josie Keefe, Patrick Tobin and Wendy Strauss.

Analog Feedback Night will be a reoccurring event at our space. If you miss those art school class critiques or just want to discuss other people’s work while getting feedback on your own, come to the next Analog Feedback night on May 31st!

• 
• 
• 
• 

As The Impossible Project NYC Space gears up for another busy month, we invite you to all of the following events! This Thursday celebrate the imaginative approach of Impossible explorers Varial and Fabrice Nadjari with the opening of Traces of Time, then follow up on their adventure at their Artist Talk later in the month. Don’t miss the rare and special duo of events with Italian maestro Maurizio Galimberti, and practice honing your skills with a classic camera at our upcoming SX-70 Workshop. Come and experience these very special events for yourself, or bring some friends to everything happening this month at the NYC Space!

• 
• 
• 
• 

Italian photographer Maurizio Galimberti has been working with Polaroid film since the early 90s, but has now adapted his techniques to incorporate new Impossible film materials. Maurizio uses instant photographs to create stunning multi dimensional mosaics, consisting of up to 140 individual images, capturing personalities like Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Sofia Coppola among many others.

The Impossible Project NYC Space is proud to offer TWO special events lead by Maurizio Galimberti in early May. During his very special visit to New York, Maurizio will share his experiences and thoughts on the instant analog medium and on the transition from Polaroid to Impossible films. Participants in this very rare workshop will have the opportunity to ask Maurizio all their artistic and technical questions, and also get an exclusive look into his signature techniques and observations using Impossible films.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn from a master of instant photography, and RSVP today!

Let’s talk about PX, baby!

Tackling the Impossible takes time, dedication and expertise − and we can all get by with a little help from our friends. Come join in on the ever-growing Impossible community for our first ever Analog Feedback Night.

On April 26th, The Impossible Project NYC Space invites YOU to showcase your favorite Impossible images to knowledgeable peers and fellow enthusiasts. Spend the evening reviewing your work and getting feedback while making new analog-loving friends. This is your chance to connect with other artists and photographers involved in the instant film community!

The night will take place from 6-9pm in The Impossible Project NYC Space. Come with originals or digital files on a USB flash drive. Bring your friends!

• When: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
• Where: Impossible Project Space, 425 Broadway, Floor 5, NYC 10013
• Registration: (212) 219 3254 or nycspace@theimpossibleproject.com
• FREE and open to the public

• 
• 

Hello from Impossible! Dr. Love is back with another informative post in which he revisits the importance of shielding your images…

“Some people have asked some follow up questions to our Opacification post, and as the days are getting longer, we wanted to help stress the use of Impossible Films on those bright sunny summer days.

To simply summarize the main point from the opacification post, Impossible films are still sensitive to light in the first moments out of the camera. This is because the protective layer within the film that is there to protect the film can’t yet block out enough light in many situations that it needs an outside aide.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

For the more adventurous of analog enthusiasts, The Impossible Project NYC space held its first ever Manipulations Workshop last Sunday March 26th.
Workshop coordinator Kisha Bari presented a brief history on various manipulation techniques before delving into the wonders of Impossible integral film manipulation, negative bleaching and emulsion lifts. Working with all kinds of Impossible film types, the attending photographers could have stayed all day creating brilliant works of art using all three techniques. 
Check out the photos from Sunday’s Manipulation Crafternoon, and keep an eye out for more workshops at the NYC Space every month!

• 

This week, Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love explains the importance of caring for your camera’s rollers…

The all important rollers, and why you need to keep them clean. The rollers in your camera are a vital and often overlooked part of instant photography. The condition of the rollers will directly affect any image that comes from your camera.

The rollers that are on every Polaroid Camera, however old or new it is, large or small, one film type or another, they are what make the ‘magic’ of instant film possible. The rollers are what the film passes through to initiate the development of the film and print. Every piece of instant film from Polaroid to Impossible, of all sizes, has two main components that make it all work…

The good doctor.

• 

Hello again, friends! Dr. Love is back with another entry in his popular informational film and camera series. This week: Product Date Stamps!

Some people have asked us about the dating that’s on our packaging, so in a hopes to clear up any confusion, here’s how the date breakdown works out.

First, Impossible film posts the production date on the packaging, NOT an expiration date like Polaroid did. It comes in the form of the production month, and year, on the outer box of the film packaging.

This is for several reasons. To start, Impossible film is so new and early in the development process, there really could be no expiration date that could be put on a package that could be based on actual results. By the time tests could be done to properly gauge how the films age, enough progress has been made that the material that has been tested, to the material in production, is so different that the test is effectively moot.

People ask, “How long is the film good?”. Our answer to this is that we recommend using the film within 3-6 months of purchase to ensure best results, and to store it in a refrigerator. This is simply because these are average circumstances that are known so far, and that in that amount of time there are typically updated batches produced.

Now another approach to this is the ‘fine wine’ approach. Some people like using expired film because of the...Read All

The good doctor.

This week, Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides some tips about traveling with film…

As many of you will be traveling very soon, there are some things to keep in mind when traveling with film, instant or otherwise. If you’re traveling by car, your main concern would be temperature. Don’t leave your film in the car in the hot sun, or if it’s going to be below freezing, don’t leave instant film out overnight.

When flying your main concern will be getting through security. Don’t put film in checked bags as they can be scanned with more powerful X-rays…

(More after the jump!)

The good doctor.

This week, Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love talks about swapping film packs between cameras…

One common question we get asked a lot is “Can I swap a film pack from one camera to another before it’s done, without ruining the film?”

We know sometimes you start one pack of film, but then you see something that would be perfect with a different film, but your pack isn’t done yet, or maybe you want to take the same film and put it in a different camera. Either way, the concern is the same…

(More after the jump!)

The good doctor.

• 
• 
• 

This week, Impossible USA’s Camera Resource Manager Frank Love provides some tips on how best to care for your beloved Polaroid SX-70…

For anyone with a folding SX-70, you know how beautiful they are, but some of you may have also found that they are delicate instruments, and you may have one that doesn’t work so well or consistently, and maybe it’s just sitting around and hasn’t worked at all recently. There’s a chance that if this camera hasn’t received any trauma, it may simply need a little ‘Love’ to get it going again.

I first want to state that if you don’t feel comfortable doing anything here, don’t, but if you follow these simple instructions you should have a good shot at getting your camera working again…

(More after the jump!)

The good doctor.

• 
• 
• 
• 

Occasionally, your Impossible film shots may exhibit a dark vertical stripe, or band covering 1/3 or more of the image. Impossible USA’s Camera Resources Manager Frank Love explains what causes this phenomenon…

There are several causes for these kinds of effects but they all relate to the chemical pod. First let me explain that the chemical developer which performs the amazing feat of producing a positive print from a film negative in a few minutes is locked away in what we call pods. The chemical pod is the entire reason behind the larger white border at the bottom of integral instant frames. Along that border there are 3 separate ‘pods’ which hold the developer. It is the process of being ejected and running through the camera’s rollers that spreads this paste over the film sheets to initiate the image processing.…

(More after the jump!)