Polaroid Polachrome 35mm expired film help

Hi all,

 

I have a few rolls of Polaroid Polachrome 35mm Color Slide Film HCP-135-12 film which expired in 1993. Its in its box but no idea how its stored but lets just presume in a box under the bed, the boxes are perfect so clearly haven't been moved much.

 

Anyhow, I want to use it and as its ISO 40 I was wondering if anyone could help me guess what speed to shoot this at and whether theres any tricks to using the polaroid processing block that comes with it other than what one would normally do due to its age. Any help to get the best results possible with this old film would be much appreciated.

Do you have the Polaroid processor that was sold to use with this? If not, I don't know how you would process it. I would be very surprised if the chemistry hasn't dried out since it must be going on 30 years old. I used some of this back in the day for people who absolutely had to have slides in a matter of hours when I didn't have a local lab that did quick E-6 processing. The"color" aspect of this is a throwback to the 1930's--it is created via a diffraction screen on the film, hence the grainy look and limited color palette.

Hey there. I do have the processing unit. I’m about to try this stuff out and see how it goes so I will report back. But wondering what iso would you shoot it at trying to ensure an image at the very least.

It's old film and the storage could have been questionable, so if it were me I would sacrifice the first roll and just bracket exposures a lot and see what you get. With other old Polaroid film (4x5 sheet and 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 pack film) dried up chemistry pods are a common problem that prevent any results at all.

It works just a little different from polaroid prints, so it isn't so obvious that it is dried up, but I

wouldn't be surprised. As noted, the color versions are additive, with a pattern or red, green, and blue

stripes, and so very dark.

 

The monochrome versions might be a better choice to try.

Thanks everyone. Doing a test print this weekend and shall give you an update

I'm curious how that stuff would scan.

If the film mosaic interferes with the scanning/digital-copying pixel spacing the results could be.... errr .... interesting.

 

But my guess is that like any stale Polaroid stuff, it'll come out blank.

Hi all

 

OK as promised I mentioned I'd get back to you with my polachrome trials. Well, I think it went WAY better than I ever thought. I have posted some to my profile but heres an example of one of the better ones, even though it was right at the end of the roll.

 

 

You can see how its pixilated etc but I wasn't expecting to get an image at all. This was scanned at 600dpi on my epson V550. What do you think? Some come out darker but as this seems to pick up on bright colors its probably worth using in that context.

 

Another one of the better ones. Seriously this is so fun. I should add that during the process I added way more time to the stages than listed on the box. Also I shot this at 25iso rather than 40 or whatever it normally is.

 

Once everything was in the machine I pressed the leaver down and waited 4 minutes rather than 5 seconds. I did this whilst also raising the back of the machine up a little bit so the developer goo could slip down easier. I then rolled the handle then waited 10 minutes rather than 60 seconds. Then wound the film back then ejected the film, ran it under cold water and rubbed it gently top get the black film off.

 

Again, very fun.

Congratulations on your results--they are much better than I would have expected.