TYPE 55 FILM ON THE VERGE

<p>it seems that type 55 style film is just around the corner</p>

<p>http://www.new55.net/</p>

<p>for a comparable and less pricy option for budget conscious users there is Fomapan 100 film developed in rodinal 1/50.</p>

<p>the new type 55 isn't free of developing time or fixing efforts and I've always maintained that the difference in effort in developing positive negative emulsions and regular film is there is no difference in effort.<br /> Surely there is a difference in results and the positive aspect is to have options<br /> The Fomapan 100 can be developed into a slide film which approximates the feel of the original 35mm Polapan film .</p>

<p>Ultimately there needs to be a fundamental justification for the use of large format and its expense and funky borders cant be it when you can scan old 55 neg borders and have that free.</p>

<p>the high definition expectancy originally associated with big film has been satisfied by the accuracy of digital and most people ignore the fact that on a large format camera on a tripod the accuracy was mostly obtained by stopdown and patience aka time exposure.</p>

<p>Perhaps some of you have tried to do macro pictures with your smartphone or small powershot camera and noticed it all seems remarkably in focus despite the absurd proximity to the object.</p>

<p>then you take a top of the line Mark D or a Nikon 800 and you have to do an absurd amount of stopdown to get even close to that depth of field.</p>

<p>the increase of the shallowness is mathematical and unchanged whether the capture is analog or numeric then we come to my point where I have argued for years that the depth of field - parallelism and quality expectations of large format tripod photography really do not apply to hand held 4x5 photography at all! and that realistically you need perfect parallelism in order to do hand held 4x5 using existing light.</p>

<p>This was a really hard subject to debate as when the 4x5 style of photography was the only option everything was strobed or they used the f 16 rule.</p>

<p>this has never been applicable to slow films of the panchromatic range and people resorted to developing their pulse and posing models against walls and holding their breath etc.</p>

<p>this is not conducive to spontaneity <br /> With that said not everyone will need to use type 55 for people photography on the move .<br /> It is good that there is this new option .</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I don't even know where to start in a response... but I'm happy that you are happy. For me T-55 was nothing more than a novelty. "Real' film" always was better but there was a certain convenience factor associated with T-55 and the other quickload concepts. Polapan... I don't quite know what to say except that there is probably a good reason why it went extinct.</p>

<p>P.S. I'd be really excited to read that T-52 was on the verge!</p>

I used to use Polaroid 55 pos/neg film with a Speed Graphic and Polaroid back mostly at office parties. The positive prints could be hung of the bulletin board for instant gratification and amusement and if anyone wanted copies I had the negative to print from. No big deal.

<p>The reason that Polaroid film "went extinct" was that the company lost its way, and couldn't (or wouldn't) hang on until the current revival of instant photography. Type 55 PN was a great product, and produced gorgeous negatives.</p>

<p>I agree with you Brian. I prefer Fomapan 100 but users have these Blockages they don't seem go be able to go past a line drawn in the sand. When Polaroid discontinued instant film Fuji still made it and better and at a fraction of a cost and people wouldn't buy it.<br>

I am happy that there is a choice. <br>

BTW the range of the new t55 film will be close to 100-200 asa as was T 52</p>

 

<p>Les the reason Polaroid 55 film went extinct was because every year since 2001 when the company was first sold a few fools who had nothing better to do " needed" to get reassurance it would be made in eternum so they would email Polaroid and if they didn't get the answer they wanted they would start threads saying its all over . then when the company was again bought in 2008b finally decided to use the name for the new digital age they didn't want the responsibility of someone else making the product and that it would either be lacking in performance or that it would fail to sell due to declining use both concerns would affect the value of the name and seeing the difficulties that the impossible project has had with emulsions such concerns may not be unreasonable.</p>

<p>when a film such as polapan( type 55 ) was polapan has a familiarity or very defined range it is indeed limiting as compared to a standard film but attractive for its defined look,<br>

Such was the case with 3M chrome films which had a distinct grain which was very popular in the 80s.<br>

When photoshop didn't exist film emulsions and wrattan filters and color meters was the only thing you had to work with.</p>

<p>New55...ISO 50, depending on what batch you get. Expensive at the moment, 85 bucks for 5 sheets. I did contribute to the kickstart which you may or may not be aware, became fully funded, without much trouble or fanfare it seems, was notified that my turn would be coming up soon to make a purchase, anyway, sucked it up and bought 2 packs, I believe it to be the third run/batch or whatever, will try it in the coming weeks. <br />They also have a readyload style currently available, 1Shot, ISO 100, 50 bucks for 5 sheets......we'll see.....<br />Their 1 Shot developer has been out for a little while, I'm sure some folks are already aware of that.<br />Thought I'd throw that out there.....</p>