Polaroid 55 P/N Exposure and Reciprocity

[conor_ohealy1]

Got another question for all the experts here.

 

I am about to start using Polaroid 55 P/N in my quest to get back

into LF photography, and I have a few questions. I am planning on

shooting an image to get the print, to verify exposure, composition,

ect, and then compensate the exposure and shoot an image to get the

neg.

 

1. How well do the negatives print if exposed properly? What type

of film would you compare them too?

 

2. What ISO should I expose the Neg for? What about the Print?

 

3. How does this film respond to long shutter speed? What are the

reciprocity characteristics?

 

Once again, all help would be appreciated.

 

Conor

[roger krueger]

It has the worst reciprocity failure I've ever seen. Sorry, but I'm on vacation and away from actual numbers.

[richsbv]

The film data sheets are available at the Polaroid site for download. It shows about a one stop increase for 10 seconds and only about 1 1/4 stops for 100 seconds. I remember it as a bit worse...

[richsbv]

Sorry, forgot the rest...

 

I shoot at 32 for the neg and 64 for the print. The out of date film I have now seems to like 25 for the neg, didn't shoot for the print. Other people have their own ISO's...

 

The neg itself is fine grained and as good as any standard film or better. They are supposed to be a Kodak film, panatromic X possibly? I don't remember at the moment...

 

The negs are also very easy to shoot in the field. I use sandwich bags. Slip the neg in, pour a couple ounces of clearing solution, then into a tupper ware container. Take care of the rest back at where ever I'm staying...

[mark_blackman1]

Conor,

anything over 1 sec and your asking for trouble, although to be fair the film seems to hold up better than the print.

[b.d.trabitz___]

Just spent a weekend in Vermont using type 55. Used two boxes. The lots varied. One box gave me very nice prints at EI80. The negatives were very printable at an EI40. The second box was much more erratic. Starting at EI80 I found that one scene gave me a good print 2/3 stops wider(EI50). Another yielded a nice print closed down a 1/3

(EI100). The negatives proofed nicely on my scanner at EI40.

 

My results indicated that the print needs an exact exposure, much like transparency film, and their is variation from box to box. The longest exposer I used was a half second.

[__jon__]

>mark blackman Photo.net Patron, oct 23, 2003; 05:12 p.m.

>Conor, anything over 1 sec and your asking for trouble, although to be >fair the film seems to hold up better than the print.

 

Phooey. I was just out two nights ago with a new box of 55. With my set-up, I shoot it at 100 for the print. I was in light that barely registered on my Pentax spot: 2/3 EV. I was exposing, as metered, for 60 seconds and throwing in 10 extra seconds.

 

Great results.

[l._duijvesteijn]

ok, hre's my receipt: expose at nominal iso value, +1 ev exposure

for a printable negative. store em' in water till you get home and

rinse them in the solution there. rinse them longer and better

than indicated.

 

and yes, it is no film for longer exposures, the negatives are

VERY fragile but it gives you more contrast range and the

negatives are in my opinion more beautiful than any b/w film.

 

hope this helps!

[kymtman]

Just tried 55 for the first time. A studio shot with flash meter set to expose at 55asa. Reading was f/8, took shot and what a result! the positive and negative could be no more perfect! The film was fresh. Maybe they have corrected for positive and negative. They should don't you think, it is sold as such!

[brian_kennedy]

Here's the film data sheet from Polaroid. It will be nice to have this info in the forum. I don't think it's in any of the threads now: <A HREF="http://www.polaroid.com/service/filmdatasheets/4_5/55fds.pdf">http://www.polaroid.com/service/filmdatasheets/4_5/55fds.pdf</A>

<P>

If I'm reading the graph on the data sheet correctly, reciprocity is 0.5 stops for 1", 1 stop for 10", 1.5 stops for 100".