Polaroid stopped manufacturing peel-apart packfilm in 2008. (Peel-apart film is different from the integral films that are automatically ejected from the Polaroids you may have used. These packfilms work in different cameras, and are manually pulled through rollers to spread developing chemistry on the print; after two minutes, the print is peeled away from the paper negative to reveal a fully developed image.) I adore my Polaroid Automatic 100 Land Camera, and so I stocked up on packfilm, even though Fuji still manufactured a fast modern version at the time, and The Impossible Project had plans to make a new type. Just in case, it was nice to have some set aside…
Fuji discontinued their peel-apart manufacturing, and the Impossible Project dropped their plans even before they were folded into new companies. A new contender is still trying out recipes… So, my refrigerator hoard of pack film was all I could confidently rely on. Over the years, I’ve pulled a pack out of the refrigerator now and then and shot it. It has been an exercise in diminishing returns as the chemistry pods for each image dried up… Once I found the camera again in December of 2025, I decided it was now-or-never, and pulled out both Sepia and Blue Film packs.
I didn’t expect to be DELIGHTED by the two packs of Blue Film. At all. And yet…
It WORKS! It not only works, it isn’t just monochrome – it has subtle hints of other colors!
The camera, having sat unused for more than a year, was a bit stiff: I had shutter stickiness, which caused shutter shake in several of the precious, last-of-their-kind exposures. I was unsure, due to the age of the film, how to expose it… I used an entire pack wandering around my own neighborhood, trying to get sharp and legible images. While I wasted frames, I was happy to get ANY results.
I took the second Blue Film pack downtown the next day to continue, choosing to emphasize buildings that hadn’t existed when the film was discontinued. The second pack was better, with higher contrast and good saturation.
There were some artifacts of the old chemistry: the skies are a bit streaky, and some prints have brown stains where the chemistry was too dry to peel cleanly from the surface of the print (not shown in these examples). But again: I was thrilled to get these images.
Also, the chemistry on the paper ‘negative’ was strangely satisfying. The paper negatives remain wet and have caustic chemistry mostly-but-not-wholly-consumed on them, and aren’t meant to be preserved, but I do like the look of them.
I remain THRILLED that this media still worked 17 years after it expired, and that I was able to use my Land Camera to enjoy it.