Polaroid 55 tray-developed?

[David R Munson]

Here's something I've been thinking about, but I can't dig up any info on it. I'm sure someone has tried it...

In short, is it possible to expose Polaroid Type 55 film out on location, come back, and rather than process it with a 545 back as usual, instead go into a darkroom and manually develop the negative portion in a tray using conventional chemistry? Would it work? Does it work? I adore Type 55, and I wonder if this might be able to expand one's creative options when working with the film. Once I get access to a darkroom again, I may try it myself, but for now all I can do is ask.

So yeah - anybody tried it?

[Steve Hamley]

David,

I haven't tried it (yet), but other posts in other forums claim the film is Kodak PanX and it can indeed be processed in conventional developers. If you try it, post your results!

Steve

[Gem Singer]

Hi David,

I understand that it can be done. However, at almost $3 a sheet, it's an expensive way to purchase 4X5 film.

[David R Munson]

Well, the point is not to replace regular sheet film. I'm just interested to know if there are any good image characteristics to be had as an improvement over Type 55 used in the regular way or alternative effects achieved through processing the negative manually.

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's been reported in _View Camera_ magazine and elsewhere that it is Panatomic-X, so I suppose you could probably get better results by processing it conventionally. After all, your first choice of developer wouldn't normally be a monobath paste, if image quality were the primary concern.

[Bob Fowler]

Hmmm... I feel some experiments brewing...

In my experience, when Polaroid film goes out of date, the big problem is the paste getting cruddy so it won't spead well across the negative. This could be a good way to use (read that as salvage) some of that expired stuff I have!

[Kirk Gittings]

A friend of mine at the Art Institute of Chicago did this for many years and passed the idea on to Joel Peter Witkin who was looking for a thin based film to scratch and manipulate as he had done for his images on the old Tri-X film packs which were being discontinued. I don't know the details but I shared a darkroom with the guy for many years and his work was beautiful.