Reclaiming negatives on Polaroid 809?

[Bill L.]

Hi All,

I shoot a fair amount of instant film, and have been reclaiming the negatives when I shoot Fuji FP-100c. Yesterday, I had the chance to try some Polaroid 809 - while I love the prints, I tried bleaching the black backing on the negative like I would for the FP-100c negative and absolutely nothing happened. Does anyone have experience with removing the black backing on the 809 temporary negative? I'd like to reclaim them if I can, and google just sends me to the directions for the Fuji instant film.

Thanks!
Bill

[Tracy Storer]

I believe the polyester itself is opaque, rather than being coated, so it's a no-go.
You can still "reclaim" some dyes via "image transfer" though not a full rendering if full development was given to the Polaroid positive.

[Bill L.]

Thanks, Tracy! That would explain a lot! I let some thickened bleach sit on the back for about 20 min, and absolutely nothing happened (as opposed to the fuji film, where the bleach will remove the backing in seconds). I actually got not too bad results using reflective scanning on my Epson v750.

I played around with image transfer on the Fuji instant with rather poor success, and unfortunately with the 6 shots of 809 I have left (alas!), while I'd love to try it, the learning curve is probably greater than my film supply.

[Tin Can]

I have some 8X10 809 negatives, the positives are totally ruined.

Anyway to use 809 unexposed negatives?