What the devil is going on here?

[Ellen Stoune Duralia]

Hi ya'll! Been busy happily learning more about my new Horseman. Bought some Polacolor Pro100 off eBay (expired July '03) to play with and look at what it's doing!

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=149088

I know it's not my holder (545Pro) as I tried my 'good' box of Polaroid 79 and it turned out fine. I have also used older Polaroid films so I don't think it's the age. So what the devil is going here? Has anyone ever seen such a mess?

Thanks for the help!

[Tom Westbrook]

Maybe the pods burst before you used them? Pop open an unused one and see if the developing goop is crusty and hardened. I've had that problem if they get frozen.

[Gem Singer]

Ellen,

From the pictures, it appears as though the chemicals in the pods have oxidized and solidified. They are definitely ruined. Perhaps the film was frozen, then thawed. Or, it may have been subjected to extremely high storage temperatures.

Chalk it up to experience. It's difficult to determine how outdated film has been handled. If it has been stored properly, most Polaroid films can be safely used, even if they exceed their expiration date. However, color films (and chemicals) are less resistant to improper storage and handling than B&W films.

[Michael S. Briggs]

My experience with outdated Polaroid was that the chemicals were dried out and the film was unusable. Others have reported good results with outdated Polaroid. I'd say that buying outdated Polaroid is more of a gamble than outdated regular film.

[Bill_1856]

What did you expect? Even in-dated Polaroid is a crap shoot -- expired is usually a disaster.

[Ellen Stoune Duralia]

What did I expect? I expected to get something I could experiment with at a lower cost. Or a slight color shift perhaps but not totally unusable film. I'm new to this, remember?

Geez, no reason to be ugly :-(

[Darin Cozine]

Too bad polaroid film is so expenseive. I tried some outdated film that I bought as a big lot (december 2000) . I tried some of it and it seemed to work fine, the colors were a bit dull but I was not sure if that was normal for type 59.

Anyway a new box of 20 sheets is like $100. I'm selling my outdated stuff on ebay and its going for about $20. If the new film cost about half as much, I would much more inclined to use it.

[Steve Hamley]

Yep, bad pods. Hot, dried up, frozen, etc. I've bought and used slightly OOD Polaroid with never a problem, but I'd be cautious if more than a year beyond the expiration unless you knew the history. I had the same thing with a few sheets of 8x10, but fortunately the stuff was given to me.

I generally also don't buy Polaroid in the coldest and hottest months because of the potential for freezing or "cooking" (dark UPS truck, hot temps, lots of sun...). Maybe I'm just paranoid, but my Polaroid experience has been good so far.

I don't know if other paper developers would work, but you don't have much to lose if you have "leftovers". You may do something creative!

Steve

[Jonathan Brewer]

Ellen..................just to run a few things by you, freezing polaroid stock ruins the pods, storing polaroids under certain conditions dries the pods out.

You can refrigerate polaroids and it's possible they'll stay usable past their expiration date ONLY if you haven't broken the sealed wrapping they come in, once you've opened this, DO NOT put it back in the refrigertor, I had to learn this the hard way, something about the moisture/humidity in the box from storing an open box of polaroids caused me nothing but trouble/jams with my 545i holder, when I quit doing this the problem went away.

Now with Polaroid 8x10, I have nothing but expired 804/809 which I occasionally use for 'Chocolates', but this won't jam the 8x10 processor.

[Bill_1856]

My sincere apology Ellen.

[Tom Westbrook]

One thing that's good to know is how a good poloroid pod feels when you lightly slide your fingers over the pod area. There's a bit of a hump. It can save some nasty surprises, esp. if you're like me and pull them after you get home.

[Kirk Gittings]

Expired Polaroid is a bit like buying expired milk. Risky business.

[Ellen Stoune Duralia]

Oh Bill, it's okay :-) I know you didn't mean anything by your comment. It's unusual for me to be so sensitive but I'm just so frustrated! I have these beautiful white tulips that I'm trying to photograph and I've had to waste so much time trying to figure out what was wrong and in the beginning I thought my holder was broken which really freaked me out.

I bought 3 boxes and it was only $43 bucks so at least this lesson didn't cost too, terribly much. Hopefully the other boxes will be ok but at least now I know to be more careful in buying Polaroid film.

Thanks everyone for your tips on film handling - I'm going to go take a deep breath, calm down and try again with my good film.