Polaroid 79

[Chris Heusquin]

I'm unsure if this is the right place but I don't find any better.

When I'm not shooting digital, I use to shoot Velvia 100 with my 4x5 camera. Yesterday I tried a Polaroid 79 for the first time and I am very disappointed with the colors. They have an important yellow and green cast. Is this usual? Did I do something wrong? I just followed what is written on the Polaroid box. Temperature was about 70F so I used a development time of 2 minutes: The box says 90 seconds and there is a sticker on the box stating: " For optimum results, increase typical processing time by 30 seconds" That's what I did.

[Jim Rice]

Most 'roid products that I'm aware of develop to completion, meaning letting them develop longer certainly won't hurt anything. I always found Type 79 colors pretty pleasing, but no match for Velvia or any other traditional film. The film has a number of issues including horrific reciprocity failure (green cast) and dying very young (I found it more of a brown cast, but that's open to interpretation). The early death thing is a good reason to purchase from a local supplier, if possible. Just take the crappy looking print back to the counter and they will (or at least did in my experience) trade out with you. I'll bet the green is reciprocity failure. Hope this helps.

[Gene McCluney]

The developing of Polaroid color film is so dependent on how clean the Polaroid back is (the metal rollers inside), and how smoothly you pull the film out in the processing cycle. 2 minutes is the correct time now-a-days for this film. You will also notice that when first peeled apart the film has a distinct yellow-green cast that goes away as the print dries. I don't think you did anything wrong, I just think you are expecting too much from the film. I use it extensively for testing in my studio photography of products, but I certainly don't use it to judge color. I use it for lighting, exposure and composition testing. Polaroid film has its own color pallette, and there are many artists that have learned to use it creatively, but it is no substitute for a color transparency. The color saturation is more similar to a color negative printed on lower contrast color print paper, than a transparency.

[Chris Heusquin]

Thank you everybody.
I don't think this is a reciprocity issue, the exposition time was 1/2 sec.
My first aim was to test exposure and lighting and didn't expect a match with Velvia but at least not all colors converted to yellow green. I'll go back to the local supplier.

[Jim Rice]

Chris, 1/2 second will nail you every time as will 1/4 as i recall.

[Donald Qualls]

Most Polaroid peel-apart products, if you can find the information at all, recommend exposures faster than 1/10 second to avoid reciprocity failure issues.

[Gene McCluney]

Right you are Donald, it starts going green below 1/10 sec.

[Ted Harris]

And ..... if you carefully read the tech info on T59 color it will tell you it will start to go green at slower than 1/125 of a second.

[alanps]

I also get the green cast - and wondered if filtering might help?

I do the 90 second process, but will try 120 ( so that might help a little) - however if the cast due to reciprocity failure is dye related, will filtering on longer exposures make any difference, on the basis that filtering will add to the exposure time??