Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 28 of 28

Thread: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

  1. #21
    Tracy Storer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Oakland CA
    Posts
    1,048

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Quote Originally Posted by koh303 View Post
    The ultimate answer. If their technique was so poor it produced bad results from a product, that just means the product was not good enough or designed well enough to prevent this from ever being an issue (see - Fuji instant films).
    That's a totally awesome (in a totally 90's goofy way), but i thought water boils at 100 degrees?
    Water does boil at 100 degrees, Celsius. Or 212 F. Mike may not have said in the video, but he meant Farenheit.

    So if I drive my car at 125MPH and wrap it around a tree, it's the car manufacturers fault?
    Or how about if I run out of gas? They should have made a self filling car?
    Got a splinter? Should have bought splinter-free wood!
    Ignoring (or learning and respecting) tool and material characteristics are the responsibility of the user. I generally suggest learning and respecting.
    Tracy Storer
    Mammoth Camera Company tm
    www.mammothcamera.com

  2. #22

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Boston, MA, USA
    Posts
    1,512

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    If you cannot figure out which pedal does what, because your car is complicated to use, it is not your fault even if you did not read the manual. Some things are intuitive. Polaroid products for the most part are not, and nothing they ever did addressed this, so much so that they had to have an 800 line for people to call and ask how to do things, at an age long before this one, which is often lamented as an age of pure silliness...

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Posts
    2

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Quote Originally Posted by koh303 View Post
    The ultimate answer. If their technique was so poor it produced bad results from a product, that just means the product was not good enough or designed well enough to prevent this from ever being an issue (see - Fuji instant films).
    It's only an ultimate answer if you grab one section of what I wrote. I was recalling a specific story, not an overall statement. If you noticed, my recollection of the 800 hotline specifically mentioned the overnight of replacement film due to defects.

    As to your design point, it is inherent in all professional photographic chemical processes. Fuji film was nice stuff, as I said. They learned and "borrowed" from more than one Polaroid patent from what I heard internally. All professional films, instant or conventional, require a certain amount of knowledge to use well, for that is the difference between consumer and pro lines. For someone who deals in processing equipment, I'm surprised you have taken this position. Processing is the same. It requires a set of knowledge to do well.

    Look, my point here was not to argue against your opinion, for we are all entitled to have one. It was to point out from firsthand experience how good the film was. It was used by every working pro on the commercial side of photography. It was never intended to replace conventionally processed film at the time. Not even Fuji marketed their film as a replacement. Since Fuji didn't make 8X10, pros whom needed consistency across film formats didn't mix manufacturers.

    However, excellent results that rivaled conventional film were obtainable in the hands of someone who knew how exposure, temperature, lighting, manufacturing variances, and development affects the final image. Which was my point when bringing up the story of photographers feeling I was using special Polacolor film when I wasn't. One only has to look at the longevity and history of the Polaroid 20X24 as final art as an example of the film's capabilities in expert hands. Same stuff, just a different size.

    Here's a little forgotten "secret" for you that only a select group of pros knew outside of Polaroid. Polaroid actually sold Fuji instant film under their name. Technical assistance calls came in for that product line too, btw, for no film is immune.

    Quote Originally Posted by koh303 View Post
    That's a totally awesome (in a totally 90's goofy way), but i thought water boils at 100 degrees?
    LOL, as you might guess from the time that video was made for the US market, defining Celsius or Fahrenheit was never an issue. The guides I wrote that were used internationally did specify Fahrenheit as well as their Celsius equivalent. Now how about it, the film imaged fairly well in that video, wouldn't you agree?

  4. #24

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Boston, MA, USA
    Posts
    1,512

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike D View Post
    Here's a little forgotten "secret" for you that only a select group of pros knew outside of Polaroid. Polaroid actually sold Fuji instant film under their name. Technical assistance calls came in for that product line too, btw, for no film is immune.
    Funny that current "polaroid" is marketing Fuji Instax mini as polaroid today...

    The pepper does look good in that photo, and i have fond memories of Bill burke's pola transfer classes, and fun times with Elsa dorfman with 20X24 (of which i have never seen a real proper color toned image, maybe the material was all old even way back then). That aside, when i worked in a commercial environment, 4X5 was the tool used, and every now and again polaroid material was handed by an assistant (because of better pricing or any other reason), and it was simply unusable. It was useless when trying to eyeball exposure predictions on any film stock, and because of high fail rate (both pack and single sheet), including massive streaking or just total failure, it usually went directly to the trash (after peeling apart all the sheets so that we could write it off).

    I was just shocked in 1999-2000 when digital gear and printing just showed up, at how amazing the Fuji stuff was, compared to polaroid, compared to those benchmarked chromes (which i never understood why anyone used, other then to see how accurate the fuji material was), compared to anything. When i did work in 8X10, those processors where always a mystery as to weather or not it will produce an image that is usable. Something like starting a cold air head BMW, do i need choke? throttle? not an exact science.

    Don't get me wrong, i think we are on the same page - the only thing is i just do not remember a time when polaroid made good material, perhaps it was before my time.

    As for design - making gear more complicated to use in order to be able to call it "pro" and make a commercial distinction is a thing of the past. Anybody that has a camera is a photographer, and today, everybody has a camera. Some companies (Fuji not specifically included) have demonstrated that Pro gear does not mean "pro reading and concentration skill required gear", and good design is measured by how easy it is to get good results with no pre requisite knowledge.

    Being able to pick up a piece of photographic equipment and producing amazing work increases ten fold when that gear is simple, intuitive and easy to use.
    That is not to say that badly designed gear will not give good results, it only means it excludes a huge portion our customer base. In polaroids case, this was a non issue, as you said, it was the ONLY option for 8X10, so there was no real need to make it, well, anything. Good, bad, design, no design. No matter.

    all the said, there was so much that could have been done with that material, as the video says, the creative possibilities were endless, at a time, when 4 minutes to separate an emulsion, was just a very short period of time. Today, that sounds like an eternity to wait for something to happen....

  5. #25

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    north of the 49th
    Posts
    1,419

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Maybe it's me but I never used Polaroid products to judge accurate exposures. I used it to assess lighting, sometimes composition etc.. Or I used if for transfers onto watercolour paper, something that Fuji instant can't do, afaik.

    That Polaroid, as we knew it, is gone, esp T55, is a real shame as some wonderful work was done with it.
    notch codes ? I only use one film...

  6. #26
    Tracy Storer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Oakland CA
    Posts
    1,048

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    I think we have strayed far enough off topic to be in the realm of philosophy, we are certainly discussing differences of opinion. With respect to Omer of Catlabs, I just have to continue to disagree with you on this.

    I worked with a lot of pros who used Polaroid pack, 4x5, and 8x10 as a matter of course, before Fuji was on the scene and after. I don't remember anybody having trouble handling the equipment, or having it work 99% of the time, except when you'd occasionally lose a metal tab inside your 545 or have to clean your rollers. (or accidentally pull the wrong tab at the wrong time=user error)
    As far as color matching between chrome and Pola, forget it. Exposure, I'll say again, was always predictably ASA 80, as marked for Polacolor ER3 for me.
    Streaks come from past-date or improperly stored material, period. By the time it's showing streaks (oxidation marks) the color is long shifted and sensitivity affected as well. I only bought US market material, never grey market for that reason.

    I don't know why the people you worked with had so much trouble Omer, maybe they bought short dated or old material and you didn't know at the time, but your experience is so vastly different from mine I have to speak up. Peace.
    Tracy Storer
    Mammoth Camera Company tm
    www.mammothcamera.com

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Boston, MA, USA
    Posts
    1,512

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Quote Originally Posted by Tracy Storer View Post
    I only bought US market material, never grey market for that reason.
    As i was not in the US, that was not an option. All of my colleagues, in the many countries i worked in had the same sentiment about working in the studio (especially the German friends), all through the 90's and 2000's (as far as material was being made), though as time went by and fuji stuff was cheaper, more readily available and as noted before by far more reliable and useful, i did see less and less pola stuff. The last being an 8X10 shoot in 2005 in the US, and while all sheets worked, image quality was just awful.
    Clearly, more often then not the material was not in prime shape even with well in date stuff, but thats not my (or anyone else's) fault as users, just bad material.

    This final shoot, let me believe what i always thought was true, that this stuff was bad even when it was good.

    Perhaps export was less of an important market for Polaroid, or the US market was more important, either way this is all in the past and long gone nonsense, which will not come back, and beating it over is a bit pointless. So i will just keep my feel and experiences with this, and just like you felt the need to chime in earlier.

  8. #28
    3D-Stereo-Aeropanoramas
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    186

    Re: Polaroid 8x10 w/81-05 holder

    Fuji-Kodak-Polaroid

    Kodak lost the patent-fight and sold their tech to Fuji. Thats why Fuji learnt from KODAK mostly since the Kodak-instant-color were more natural than Polaroids when standard-instant-cams were used.. I still have intact and quite natur flash-colors of Kodak PR-100-prints in my album from around 1977.
    2. Impossible B+W versus outdated Polaroid 803(highspeed film?)
    I saw at Catlabs 1/3 offers of outdated Pola 803, If hit rate is not 100% or more than 75% its waste of time and money to use outdated material. above all if one cannot carry PolaProcessor on location, let alone multiple backs for pinhole 8x10-photography. reminder: lightweigth 8x10 cam with 120mm= 3.5kgs
    What is hit-rate of new Impossible 8x10 B+W? If trained are results consistant?
    AND finally this:
    Do the 655 films need coating? It seems after seeing fading despite good shielding.i still have one intact and working gel-roller.
    www.stereopan.org
    3DStereo-Aeropanorama-Jungfraujoch

Similar Threads

  1. Help on Polaroid 8x10 (81-05 holder)
    By vwizz in forum Darkroom: Film, Processing & Printing
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 21-Mar-2010, 04:44
  2. Polaroid 8x10 Film Holder
    By Paul Droluk in forum Cameras & Camera Accessories
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 16-May-2005, 08:56

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •