I recall hearing that the actual film emulsion packaged by Polaroid in their Type 55 PN was the old Pancromatic X which has a 32 asa. Is that true? I recently found a group of exposed and unprocessed Type 55 of unknown age. Rather than pull them thru the rollers with questionable chems. I was thinking of tray development. What do you folks think?
Chris,
I worked out the formula's 20 years ago to help another customer. using the Jobo Rotary Processor which i have.
I have processed Type 55 negatives in a tray with success. The film is reputed to be Panatomic X and it does look like that. I have several old boxes of Type 55 and do not try to use the expired chemicals, just release the bail and remove the packet and develop in the trays, works fine.
A little OT, but I hadn't purchased any type 55 for about a year and noticed recently that the price had increased quite a bit (currently about $70 compared to about $45 last year). I love this film, but it is getting to be too expensive for my budget.
Bill -
would you be so kind as to post the proper formulas for using it in a Jobo? What developer did you use? What does it look like when developed? I take it that you don't get the interesting "artifacts" around the edges that you get when processing it in the Polaroid goo.
Why bother? 55P?N makes me feel like a failure every time. Not worth the effort. Blotchy sky, scratched negs, etc. Just use normal sheet film.
I like keeping it on hand for quick projects, experiments, rough lens tests, and such, and the tonality of the neg is genuinely attractive. Clean rollers and careful handling make it possible to avoid blotchy skies and scratched negs.
Yeah, just bought a box at B&H for something like $75, and noticed that it's up to $85 on the website now. Ouch! (They've also got some short-dated 55 for $60, though).
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