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More Experiments, Better Results?
By jorsillo | April 17, 2010
I’ve been keeping an eye on New55Project in hopes that they will someday come up with a replacement for Polaroid type 55 film. As it turns out, there is (yet) no replacement for that film, but the folks over there have been doing their own experiments with Fuji instant film negative reclamation, with some stunning results. Their approach is a little different from my earlier attempts. For starters, they’re using the color film FP-100C. This film produces a fairly accurate color negative as opposed to the faintly solarized mess gotten from the black and white stuff. Secondly, their approach to clearing the film is much simpler than the one I first tried. Really the whole thing boils down to stripping the backing off with bleach, then a quick clean up with Windex. No washing, fixing, or drying involved. The biggest benefit to this process, aside from being a whole lot faster, is that without wetting the emulsion you avoid reticulation (unsightly graininess). Plus you get the added benefit of not having to watch as your emulsion slides completely off the film base and down the drain! My first attempts at this workflow have been wildly successful compared to my earlier efforts. The only issue I am having now is a fairly regular pattern of developer, or re-agent streaking I get on nearly every pull. It’s so annoying because I’m so close! The good folks (actually I think its just one guy) at New55 say that the streaks can be eliminated by pulling the film through the rollers quite slowly, but now matter how I pull I always seem to get them. Perhaps its bad film I am getting from Amazon, or maybe I need a new film back. Either way, I hope there is a solution because I am really starting to like what I see.
More to come…
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