Echo Park Wander

Some images from a recent photo outing with my friend Julia around Echo Park, CA. 

Overcast morning and things were quiet.

           

   

Polaroid Spectra SE, expired Softtone Edge Cut film & SX-70 Sonar OneStep, Impossible PX-70FF film.

   

   

Holga 120CFN, expired Konica Pro 120 160 color negative film.

Impossible Color

The Impossible Project held true to their commitment to bring a stable color film reminiscent of classic Polaroid 600 film. Coming soon to the line up, PX680 Color Shade. Better temperature range and more light safe. The secret film testers announced and posted their images via Flickr (this is the main PX680 group) and blogs. Lots of samples of beautiful, rich and colorful images. With this announcement came an opportunity for Impossible Pioneer card holders to purchase some of the beta 2 version of the film, of which I ordered two packs (knew I should have made it three). I believe the First Flush edition of this film will be out by early May (maybe sooner) with a Spectra version out in early Summer.

I have only shot through one pack of film so far. My first three shots were duds though. I use a ND filter over the lens of my SX-70 Sonar and what I discovered was that I think this film isn't quite as fast as 600 (or at least in beta form). I normally have to dial the exposure wheel all the way to dark, but when I did that the shots came out very underexposed. If I had been a little patient and waited to see the results I could have corrected instead of firing off another in excitement, oh well. Then at some point I took another, but forgot I had removed the ND filter and so it was way overexposed. Definitely some minor grumbling going on at first. However, what I did learn is that there is some room to play with the exposure which is a good thing to know now.

Once I quit screwing around and took some shots with good light I was pretty happy with the results. Has a little bit of a learning curve to it, but if you're good with the other flavors then this should be similar to get used to, if not easier. Other then giving it a brief cover on eject for the first 7-10 secs, the film holds up really well in shaded areas and indoors, so need to cover. Bright sun, then its advised to cover. Also gives you some creative control to flash the film as well. There is a definite warmth, almost golden quality to this film and fair amount of texture, detailed but still rough. Yellow creamy whites and more intensity in color, but muted just enough that it feels vintage still. The beta batch has some white speckles in the image area that is the result of the hand mixing process for the test film. The First Flush edition should remove most of that according to Impossible.

Pretty happy and amazed with the quality of the film. If its looking and behaving this well already, then the next editions will be fantastic. I'm looking forward to the next batch and just in time for Summer. Congrats to the Impossible team for making it happen.

Gonna Take You Down To Chinatown

Spent the afternoon with my friend Julia wandering around Chinatown here in Los Angeles. For one reason or another I'd never gotten around to really checking it out. I definitely found myself inspired. Obviously all that red had something to do with it, the architecture, street musicians, food and overall it was just pretty cool. Its not a huge area, but had a lot of activity going on with lots of people walking around, shops and musicians playing traditional Chinese guitar type instruments, made it feel a little less L.A. like. After we were done shooting, we had a great late lunch at Via Cafe. You can check out my food blog for that. Gave me a chance to test out some Polaroid ATZ edge cut film and another new film, Fuji RXF400 chrome which I cross processed and pushed and some expired Fuji NPS160 color neg film that was processed +1/2 and C-41. Its interesting with the cross processing of Fuji chrome films how they all seem to go to a different color dominant shift. Astia went green, RDPIII went more yellow, Sensia went yellow/green and the RXF had a blue/cyan shift. The older the film the greater the shift. 

 

 

Holga 120CFN. Fuji NPS160 color negative and Fuji RXF400 Chrome film 

cross processed C-41.

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I really like the quality of the ATZ edge cut film, instant vintage. Suddenly it felt like a different time. This film really performed well for something that used to get tossed out by Polaroid. Unfortunately there were very few packs made available for sale and its all gone. I still have 2 packs remaining.

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, expired Artistic TZ edge cut film.

Impossible Made Possible

The Impossible Project has done the impossible by re-inventing integral instant film (Polaroid SX-70 and 600 style). After a couple of years and recent minor delay they announced the new films today. The PX 100 and the PX 600 monochromatic instant film. Find all the details here. From the samples on their site, the film has a beautiful monochromatic, sepia/creamy quality to it. They had announced awhile back that the first film would be monochromatic and in my mind was thinking it was going to be more black and white. After seeing the samples, I love it. It has that vintage/dreamy quality to it (similar in a way to the TZ films) and apparently its susceptible to temperature, exposure and pressure meaning there are variables there to experiment with. I for one will be ordering a couple of packs when its available for sale March 25th. All this instant film love is making me all warm and fuzzy. Now I need to get used to calling it Impossible film instead of Polaroid film. Congrats and thank you to the Impossible team. It's a good day!