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Stephen Furley · Joined: 11 May 2001 Posts: 79 Location: London, England

I have one of these backs which I bought a few years ago. I have a couple of rolls of film which I'm going to keep sealed, they expired sometime in the '60s, so there's no chance of them being usable. I would really like to be able to take a couple of pictures with this thing. I've seen the website which shows how to expose a single sheet from pack film in one, but that's not the same, the print wouldn't have the shaped end for one thing. I've also thought of trying to make a roll, using some sort of other Polaroid material, but this didn't seem practical.

Recently on Ebay somebody was selling five rolls of type 47 film, with an expiry date of 1991. I realise that this would be unlikely to be usable, but I bought two rolls, intending to keep the box in best condition sealed, and open the other one, partly so I could at least see what the roll film was like, and partly to leave in the back just as a collector's piece.

I've opened the film to look at, and I now see how it worked, but I've had an idea which might give me one last chance to get a couple of pictures out of this thing. I would guess that the type 47 material is very similar to type 667 pack film, which I have a couple of fairly recently expired packs of, it expired in 2006. I loaded one of these into a 405 back and took a test shot, and it's still in good condition. My idea is to try to carefully remove the first few pods from the roll film, they don't seem to have damaged the paper, as with some old materials which I've seen, and are just held in place with two small pieces of tape, and replace them with much fresher pods from the pack film. Does anybody have any thoughts as to whether this might work? I realise that the film itself would be past its best after all this time, but do you think that I might be able to get some sort of picture out of it?
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Stephen Furley

pv17vv · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 10:09 am Post subject:

Who knows ???
Try and tell us...

Stephen Furley · Joined: 11 May 2001 Posts: 79 Location: London, England

I will, I did, and it does. What is even more surprising is that I tried taking a shot with one of the original pods,and even that worked. I have some type 54 film dated 2000 which has been kept cool, and that has just about had it, the developer often doesn't cover the full area of the image, and some of the pods hade leaded, and totally dried out. The pods on the roll film are still in good condition, the developer does cover the full area, and the film is quite wet when the print is peeled off.

I still have five shots left; I developed for 40 seconds, I'm going to try extending this to 90. The film no longer produces a true black, it has a sort of dark grey with a slightly silvery, metalic look to it. but I'm quite surprised that it works at all given that it's now over 17 years out of date.
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Stephen Furley

camz · Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Southern CA

The limiting factor with the longevity of Polaroid film has always been the developer pods. They either dry out, or they are burst by extremes of hot or cold. Many photographers are stocking up on Polaroid, and keeping it in the fridge. I don't recommend it. It's not the same as banking conventional film. Keep it cool, keep it dark.