It's Instant .....

For those of you, like myself, who lament the demise of Polaroid instant film systems, I am sure you will be aware of "The Impossible Project" and the attempt to save the last Polaroid factory in world, situated in Enschede, in the Netherlands.

This project is a true analogue success story, as despite the plant machinery and technology already being destroyed at the time of purchase, the plant is now back in production, and manufactures several new and exciting instant films under the "Impossible" brand label. I got involved with this project myself back in 2010, originally buying a fairly large amount of existing Polaroid film stock from them, as part of their initial capital raising exercise. It was with great excitement that I tried the first prototype film in 2011, and continued to watch with interest as they continue to develop their range of instant films.

Instant film has continued to be manufactured by Fuji film, but Polaroid was the world leader and creator in this area. As a direct result of digital photography, instant film has suffered a massive demise in the consumer market . What I believe Impossible provide with their film offering is the same creativity and fun that Polaroid once offered serious photographers around the world, and by trying out their new W SX-70 film, I can honestly say there is nothing that rivals it.

Continuing their innovation, Impossible have launched an Instant Lab which allows the conversion of digital images into analogue instant images. At first I have to say I was rather sceptical of this development especially as it involves the use of a smart phone in the image creating process, which has to be my least favourite camera of all time ! The Instant Lab is itself a camera, and it uses the iPhone's actual screen as the source of the image that it captures, although to many this may sound rather low in terms of quality the results are very pleasing, and as they say, "the proof is in the pudding", or in this case final image.

The advantages I can see for using the Instant Lab is that you can use all digital images not just those taken on your phone, but a selection of edited images which you can then turn into an analogue image in either black-and-white or colour using instant film. The film you use can be either Impossible film or, if like myself you still have some Polaroid film stock, this can also be used giving each capture a uniqueness due to its ageing chemistry. You can also create multiple copies unlike using a conventional Polaroid camera, which has the advantage of instantly sharing an analogue image.

The really good news for anyone interested in owning their own Instant Lab is that it is now being sold at a brilliant price of £125 (I paid £210 for mine at the Photography Show only a few weeks ago).

For more information on films and the Instant Lab go to : The Impossible Project

Here are some examples of what the Instant Lab can do: