Rebel Film Developers Give new hope to Polaroid fans

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Paramvir Singh
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Rebel Film Developers Give new hope to Polaroid fans

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In 2008, there was a disturbance in the photo force: Polaroid axed its instant film, and millions of cameras cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. But thanks to a ragtag band of rebels, there is a new hope for the format. Here’s how the plot developed.

February 2008
Polaroid says it will stop making its instant film (production of instant cameras has already been shuttered).

June 2008
At a closing party for the Polaroid film factory in Enschede, the Netherlands, Florian Kaps, creator of the fan site Polanoid, meets André Bosman, the production manager who was tasked with overseeing the facility’s impending demolition. The two decide to market an instant film of their own that will work with Polaroid cameras.

October 2008
Bosman and Kaps raise enough money to lease the old Polaroid factory for a decade. The next month, they buy all of the old machinery. But the special hard-to-make dyes needed to create the instant film have been used up. Kaps names their startup the Impossible Project because so many people tell him it will be impossible to re-create the film.

June 2009
A team of 10 Impossible Project engineers, all former Polaroid employees, have worked for eight months to create an original self-developing process. They produce their first stable photo after clearing the last major hurdle: determining the composition of the latex timing layer that fixes the image and halts development.

October 2009
In a shocking about-face, Polaroid decides to revive theanalog instant camera. The Impossible Project agrees to produce a limited-edition film that can be used in it.

March 2010
The Impossible Project releases its first batch of monochrome film, compatible with many old Polaroid cameras, like the beloved SX-70 folding model. The company also announces that full-color instant film will arrive later this year.

read full article and views at Wired
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