Today is a very special day for various reasons: not only has my Polaroid 600 Extreme camera arrived (the one I bought for £2.50 off eBay). Also, both me and my wife are off together – it rarely happens these days. That alone was reason to celebrate.
But more importantly: The Impossible Project have today released their brand new PX600 Silver Shade Instant Film which is made for just these cameras! I put an order for 12 packs in immediately and can’t wait to give it a try.
In the meantime however, I pondered over the question “does the PX100 work in Polaroid 600 cameras” or rather “does an SX-70 film work in a Polaroid 600 camera” as discussed in my previous post.
I’m happy to say that YES IT DOES – with a minor modofication to the camera.
Let me show you the results and talk you through my experiences with this exciting new material.
The Polaroid 600 Extreme
As I said, £2.50 for my very first Polaroid camera was a bit of a bargain. It even came in its original box and looked brand new to me – even though the rollers inside gave reason to believe it’s seen some use in its time. According to the box it was built in February 1998 in the UK (Vale de Leven, Dumbarton in Scotland to be exact) under license by the Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, MA (USA).
It’s much bigger than I remember my parents’ Polaroid and I can’t help but feel reminded of my Holga cameras: we’re dealing with a pretty ugly hunk of black plastic here, cheap plastic lens, ridiculous “close-up” slider and a lighter/darker feature which obscures the light meter with a piece of striped plastic (or doesn’t – depending on where you slide it).
I think the seller told me it was £29.99 when it came out so that’s pretty much the price of a Holga too. Great – I love it already, and it’ll feel right at home in my collection!
PX100 Silver Shade First Flush Edition
Trouble is that the Impossible film pack I’ve bought the other day is not made for this camera, but for Polaroid SX-70 models. From what I’ve learnt however the only difference is the film speed: PX100 has 100 ISO and my camera is expecting a 640 ISO film.
Easy solution: tape a piece of ND filter over the light meter and be done with it. I’ve used one that darkens incoming light by 2 stops. That should do the trick.
All that’s left is to pop the film in and see if it fits. Listen carefully:
YES IT DOES!
The limited edition darkslide pops out just as expected, so the camera works too. That’s another load off my mind. Just one more thing perhaps: I’m shooting on First Flush batch no. 43 here 😉
Next thing to do of course is hand the camera over to my wife and have her take a picture of me (see below).
Let’s see some pictures
Be my guest! I only had one single pack of PX100 because I didn’t know if anything would come out, so 8 exposures were all we had to test this puppy. On a fairly sunny day with spots of overcast-ness (if that is a word) we took a stroll in the afternoon through the hood and here’s what we shot:
I got exactly the same 600 extreme polaroid for my birthday in march and I only just got round to buying film for it.. I got the px-70 colour shade/first flush from the impossible project and I’m afraid to say the results were useless.
I’m not sure how much of this was down to things like the temperature and not leaving the photo to develop upside down and stuff?
I just wanted to say I found your blog really helpful and I’m going to try and get my hands on some film over the next few days.. I was just wondering since we have the same camera which film have you had the best results with?
Thanks
Alice
Hi Alice,
congratulations on your new Polaroid Extreme 😉 I think it’s a very nice little camera indeed. There are so many different models in this series but I have to say that the Extreme looks the nicest out of all of them.
I too found the PX70 Color Shade extremely disappointing. Impossible are way off producing a colour film that gives you the same Poaroid experience as original film did. However, their PX600 black and white film is very nice. It has the drawback that you can’t watch the picture appear before your eyes, but the results after developing are really cool. It’s got very sepia / orange tones to it and exposes well with the standard setting on our camera (or in fact any 600 camera). Go with the PX600 and you’ll be amazed – indoors or outdoors.
Just make sure you shield the film immediately after it comes out of the camera. Leave it upside down or in a pocket for 2mins. It’s still sensitive to light right after exposure so it can easily get fogged and turn out way too bright. I made that mistake with the first batch of PX100 film (which also works in 600 cameras – but PX600 is the best of the bunch).
Happy shooting – and post a link to your pictures when you’ve got them scanned 😉
Where can I purchase a ND filter to edit my camara?
I just purchased a Polaroid 600. I wanted to ask where I could purchase a ND filter so I can modify it.
Thank you,
sam
Hi Sam,
you can usually get huge sheets of ND filter gels at professional photo and lighting supply stores. Calumet springs to mind, they have several stores around the world (click your country in the top right corner of their site).
The Impossible Store also sell ND filters for SX70 cameras – they’re supposed to cover the actual lens of the SX70, but obviously they’ll cover the electric eye of your 600 camera just as well. Here’s the product I mean: Polaroid ND Filter. It’s a self adhesive circle which should do the trick.
Hope this helps 😉
HAVe you tried the new sx-70 color shade? IT says it won’t work for the 600 but I was curious if you could make it work?
You mean the “Push” material?
I haven’t tried it – mainly because I think they’re charging way too much money for pretty rubbish results. The main difference is that “Push” needs a lot of light to yield usable results. Since SX70 cameras expose the film 2 stops over 600 cameras and I imagine the results with less light would be worse. However, your ND filter should turn the exposure of your 600 camera into that of an SX70.
Let me know your findings if you should go for it.
Thank you for all the help. 🙂
I will let you know how they turn out.
Oh my!
Thank god for people like you, haha.
I have been trying to figure it out, this polaroid-film-question.
and i know now. so yes, very helpful!!
Glad I could help 😉
Hi
Just looking into purchasing an instant camera for a retro party im having and just finding out about all the hassle associated with buying one. If I was to go ahead would you recommend the 600 or the SX70?
And in terms of film is the PX600 Silver Shade Instant Film the only real solution? Is it readily available? Any tips where to buy and how much you are looking at (understand each pack gives 8 exposures)?
Thanks in advance.
AJ
Hi AJ,
the 600 cameras are much cheaper and work better indoors. They usually come with integrated flash and work well with the PX 600 material.
Your other choice is to go for the Spectra format, also known as Polaroid Image or Polaroid 1200. Those films are still around on eBay and work much better than the Impossible material (plus they’re a bit cheaper too). If you do decide to get a camera like that and want to use Impossible material instead, you can – they call it PZ 600.
Have fun at the Retro Party 😉
Hey man, I’ve just bought a Polaroid 600 extreme from a bootfair. Been looking for a decent one for a while, and by luck I found it. I was just wondering what film you’d recommend. I’m a student with a part time job, so low costs are a must.
Thanks J.S
Hi Jordan,
well done getting that camera! I’d say go for any 600 compatibel film – it’s rare on eBay now and the obvious choice is Impossible. The PX600 is their flavour that works well in that camera – however the downside is the ever increasing pricetag. You’re looking at about £2 per picture.
They do them with white and black frame now – the latter one I need to try out next. Good luck!
hello sir, just to ask u something, does your pictures comes out blurry? because I took some with the [polaroidOne with px600] and im not really happy with it, wonder if u know any cameras that allows u to take close up + clear shots?( be it silvershade/ with color)
I searched online, and they recommended polaroid one-step. however, i got mine from a friend for SGD$ 100. expensive, and not the quality im looking for! and im not really willing to buy another one.but i kind of really like the sx70 original…..
by the way, do remeber to remove the back of the polaroid ( behind the thick white part) inside contains a blue drying agent, and my pictures fades too quickly.
sarah,
from singapore 🙂
Hi Sarah,
I believe the Polaroid One is – like many other platisc Polaroid 600 cameras – essentially a fixed focus camera. It means that everything from about 1m (3ft) to infinity should be in focus. If you go closer than 1m your pictures will be out of focus – maybe that’s what happened.
Some cameras (like my Extreme 600) come with a small plastic slider which swings a “close up” lense in front of both the viewfinder and the main lens. With that option you can take pictures as close as 60cm (2f) which is a slight improvement. Macro shots are not possible with these cameras. SGD $100 sounds a lot for a camera like that, you have every right to be disappointed 🙁 eBay is full of them for around USD $20.
I have to admit that pretty much ALL Polaroid 600 plastic models are fairly low quality – I mean the ones that were on sale between the mid eighties and early 2000. The SX-70 range is a whole different ballgame with proper glass optics and many models being real folding SLR’s (not all are though). You should be able to pick those up on eBay for USD $100-200. The SLR models focus as close as 30cm (1ft) and you have control over where the focus lies.
As for the “fading” problem, I think that’s known as the “Killer Crystal” problem with PX material. Literally ALL pictures I shot on PX600 material have gone bad because of that. Apparently they’ve fixed it, but thank you for the tip about removing the back. I may try that if I give PX another go 😉