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Check out this PDF excerpt of Fuji’s Cable Release newsletter on how to do image transfers with Fuji’s Polaroid-compatible pack films. (Hosted by Freestyle.)

According to this post from Ilford/Harman on APUG, Ilford will not assume production of Polaroid’s discontinued black and white peel-apart/pack films:

Dear All,

I have been out for a few days and several of you have sent me PM’s re POLAROID : Please see below :

April 18th, 2008, Mobberley, Cheshire UK and Minnetonka, MN, USA — HARMAN technology Limited and its monochrome brand, ILFORD Photo and Polaroid Worldwide have been in discussions about ILFORD Photo taking on production of Polaroid’s black and white professional instant sheet film. Despite their best efforts, together the prospective partners have determined that they can not find a commercially viable way forward.

HARMAN’s Chairman and Managing Director, Phil Harris said. "The processes involved in the manufacture and assembly of professional instant sheet film products are very demanding and it would require substantial investment to re-establish them at HARMAN technology’s site in Cheshire, England. When compared with current and projected sales for the products, it was clear that such an investment could not be justified."

Phil Harris continues: "While we had hoped to work together on continuing the production of instant sheet film, it is cost prohibitive to meet the declining demand. As a company, we are saddened that such an inspirational form of expression will disappear, but we will always remain staunchly committed to the long term future of monochrome photography in all its facets and we will continue to do everything we can to support it".

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

I’m not worried. Fuji’s FP-100B and FP-3000B are drop-in replacements for Polaroid’s ISO 100 and 3000 black and white pack films, and they’re cheaper! And personally, I like them better anyway. (Fuji also has an ISO 100 color pack film, FP-100C. Same goes: still available, cheaper, and IMO nicer. It’s the loss of Polaroid’s integral films, 600 and Spectra/779 that I’m crying over.)

Dealing with Polaroid peel-apart film in the field is a bit of a pain, because once you peel it, you need to think of something to do with the print, and protect it from dust, bugs, and dirt, whilst it dries. Some of them are pretty fast, but some, like 669, seem to take ages. This is why I seldom shoot pack film out and about, it’s just too cumbersome.

As you can see above, David D solved this problem elegantly and cheaply. Sweet, I can’t wait to try this!

Check out Sean Rohde’s outstanding, example-laden tutorial on getting images from the "goop"/negative side of Polaroid peel-apart film. He’s made some great photos with them, too, have a look!

See also: the Polaroid Goop group on Flickr

Fucking hell, Polaroid are killing yet another range of films! This time it’s the 80 series (84, 87, 88, and 89) 3.25 x 3.38-inch peel-apart pack film—the stuff you shoot in Holgaroids, supershooters, and squareshooters. Each product page bears the following message:

Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing 8[x] film within the last 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.

I guess it’s time to figure out how to hack a full-frame back as a Holgaroid replacement… hopefully the 3.25 x 4.25-inch 600 series pack film isn’t going anywhere for a while. Although, with Time-Zero and type 85 pos/neg discontinued, who the hell knows?

Polaroid’s removal of Time-Zero film from the market left a huge gap in the hearts of many photographers—a gap has just been filled by f295 member Erik Wiklund, who has come up with a a new manipulation technique for available peel-apart Polaroid films!

See the instructions and sample images at Polaroid.com or check out the original thread at f295.