Yesterday The Impossible Project held its long-awaited press event in New York which was delayed with one month due to “some unexpected problems with production”.
After 17 months of research and development, The Impossible Project has announced that it succeeded in its task of re-producing a new analog Instant Film for traditional Polaroid cameras. Two new monochrome Instant Films – the PX 100 and PX 600 Silver Shade – were introduced as the first products scheduled to go on sale Thursday the 25 March 2010. The new films will start shipping to customers at the end of March 2010.
The PX 100 are manufactured for use with Polaroid SX-70 cameras and produce a sepia tone, and the PX 600 Silver Shade is designed for use with Polaroid 600 cameras, which produces a truer black and white image. The films will be available for sale online as well as at select retailers in the United States, Europe and Asia, and at The Impossible Project store in Berlin.
The new films introduced by The Impossible Project are built from the bottom up, containing more than 30 new developed components. The film begins its development with a bright blue color – an indication that the film was constructed completely differently from the old Polaroid instant films.
One of the interesting features of the new PX instant film is that it can be manipulated, and it’s also reported that artists can use the new film to create transfers.
Executive Director for Marketing & Business Development, Florian Kaps, noted that the group plans to produce films in different “flavors,” and that rather than an expiration date, the new films will carry a date of production, like wine, because the film changes characteristics as it ages.
What About Colour Instant Film?
Certainly this new PX instant film looks interesting and complex (if perhaps rushed to market a bit too early), but for many of us the real attraction about the old Polaroid instant film is colour.
So what about colour instant film?
Well the good news is that it’s coming, the bad new is that we’ll have to wait a little while longer.
The Impossible Project plans to introduce their first color film packs already this summer (that’s this northern hemisphere summer) and have a goal of producing 1 million instant film packs by the end of the year. Florian Kaps projects they would grow the total production to 3 million next year, and between 10-15 million packs per year in the near future.
As an interesting side note The Impossible Project also has plans (although secondary in nature to the integral film) for a comeback of Peel-Apart film. The Impossible Project purchased the last 8×10 production machine available from Polaroid in 2009 and carefully re-located this unique equipment from Waltham near Boston to the factory in Enschede in the Netherlands.
Impossible Prices and Impossible Shipping Costs
I’m afraid it’s not all good news from The Impossible Project though. The price for the two new PX films remains sky high.
PX 100 and PX 600 will sell for USD 21 each.
One film pack contains 8 photos which works out to be USD 2.63 per shot which is a lot more than I had expected (and no doubt more than what most of us had hoped for). Personally I would have expected a retail price point around the USD 12-14 mark.
But what’s even more disconcerting is the absolutely exhorbitant shipping costs (at least to the ‘rest of the world’) on top of that already hefty film price. The Impossible Project ships their film as follows:
- EU countries: EUR 15 / GBP 14
- non-EU European countries: 20 EUR
- USA: 11 USD (shipped from MA, USA)
- USA: 25 USD (shipped from Europe)
- Japan: 3000 JPY
- Rest of the World: 50 USD
Yes, that’s right, a whopping USD 50 in shipping costs for those of us living Down Under, in Asia or in ’the rest of the world’.
Yikes!
You definitely want to make sure you order more than a couple of packs of film at those shipping prices! But hang on, then again at USD 21 per film pack I guess there is a limit to how many packs you want to order. Hmmmm…(scratching my head here)
If you ask me, the pricing strategy of The Impossible Project got lost somewhere in amongst what has been some excellent marketing efforts. Not so good as the price is essential to the ultimate success of the project. Sure, clever marketing can command a premium, but still, I worry…
Of course I have no insight into the actual production costs (I’m sure they’re not exactly low), but obviously The Impossible Project is the single player in this market, competing only with the remnants of expired film sitting in a few people’s fridges around the world.
They created this market and introduced themselves as the saviours of instant film and millions of Polaroid cameras in danger of becoming obsolete. Don’t get me wrong here. I think it’s both honorable and brave what the team behind The Impossible Project has done. I just really hope they don’t price themselves right out of the very market they have just created. That would be a real shame. After all the cost of a digital picture is zero in comparison to film.
Film costs aside I’m at a complete loss to understand the reasoning behind the way The Impossible Project has decided to distribute their films.
I have bought numerous packs of instant film in the past which have all been shipped via regular air mail or another reasonably priced shipping service without problems. I put them in the fridge as soon as I receive them and the films develop fine without incident.
How sensitive is this new film one might ask?
The Impossible Project explains their high shipping costs on their website as follows:
Due to the very special setup of making a very limited quantity of selected Polaroid products accessible worldwide, many of them very sensitive to storage conditions, Impossible runs a high security warehouse with climate control facilities in Hungary in the heart of Europe. We did our very best to keep your shipping costs within a reasonable range, but decided to only offer traceable premium express services as all our products are highly fragile and should reach you the best and fastest way possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Anyway, we can hope this is just the initial pricing strategy for the launch and what is another clever marketing ploy, the “First Flush”, with its terminology borrowed from the world of high quality tea. Hopefully if and when the production of Impossible film hits 10-15 million units per year, prices will also come down to a more acceptable level.
Right now, I’m afraid, it still very much feels like a luxury to make pictures with the beautiful SX-70 at a cost of USD 2.63 per picture plus shipping costs (and shipping costs alone for the ‘rest of the world’ could work out to as much as $6.25 per picture if you buy just one pack, USD 3.13 if you buy two packs and 2.08 if you buy three packs). It just doesn’t feel like a pricing strategy that will sell millions of film packs, but let’s see…
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24. March 2010 at 12:18 am
Hi Thomas,
Great article as always.
About the test photos I’ve seen so far: I love them and they have exceeded my expectations! I like the “chocolate colours”.
And to be honest, at the moment I am more interested in a black and white integral film than in the colour version, since I still have several packs of 600 film at home.
About the price: I share exactly the same feelings with you here.
In fact, one of the reasons I bought an SX-70 was, that I thought that with the introduction of the new films the bloated prices per shot would drop.
I have heard that TIP have planned to establish a distribution network, so perhaps the exorbitant shipping costs will get to normal.
But still – the price per shot is too high for my personal taste.
I understand that they cannot produce as cheap as in the old Polaroid mass market days, but still…
I hope this is just an introduction price as you suggested (‘First Flush’), because if the price tag stays like this, I will probably either give up shooting Polaroid integral films completely or just use a handful of packs per year.
So all in all I have mixed feelings about this: On the one hand I am happy they succeeded and I love the very nice film, but on the other hand the exorbitant price…
24. March 2010 at 12:54 am
Hi Timo, thanks for your kind and constructive comments as always.
I absolutely agree with you on the test shots with the new films. There are many really great and creative shots in the new Impossible Collection.
The ‘sepia’ or ‘chocolate’ tone is quite nice, but I’m still more interested in the colour (just as it came out in some of your recent shots). I think the colour is one of the true qualities of the film. In saying that I would definitely like to try this new film, but not at the current prices plus shipping costs to Australia – that’s just ludicrous!
As you say, though, I think they’re indeed working on a distribution network which should help alleviate the shipping costs for those of us outside Europe and the United States. Another wait though…
On the price of the film itself my very first reactions and thoughts (which I didn’t put in the post) were to return to 100% digital again and just drop film altogether as lovely as film s, but it is a luxury and I’m finding it increasingly hard to justify the expense.
On the other hand there are certain qualities to these cameras and films which are simply unparalleled.
However the mere fact that this thought entered my mind (and I’m not normally one to complain about price or spending some dollars on shipping) did make me wonder about the commercial viability of distributing these new films under the current model with long-term success to everyones satisfaction.
I do worry about their pricing strategy and I had really hoped yesterday’s announcement had left me with a lot less mixed feelings and more sheer joy.
Anyway, it’s just the beginning and it will be very interesting to follow The Imposssible Project. I sincerely hope they get it right and succeed with the project. It’s a tremendous effort they have put into this…so fingers crossed!
Thanks again for the comment and your support of Photography 24/7. It’s much appreciated.
24. March 2010 at 5:03 am
Thomas,
Great writeup, hit all the point square. I’m not at all happy about the film prices either, I was hoping for some decent pricing. And, yeah. Insane shipping costs.
They know they have a captive market, but I think they’re missing a whole bigger market – people new to instant film. I know the kids would love this, just look at the success of Fujifilm’s Instax, it’s HUGE in Japan and Asia. They’d lap up the new Impossible film if not for the price.
Then again, Doc is probably stuck in the Lomo Soc. mindset from where he came from, “Play it up, dress it up, hype it up, they’ll lap it up”. Sucks.
So the new film is highly unstable and imperfect, but marketed as being “atmospheric and artistic”, yeah. Delayed since January, pushed to February, they had to bring out something in March or risk being flushed down the toilet. Limited edition “First Flush”, yeah it’s limited we know you’ll buy ‘em, keep you busy while we try and get it right.
Looks like I’ll be leaving all my SX-70s on the shelf and keep shooting pack film. Thankfully we have Fujifilm.
Oh, yeah all the fanbois will be frothing at what I wrote, just watch. I hate to see instant film turned into Lomography Part 2.
24. March 2010 at 8:25 am
Hi Stab,
Thanks for your comments.
You’re making some very valid points here. I completely agree about potentially missing ‘the new to instant film’ and ‘the student’ market. I simply think they have largely priced themselves out of that market.
As for the ‘dress it up, hype it up’ comments I think The Impossible Project has done a really fine job at marketing the project, but you have to have a top product to see it through.
I have not tried the new film myself yet (and I’m not sure I will at current price and shipping cost) so I can’t make any informed comments on the quality of the film itself, but if I read between the lines I read ‘unstable, temperature sensitive, light sensitive and perhaps not quite perfect yet’ so I think your comments on this point are potentially valid too.
I have seen several early reports from dissappointed early users, but of course there is a learning curve with every new film, so these comments should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
However at the current prices you don’t want too steep a learning curve of wasted shots, nor do you want too unpredictable results (I know unpredictability is part of the charm, but everything within reason).
Yes, let’s hope they get things right on all fronts as I think we are many (including the younger market you mention) who would absolutely love affordable film for our SX-70s and other vintage in-good-working-order Polaroid cameras.
24. March 2010 at 12:46 pm
I am disappointed in the the photos I have seen taken with the new film. It is not black and white as they originally announced but sepia. The photos are very nice but they are certainly not a replacement for the Polaroid film that Polaroid originally made. This is a film for artists and not the average consumer who still has a Polaroid hanging around the house. I dont see how they will ever sell 1 million packs a year, ever unless the color film is more true to the original. As someone else wrote I think they were forced to release something before it was ready in order not to look like fools.
24. March 2010 at 8:39 pm
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comments.
According to Impossible the PX 100 takes on the sepia tone whereas the PX 600 takes on a more true black and white tone.
Price issues aside I think one of the main points is the apparent instability of the film which comes as somewhat of a surprise to me.
I’m in two minds about it though, because on one hand I don’t mind some unpredictability and the more artistic aspect of the films over a more standardised commercial product, but on the other hand there is a limit of how much unpredictability you want at USD 21 per eight shots plus expensive shipping.
The limitations of the film could be interpreted as a product that has been rushed to market (also seen in view of the one month delay). It feels a little bit that way, but obviously we don’t really know what has been going on behind the scenes and as such it is of course just speculation.
There is no doubt it has been a very complex process for the Impossible team to produce this new instant film, but on the other hand if it could be done in the 1970′s one should think it could also be done anno 2010 with all the technological advances we have seen over the past 40 years.
25. March 2010 at 10:57 pm
the shipping costs are just not right. they piss off anybody who’s not a millionaire. and even then…
there are not enough people who can spend that kind of money and who are at the same time into instant photography…
at these prices they’ll fail.
1. April 2010 at 5:03 am
I’m glad that you published the shipping costs here. I looked into buying a pack or two of film, but they defer the computation of the shipping costs until after you enter a credit card number. I like that the film is available, but their methods feel scammy and dishonest to me, and I balked at entering my number just to see what the final price would be. The photo consumer side of me is screaming to buy, but the rational part of my brain just can’t justify it.
16. April 2010 at 11:49 am
The more I reflect on this the more I think I will leave shooting integral films for my SX-70 behind for good.
As Stab wrote above, all this looks a bit like Lomo Part 2. In fact, there are quite some similarities.
If I wanted to buy 2 films with 16 shots I would have to spend 46 EUR here in Europe.
(It’s not to be expected that every one of the pictures will be a great hit either…)
However, when I think what one can get with shooting 35mm analog film!
You can buy an old SLR complete with a fast manual prime lens at ebay for a very low price (you might even be able to use the lens on your DSLR), put a bw film for 36 pictures into it which costs much, much less than the TIP film. You have full manual control over the picture like aperture, depth of field, shutter speed, etc. and can have it developed in about an hour if you want it so fast that badly. You can have much larger prints with a fantastic quality. All with a nostalgic/retro/vintage looking camera and an “organic”, grainy film.
And again – for much, much less money.
Only thing, it’s not instant, but who is willing to pay that much with cheaper Instax integral film and pack film that are available?
And yet another thing: what is a creative film? Leaving the result to unpredictability has nothing to do with creativity, but with chance.
On the other hand, with full manual control you can really be creative.
Well, never say never, but I really see things different now that I have shot less Polas recently and really thought about it thoroughly.
19. April 2010 at 8:40 am
Hi Timo,
Thanks for the comment. As you know I certainly think the price is at a level where it limits the market and particularly in the current day and times where people are more reluctant to spend their money, but even in a more normal market as well.
Moreover, the price is also for a film with very particular characteristics in terms of handling and development.
All that said, there is little doubt that there is something special about shooting Polaroids. I just think The Impossible Project has developed in an unfortunate direction in terms of bringing Polaroid film to all those millions of cameras, because I just don’t think millions of people will buy at this price.
Your points are very valid in that if we strip away the marketing hype, the ‘feeling’ and the nostalgia, then what are we left with? A quality product? Is this product really that unique? The characteristics of the new film are certainly not what I had expected from a very expensive film. Along with the price this is another market limiting factor for this new film.