Impossible Project PX70 Test Film V4B - Some Mums in a Toolbox

This morning will have to be a quick update as I am heading out of the office soon to shoot some video. We have had these flowers sitting on the table at home for a while now so I figured I'd see how the new Impossible Project PX70 V4B would render the bright yellow. I wanted to shoot them outside so I laid them in an old wooden toolbox that I have and framed a little grass off to the right. I was hoping to get a little more exposure in the grass so that I could have some brighter greens, but it appears to have metered mostly off the yellows of the flowers. Still, not bad.

Like most recent photos this was taken using an SX70 Sonar with the lighten/darken halfway to dark. The photo was left unshielded out of camera and throughout the development process which was under normal indoor lighting.

Impossible Project PX70 Test Film V4B - Fruit Basket

Normally I go into great detail when I shoot with one of the new Impossible Test films. For the Impossible PX70 Test film V4B though... I'm just going to refer you to my review of the PX 680 V4B. Read that, and just know that this version of the film is even better. If anyone out there still doubts how great Impossible's films are and will be, just go shoot this film and then let it rest.

I shot this photo this morning while literally walking out the door. I notice this basket of fruit sitting by the window, put all my stuff back down, got out my SX 70 Sonar and snapped this. The photo was left unshielded out of camera and then dropped in my bag as I headed out. When I got to the office this morning this was my end result. I think my jaw hit the floor when I pulled this out of my bag.

I can't wait to continue shooting this film. I'll be sharing more soon.

Impossible Project New PX70 Beta Test Film - Bicycles & Lollipops

I just finished up my second pack of the new PX70 test film this weekend while I was in the office working on a few other projects. Both of these were taken with available daylight using an SX70 Sonar. I definitely had a much easier time shooting these two images over the ones in my last post simply because of the warmer, controlled temperature. 

On an unrelated note - I've just purchased a Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5, polaroid 550 back and some film. Fingers crossed, it should all be here today. I've been waiting to purchase this camera for a couple of months now and I'm pretty excited to share some of my photos soon. Stay tuned.

Impossible Project New PX70 Beta Test Film - Pack Two

While on the road shooting a commercial last week I got the chance to take a few photos with my second test pack of Impossible's latest PX70 formula. My results... not really the best I'd say. All of these shots were taken outside, and while it hasn't been the usual Ohio winter temps, it's still been pretty cold. I'm sure that has played a major roll in how most of these have been turning out - it's been difficult finding the right balance between keeping the photos warm and not over heating them.

For the most part, everything out of this second pack has been a bit dark and muddy. I know that most people have been shooting this batch with the lighten/darken wheel slightly towards dark, but, these latest results make me wonder if that's always necessary. To be fair, I'm still getting a good amount of color and it's still a noticeable difference from the last formula... I think I just need to get back into a controlled light and temperature situation until the weather warms up in order to see what I can really pull from this film. I've seen fantastic results from a lot of other people, so I know what's possible. Just a matter of time...

Impossible Project New PX70 Beta Test Film - Pack One

I finished up my first of two packs of the new PX70 test film from the Impossible Project. I posted a few of those photos earlier in the week. This post is pretty much what I had left in the pack after I took those couple photos. In total, I ended up with six photos from the first pack... two, for some reason, got stuck in my camera. I'm not sure if it was a sticky pack issue, or if my camera is having some problems of it's own.


Like most people, my experience with this film has been really positive. The improvement in color is dramatic and noticeable. There's a nice bit of latitude in the tonal range and like the PX 100 test film I shot in December I've noticed that the point of focus in my photos seems to be sharper than in previous versions of the Impossible film.

I've shot now under a couple different lighting conditions - indoors with professional grade artificial lighting, outdoors with available light, and indoors using just a lamp. There is definitely a color shift depending on your light temperature and the best color is seen around daylight balance. Early versions, especially the push, didn't seem to favor color temperature one way or another... everything generally had that beautiful magenta shift no matter the light conditions. This is definitely a more accurate daylight balanced film. And of course, like all Impossible films, temperature plays a big role in the development process of the new PX70. That goes for the development time, overall contrast and plays a role in color shifting.

The one thing that I have noticed about this film is that my photos have had really long development time. Of course, the color film from Impossible have always taken longer to develop than the black and white, but my experience with this film so far has been up to 15-20 mins on average to get a fully developed photo. It's not really a problem, just a minor inconvenience with the shooting style I've developed while working with Impossible Project's films. Generally, I like to shoot, see what I get and then adjust and reshoot if necessary. When I have to wait twenty minutes to find out if I need to make adjustments it makes that process a little difficult.


So far though, I love this film and the progress I see every time the Impossible Project roles out a new film. I still have one pack of the test film left and hope to be shooting (and sharing) those photos soon.

Impossible Project New PX70 Beta Test Film - Aperture's Impossible Workshop

This past weekend over at Aperture we held the first Cleveland based Impossible Project workshop with great success. We had a great turn out of, I believe, almost thirty people from all around the area with a range of different experience levels in using the Impossible films. There was a classroom-like session where Aperture's owner Scott Meivogel and myself went over all of the different camera types and the variety of Impossible films that are available for each. We did a little live shooting with our very helpful models for the day, covered shooting basics, tips, tricks, and possible problems and fixes. It was an overall crash course to get everyone up and running with a bit of knowledge most beginners don't have access to without a lot of individual research.

Of course, everyone had a chance at the end of the class to roam about the space and shoot their own images either with their own camera or one that we loaned them. We had a couple models hanging around to shoot with, and a few different still life set ups pre-lit for them to take advantage of as well. It probably comes as no surprise that I found a little time to pry myself away from answering questions to fire off a few shots of my own. The two images you see above are from Impossible's new PX70 test film that I got in the mail recently. Both are under artificial lighting conditions with an SX70 Sonar. For now, I'll just say that I am very impressed with this film so far and look forward to shooting my second pack very soon. I won't get into all the details in this post, but I'll have a few more images and a full review of the film posted later this week.


With all that said, I'll finish up by sharing a few frame grabs from some video that was taken during the workshop. Hope you enjoy... I definitely did, and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.

Myself (left) and Scott (right) going over some test images before people arrive

Impossible Film - What's not to love?

We probably talked too much...

Scott looking over some images with our lovely models Anthony and Ashley