Polaroid Spectra

PROJECT

My work with Polaroid Spectra format instant film shot with various vintage Spectra cameras, until film production was permanently discontinued (late 2019) and I burned through the last batches I could buy before the chemistry started drying and dying…

PHOTOS

#RIPSPECTRA 😦

The last Spectra camera was manufactured in 2004, so RIP belatedly, 20 years later! When they stopped making these wonderful cameras, it was really over and there was no going back…

After Spectra camera production ceased, the story of Spectra film went on for 16 years longer. Polaroid officially stopped production of the film in 2008, but it was resurrected in 2010 by the “Impossible-Project” team, made up of Polaroid alumni. In 2017, the Impossible Project was renamed to “Polaroid Originals” when their CEO purchased the Polaroid name and intellectual property, then changed back to the original “Polaroid” in 2020. During the stretch from 2010 — 2019, the company struggled to make new Spectra film that was less “jammy” and more reliable in the old cameras, and finally gave up, stopping production in late 2019, and making the official “it’s over” announcement in early 2020.

A quick history of Spectra:

“Polaroid introduced the Spectra camera system in 1986. It was a completely new camera line, and there was a corresponding new film. The Spectra film (called ‘Image’ outside North America) differs from 600 integral films in that it has a different image format: the 600 film is a square, while the Spectra film is a rectangular 9.2 x 7.3 cm dimension. The Spectra film is otherwise the same as 600 films – the ISO speed, the development method and the process remain the same. The Spectra camera series also has lenses on average better than the 600-film range; Most models use arc-shaped focusing lenses that rotate along the outer lens element to provide accurate focus rather than focusing correctly on the body. The distance between the inner lens elements. Spectra cameras are thought to take better pictures than a conventional 600 Polaroid camera.” — CameraPedia

Why did I, and so many others, love Polaroid Spectra cameras and films? Well, to start with, the cameras offered improved image quality throughout the entire Spectra line, superior to all (or most) of the 600 format film cameras. Not quite as good as an SX-70 or SLR 680, but close. In particular, the Spectra Pro and SE models were really fun to shoot with, producing great, consistent results.

But I think it was the FILM itself — a BIG, generous rectangle (3.6″ x 2.9″) of image area and its roughly 4×3 aspect ratio — which we all loved the most! Sure, there’s FujiFilm’s Instax Wide instant film today, but it’s narrower (closer to 4×2 aspect ratio) and their basic Instax Wide 300 camera does not have the image quality of old Spectra cameras. Spectra format film was beloved by many — cursed by some — until production stopped and the last batches sold out in early 2020.

Sadly, at this writing, I’ve shot the last packs of Spectra film from the end-of-life batches produced by the new Polaroid company, only 75-80% of which did not jam in the camera. I’ve laughed out loud at the prices on eBay for packs of Spectra film from those last batches, knowing that the chemistry has probably changed (even if refrigerated) significantly over the past few years, so results are likely to be quite disappointing (and costly).

So, as far as I can tell, Spectra is really, truly dead now…

russ murray