Next time you’re on vacation and find yourself without a camera, try checking the mini-bar in your hotel room. Ace Hotel has announced that the mini-bar in each of their guest rooms will be stock with a refurbished Polaroid camera and limited edition packs of Ace Hotel branded Impossible Project B&W instant film. If you don’t plan on staying at any of their hotels, you can also purchase the branded kits through their website for $150 each.

(via Ace Hotel via PSFK)

Polaroid stopped making instant cameras back in 2007, and ceased production of instant film two years later. Before Polaroid pulled out completely, the Dutch-based Impossible Project purchased Polaroid’s old equipment and factory in the Netherlands in an attempt to save Polaroid film from going extinct.

The company successfully re-engineered the film, and launched the new line of instant films a couple months ago. Recently they even opened up a storefront in New York City.

In the meantime, Polaroid found a new owner, and recruited Lady Gaga as the Creative Director and face of the company. Last week Polaroid announced a new instant film camera, the Polaroid 300, which looks remarkably similar to the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7.

According to Amateur Photographer, The Impossible Project isn’t very happy with the new camera, since they were expecting Polaroid to announce a new camera that would accept their 600-type film. Polaroid had showcased such a camera back at CES 2010 earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the company was quoted as saying,

The management of the Impossible Project finds this confusing and clearly wants to state that the Polaroid 300 is not the camera that has been announced in Polaroid’s press release from January 7 2010.

My guess is that we’ll be seeing Polaroid’s real announcement coming soon. If you’re a fan of Polaroid photography, hold your horses — good things come to those who wait.

On a semi-related note, Wikipedia has a pretty interesting summary of how The Impossible Project came to be:

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009. Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family for what he had named The Impossible Project.

500,000 film packages? Wow…

In March, The Impossible Project announced that it had successfully brought Polaroid film back from the dead, releasing the new PX100 and PX600 instant films. Next up: a physical store in New York City.

The Impossible Project has just announced a new retail and exhibition space in New York City called “The Impossible Project Space”, located on the 5th floor at 425 Broadway. In addition to selling film and gear, the space will display works from “The Impossible Collection”, which is modeled after the world-famous Polaroid Collection and features work created on Impossible Project film.

There’s going be a grand opening party from 3pm-8pm on April 30th, so if you’re a Polaroid lover, it might be a fantastic way to connect with other enthusiasts.

(via PDNPulse)

Image credit: Photograph by The Impossible Project

The Impossible Project has done it again — in a new Polaroid product revamp, the company has released a brand new Polaroid 600 One model designed by Paul Giambarba.

Giambarba is the designer behind the Polaroid branding and design since the late 1950s.

The 600 One features a digital LCD counter, a focus free lens, a built-in flash, and  comes packaged with 600 film.

It’s a little poetic how design and business can come full circle; Polaroid’s reinvigorated by tapping back into its own retro styles.

(via Gizmodo)

The Impossible Project’s new instant film for Polaroid cameras will go on sale later this week, but the British Journal of Photography has already gotten their hands on a pack of PX100. They were mailed a comprehensive press kit that included a box of the black and white film, and promptly exposed the film with a SX-70, publishing the results on their blog.

Of the eight exposures they had to play around with, only a few of them produced semi-recognizable images. Olivier Laurent writes,

But my initial impressions are that PX100 behaves like a expired pack of 669 or Time-Zero. You’re never sure of what you will get. To be fair, Impossible did warn us about this during its press conference yesterday. A slight change in temperature or pressure can ruin or enhance your image. One thing is sure, do NOT use this film outside in the winter or early spring, when there is still a cold breeze. Also, in some situations, you will need to keep your ND filter on.

Apart from some disappointing results (especially when shooting outside), it feels good to load a SX-70 with some new film.

$21 a pack means this is some seriously expensive experimentation. However, lets wait until the film is in the hands of the masses before coming to a verdict on this new film. Here’s to hoping the film is a success!

Image credit: Photographs by 1854.

Time to dust off your old Polaroid cameras. The Impossible Project has just unveiled its new PX100 and PX600 instant films for Polaroid cameras, after a three year effort to save Polaroid photography from extinction. The $21 packs, available starting Thursday, will each provide 8 black and white images. Color film packs are also expected to be released sometime this summer.

PX100 film is for the SX-70 Polaroid camera from the 1970′s, while PX600 is for more recent cameras that take 600-series film. While the new film will not carry Polaroid branding, new Polaroid instant film cameras that use the film have been announced. The company plans to produce more than 1 million packs in the first year.

Do you love Polaroid enough to pick it up again for $2-3 a shot?

After Polaroid announced that it would stop producing instant film in 2008, a group called The Impossible Project acquired the last instant film production facility in the Netherlands in a bid to save the beloved medium. This past weekend, the group ran into “an unexpected problem with one of the components vital for production,” possibly jeopardizing the project.

The group was scheduled to hold an event on February 22nd in New York, where the original instant film was announced 63 years ago, but that has been postponed. In their press release, they state,

On 22nd MARCH 2010 [the project leaders] will disclose whether or not their Impossible Project will be possible.

On behalf of all the Polaroid-enthusiasts who read PetaPixel, we wish The Impossible Project Godspeed!

(via Amateur Photographer)

Update:

Hmmm… The group (@ImpossibleUSA) has tweeted a response to this post, stating that the problem was simply a shipment issue by one of the suppliers. However, if you read the press release on their website, it sounds much more dire than the situation apparently is.