For Trade: Polaroid Type 52 4x5

Cruzingoose · Sep 10, 2013

I cleaned out the freezer and found 4 unopened boxes. It expired on May 1981. I've had this a really long time planning on getting into large format, but never did. Probably only good for LOMO now? I would hate to take money for this and have it not work out, (but I will if you insist). How about some bulk 35mm B&W for trade, does not need to be new or in date. I see plenty of bulk B&W 100' rolls for $30 lately. Ideas?

Gavjenks · Sep 10, 2013

ISO 400 is almost certainly not good anymore after 32 (lol) years, at least not for hi-fi work. Even in the freezer, the films slowly fog and degrade over time due to cosmic and terrestrial background radiation. And the faster they are, the more susceptible they are to this. Ten years at ISO 100 should be quite usable for normal shooting. 32 years at 400... probably not so much.

If it were ISO 25 or 50 or something, I might give it a shot, even at 32 years.

If it were ISO 400, and stored the entire time in a -20 degree deep freeze lead box full of argon gas in an abandoned mine shaft? Also might give it a shot (actually for that I would pay quite a lot of money for even if I knew it was pretty fogged, because that would just be awesome in terms of the story!)

I suspect that you can still use this to get visible images, though if so, they won't win any contrast contests.

Also, was it in a chest freezer? Or a standard kitchen freezer? And was the freezer in the basement? If so, was it near a corner (seriously)?

MartinCrabtree · Sep 10, 2013

Rent a 4X5 and shoot it.

Cruzingoose · Sep 12, 2013

It was stored in an upright freezer, (only opened to retrieve and restock film) with all my other films, in original case and wrapped in plastic and packing tape. I tried the Polachrome slide film and although the pod did not give 100% coverage of the entire roll, (I probably turned the crank too fast), the results at EI25 are excellent. The 669 survived with a heavy cyan cast, but useable. The 107 was completely dried up and the glued tabs are unglued.

I have no 4x5 Pol. film holder so I am not able to try this film and I'm not going to open the sealed package to just look at it. I'll repack it and put it back in the freeze. The 3BAY people seem to think this stuff is gold.

Soulz3urn3lack · Sep 13, 2013

There's good money in older polaroid film on fleabay. I think I had like 3 boxes of 10 shots each that sold for 80$. It wasn't nearly as old though, twas made for newer pols.

Gavjenks · Sep 13, 2013

Ebay shows:

$30 for an expiration date box of 2002
$29 for a box of expiration 2000
$65 for an open box expiration 2006
$46 for 4 boxes of 52 and 2 of 58 expired average about 1980, most similar to yours
$300 some dude paid for 13 boxes of various polaroid 4x5 film expiring 1980ish?! That's almost full retail for brand new 4x5 film. I mean yeah, its fancy polaroid, but still seems ridiculous. Possibly profitable for you though.

Auctions don't seem to do as well as arbitrarily high buy it nows for these. It looks like your best bet is to put them on ebay, throw up a buy it now of about $150 and somebody will probably bite (the ones in the $300 auction seemed to have been stored at room temperature and the boxes were all dented and beaten up... so be sure to stress the freezer storage)

Cruzingoose · Sep 13, 2013

Yeah, it's some crazy money for old film. I thought I try trading it for something else, but no big deal. It can sit in the freeze for another eternity with the rest of the film. I'll be able to start a small museum with all the polaroid and roll film cameras and film in my returement.