Polaroid Round Frame Film Review

Earlier this year, Polaroid began shipping its 600 film in the Round Frame Edition. This is a relaunch of the round frames they were selling back in the Impossible days.

In this review: Emulsion lifts. Round frames are easier to scan than regular Polaroid film. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

While some expressed understandable skepticism over a product that offered a smaller image area with little or no change to actual chemistry, I decided to spend some extra cash on shipping from the US and get the film when it came out. Actually, it was sold out almost as soon as it was announced, but I was lucky to have gotten my hands on the second batch.

To shoot this film, I used my unmodified SX-70 camera with MiNT flash set to “low” to get the exposure right on a higher ISO film. I’ve also shot a frame without a flash but with the exposure set to the darkest setting in the harsh shadows — an image of my dog which I’ve consequently turned into an emulsion lift.

Emulsion lifts.

The fact that emulsion lifts are possible with this film is fantastic news for those who enjoy this technique, as it doesn’t work with all Polaroid films, especially if it’s colour and isn’t freshly shot.

I waited three days to emulsion-lift my image, which I suppose would’ve been much easier if done within the hour of pressing the shutter.

Nevertheless, I’m quite pleased with the result. It ended up looking like a rusty round mirror on an abandoned house’s wall with peeling wallpaper.

Notice how you can see the chemicals spreading at various densities across the frame in the unexposed corners. Fascinating stuff.

Round frames are easier to scan than regular Polaroid film.

Newton rings are the scourge of Polaroid film scans. It looks like puddles of thin lines around the places where the film touches the scanner glass. Thankfully, this nasty distortion is a lot less common on the round frames as they tend to be straighter and are less likely to touch the glass as a big portion of them is the white textured aluminum foil that makes up the border.

While it may not seem like a big deal to some, I found the round frame to be a fantastic catalyst for creativity and just great fun to shoot. And it certainly helps to have an easier time with the scanner with most of the nasty Newton rings out of the way.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Polaroid Round Frame Edition film purchase using this link  so that this website may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!