So I found some expired Instax film in a junk bin so I decided to compare it to Polaroid Originals. I don’t think it is a fair comparison, but it gave me a chance to use both types of film again. I was unimpressed by the last Polaroid film I used and was by the Instax. I ordered a pack of colour and a pack of monochrome. It is quite expensive considering you only get 8 shots in each cassette. I found 3 packs of expired Instax in a junk bin which I got for $10, considerably less.

I tried the Polaroid in a Sun 600 camera.

This camera from 1983 has a built-in tongue, which is important as detailed in this super blog. But I found the original tongue was just not long enough and whipped back scratching the polaroid and exposing it in the first few seconds of development. This was an issue as it damaged the sensitive photos and overexposed them, as you can see in the scans below.

You can clearly see the scratches and overexposure in these crappy photos. The black and white film was much more resistant to the scratching, but it is still there as is the exposure issue.

I did try and combat the exposure issue by placing the film box over the photo exit slot. That way the photo slid straight into the box and received less light. Awkward and impractical, plus ultimately it didn’t work.

I have decided to try one more time with this camera and film type, but first I will install an impossible frog tongue.

I have reloaded the photos into the cassette as I noticed the flash still charged once all the shots were taken. The cassette has the camera power source. That means I can use these exposed polaroids to check my success with the installation of the frog tongue and that it stays in place without ruining another cassette. I am still unimpressed by Polaroid, I can’t believe I am willing to try again, but I don’t like giving up.

So how was the expired Instax film, was it better than fresh Polaroid Originals? I loaded it into a new Instax Mini 8.

Each cassette was at least five years old and I had no idea how it was stored. Here are some of the 30.

Ignore the writing, I was making notes for something, but due to the state of the results, I gave up on that project. Yeap, these suck too. So the moral of the story is…Originals film is very, very sensitive and expired instax sucks. I will buy more fresh instax for sure as I love that stuff, the only problem is people steal the photos. As for the Originals, I will try one more time, watch this space.