film | Rollfilm 01 type 48

1963-1976

 ASA 75

6 prints per roll.

--- Land List ---

 Polacolor film was another major breakthrough product of its era. In fact, it represented the culmination of a series of some of the most difficult and complex chemical engineering problems ever solved. Many man-years of research went into designing this film.

One of the side benefits of Type 48 film from a consumer point of view was that, unlike all the B&W Polaroid films at the time, Type 48 didn't require a print coater. What most people don't know, however, is that things almost didn't turn out that way. Fact is, Polacolor did require a coater even during most of its pre-release testing phase. ...And unlike the B&W films (which could be coated hours or even days later at the photographer's convenience), these prints had to be coated within five seconds of being removed from the camera or they'd quickly start to deteriorate-- and perhaps ruined entirely. Polaroid Corporation even went so far as to design special devices that could be attached to your camera to aid in coating the prints quickly in the field, and formulated a special chemical resistant coating for the back of the prints, so that you could quickly flip the print over back on top of the negative and coat the print right there inside the camera door if need be. Fortunately-- and at practically the last minute-- Dr. Land and the other Polaroid engineers finally solved the Polacolor coater problem. The 'old' Polacolor film that had been produced was destroyed, and only the 'coaterless' Polacolor film made it to market.

While production Polacolor film didn't require a coater, some issues were discovered later in which the tension of some of the chemical layers on the print could change over time, thus causing the prints to curl up. Not being able to find a permanent solution at the time, Polaroid instead provided a set of sticky-backed self-adhesive mounting cards with each roll or pack of Polacolor film. The idea was that you'd mount the prints to the cards to prevent them from curling. However, if the quantity of unused Polacolor print mounts I tend to find accompanying old Polaroid cameras is any indication, a lot of people either didn't find the cards necessary or just-plain didn'twant to be bothered with them.

Type 48 was originally specified as having a film speed of ASA 50, but was quickly bumped up to 75. This may have been a bit optimistic at first, however, according to some reports.

The discontinuance of Type 48 coincides with a changeover in the production of the photographic 'negative' stock for Polaroid films. Before 1976, Polaroid had contracted with Eastman Kodak to produce the negative material for color Polaroid roll and pack films. As this contract was expiring, Polaroid made the decision to make its own negative material for these films instead. This was one of the changes that brought about an improved "Polacolor 2"-designated film in other formats. Presumably, by this time, sales of Type 48 had dropped to the point where Polaroid didn't feel it worthwhile to design/build the equipment needed to produce color negative material in this format, and so the product was simply phased out. That's why there never was a "Polacolor 2" version of Type 48.