It’s been about a month since I began reacquainting myself with Impossible Project instant films. Prior to that, the last Impossible film I shot was a pack of PZ600 Silver Shade UV+ in the spring of 2012. Frankly, the experience left me frustrated and disappointed. As a result, nearly all of my Polaroid shooting over the course of the past year was with the 600SE and SX70, using up the pack film and 779 film from my cache in the back of the fridge.

My stockpile dwindling, I began looking at Impossible once again. The company was espousing a new “color protection” film. Their disciples were posting solid, interesting images made with their films. Even the pictures that left me wondering “why would a person would shoot a $3.00 piece of film on something like that” looked pretty good from technician’s perspective. The latest edition of their Silver Shade film looked good to me, as well. But I saw several beta-looking images made with both types of film online, too, which caused me pause.

At the end of February, I took the plunge and bought one pack each of the latest IP films for Spectra cameras, PZ680 CP and PZ600 Silver Shade Cool. What I’ve found is there’s a learning curve with these film, not a steep one, mind you, but a curve nonetheless. To Impossible’s credit, they’ve done a nice job mitigating that with tutorials on their website and are forthcoming about the limitations of their films. And speaking from experience, they have very responsive and helpful customer service, too.

I have met with varying degrees of success with these upgraded films. And I’ve shot my share of “head scratching $3.00 duds,” too, but that’s been a part of my repertoire long before Impossible began making film.

What I have learned is that these IP films are temperamental. They don’t like the cold, or the hot; the Silver Shade needs shielding; you have to make exposure adjustments with the Color Protection film because its ISO is a bit faster than what Polaroid cameras are designed to use, but interestingly enough,takes a good 30-40 minutes to fully develop. I wouldn’t be surprised if these films didn’t like Mondays or broccoli, either.

That said, I do enjoy shooting these films all while using my trusty Polaroid Spectra Pro-and not so trusty ProCam-cameras. I’ve developed a certain fondness the new PZ600 Silver Shade, the film that left me wondering a year ago if Impossible would really pull off their goal of making a viable instant film.

Unfortunately, like their predecessor, IP film isn’t cheap. And economics forces me to be deliberate with these films, to take the time to consider, compose, reconsider then recompose before finally deciding to push the shutter or not.

I wish money didn’t play the role it does in the way I shoot Impossible Films, but them’s the breaks. Besides, deliberation is a good discipline to practice. Especially coming from a six-frames-per-second world.

Anyway, if the expense was that great of a hurdle, and I felt the films were still marginal, and most importantly, I wasn’t having fun shooting these instant films, I wouldn’t have ordered an additional nine packs of film from Impossible over the past month.