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CatLABS of JP Pledges to Manufacture Packfilm for Polaroid Cameras

Chris Gampat
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04/23/2016
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Polaroid 180 review product photos (1 of 12)ISO 2001-125 sec at f - 2.0

Last Updated on 04/23/2016 by Chris Gampat

In what’s some great news for us analogue photographers, it seems like we’ll be getting our alternative packfilm for Polaroid Land Cameras after all! It’s coming from CatLABS of JP; and in a very recent posting made by the company it seems like they’re going to take up the mantle. They stated:

“We have the experience, knowledge and history to back this up. We are so committed to packfilm, we had the entire 6th issue of our Papersafe magazine shot on packfilm.”

At the moment though, they don’t have specific details but they’re telling folks to follow their Facebook page to keep up to date.; and it overall is a fairly odd an interesting post to make.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Polaroid 180 review product photos (11 of 12)ISO 2001-125 sec at f - 2.0

Fujifilm stated that they discontinued the production of packfilm for “reasons that were out of their control.” To keep the analogue community alive, Florian “Doc” Kaps (who was a founder of the Impossible Project) went to meet with Fujifilm to discuss the future of Fujifilm 100-C after the company announced its discontinuation. Even after many attempts, the change.org petition claims that Fujifilm is quoted to say:

“…we cannot now change our decision. Thus, we respectfully decline your proposals. “

Fujifilm continues to do well with the Instax film due to its ease of use. Packfilm, on the other hand, requires you to shoot in warm temperatures, develop for a specified amount of time, etc. It’s a fairly more intensive process vs. just shooting, printing and waiting for the image to come out.

If the packfilm does indeed stay alive, then this is an incredible piece of news for the film photographers amongst us.

Via R/Polaroid

CatLABS of JP film fujifilm packfilm polaroid
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.