Polavision
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Linear filter structure in Polavision instant Super8 film. The filter lines are running along the film strip. According to the image placement of the Super-8 motion picture standard the image is divided vertically into triplets of R, G and B filter lines. The emulsion layer has been removed before this image was taken.
Credit: David Pfluger, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors. Imaging was performed with support of the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University of Zurich. -
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Linear filter structure in Polavision instant Super8 film with an emulsion layer of a high photographic density. With the focus set on the emulsion the linear structure of the coloured filters is not visible in this image.
Credit: David Pfluger, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors. Imaging was performed with support of the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University of Zurich. -
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Comparision of the linear filter structure of Polachrome 35mm instant slide film and Polavision Super-8 motion picture film. While the technical concept behind the two film stocks is the same, the Super-8 film was produced with linear filters of a smaller width. Based on the given width of an RGB filter triplet and the 135 still image size there are about 920 horizontal RGB-triplets per image for a Polachrome slide. The Super-8 film image is rotated by 90° compared to the 135 film still image and has about 340 vertical RGB-triplets per frame. The positioning of the image content compared to the filter lines is indicated in the picture.
Credit: David Pfluger, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors. Imaging was performed with support of the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University of Zurich. -
Excerpt of a Polavision Super-8 home movie scanned on a Kinetta scanner in 4.8K resolution edge to edge. In post production a zoom in and out was applied to show the linear filter structure of Polavision film in motion. The zoom was based on image detail from the scan. No upres procedure was applied.
Credit: Scanning and editing by Martin Weiss. -
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A comparison of the colour filter structures of Dufaycolor, Autochrome and Polavision from Anonymous (1978): Ma il Polavision e’ un’altra cosa!. Phototest Italiana, 41, Oct., pp 72–77.
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A comparison of the colour filter structures of Dufaycolor, Autochrome and Polavision from Anonymous (1978): Ma il Polavision e’ un’altra cosa!. Phototest Italiana, 41, Oct., pp 72–77. Translation: David Pfluger and Giorgio Trumpy.
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The process of exposure and development of Polavision instant Super-8 film. From Anonymous (1978): Ma il Polavision e’ un’altra cosa!. Phototest Italiana, 41, Oct., p. 74.
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The process of exposure and development of Polavision instant Super-8 film. From Anonymous (1978): Ma il Polavision e’ un’altra cosa!. Phototest Italiana, 41, Oct., p. 74. Translation: David Pfluger and Giorgio Trumpy.
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“Polavision (top) vs. Kodachrome 40: These are blowups from closely matching frames of Debra Goldie, filmed simultaneously with a Polavision and a conventional super 8 camera, side by side, with the Twi Light quartz lamp mounted on top of the former. Subject distance was 6 ft., but the super 8 camera was focused for 10 ft. – same as the Polavision camera at its close-up setting. Both Polavision and Kodachrome 40 are closely equal in speed, but differ distinctly in structure, faithfulness of color rendition, and latitude, as is obvious from these frame reproductions. What can’t be seen is the relative opacity of Polavision: according to our measurement, it transmits less than 9 percent as Kodachrome 40. However, the lab that made the duplicate transparency blow-ups of the frames found that it had to give a full six stops extra exposure.”
(Leavitt, Don; Drukker Leendert (1978): First Look: Polavision instant movies. In: Popular Photography, Feb., p. 68.) -
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“C’est devant un immense agrandissement de l’intérieur d’une cassette Polavision sur la-quelle se découpe la silhouette de l’orateur (ci-contre à gauche) que le Dr Land présenta son invention. Ce document permet de distinguer les poulies de guidage du film (1 et 2), la réserve de produit de traitement et son bec ré-partiteur (3), la bobine débitrice (4), l’ensemble formé par le presseur de film et le prisme (5), la poulie d’entraînement du film (6).”
“It was in front of a huge enlargement of the interior of a Polavision cassette on which the silhouette of the speaker was cut out (opposite left) that Dr Land presented his invention. This document makes it possible to distinguish the guide pulleys of the film (1 and 2), the supply of treatment product and its distribution nozzle (3), the supply reel (4), the assembly formed by the presser of film and the prism (5), the film drive pulley (6).”
(Anonymous (1977): Naissance du cinéma instantané. In: L’auto-journal, Rubrique realisée sous la direction de Pierre Marais, 12, Jul., pp. 94–95.) -
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The production of the Filter structure on Polavision film includes the use of a lenticular surface, which is removed after the process. The lenticules are not involved in recording the color information during the taking of images in the camera.
Figure 10 and Figure 11 from: Land, Edwin H. (1997): An Introduction to Polavision. In: Photographic Science and Engineering, 21,5, Sept., Oct., pp. 228–236, on p. 228.
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Comparison of thickness of the image carrying layer in a Kodak fine grain positive and Polavision film.
Figure 24 from: Land, Edwin H. (1997): An Introduction to Polavision. In: Photographic Science and Engineering, 21,5, Sept., Oct., pp. 228–236, on p. 235.
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In the Polavision instant color film process the negative image recorded during the exposure of the film is neither developed from a latent image to a visible negative nor is it removed from the film. The latent negative stays as a layer in the film and is responsible for a slight attenuation of the image’s highlights.
Figure 25 from: Land, Edwin H. (1997): An Introduction to Polavision. In: Photographic Science and Engineering, 21,5, Sept., Oct., pp. 228–236, on p. 236.
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Single frame of a Polavision home movie scanned in 3.5K resolution.
Original Technical Papers and Primary Sources
Anonymous (1977): Im Handumdrehen. In: Der Spiegel, 19, May, 31. Jahrgang, p. 210.
Anonymous (1977): Naissance du cinéma instantané. In: L’auto-journal, Rubrique realisée sous la direction de Pierre Marais, 12, Jul., pp. 94–95, on p. 95. (in French) View Quote
Anonymous (1977): Movies… Polavision lets you see them 90 seconds after you shoot. In: Popular Science, 211,1, Jul.
Anonymous (1977): Neu: Polavision. In: Foto Magazin, 7, Jul.
Anonymous (1978): Making instant movies. Here’s what it’s like to use the new Polaroid system. In: Popular Science, 212,5, May, p. 106.
Anonymous (1978): Ma il Polavision e’ un’altra cosa!. Phototest Italiana, 41, Oct, pp 72–77.
Land, Edwin H. (1997): An Introduction to Polavision. In: Photographic Science and Engineering, 21,5, Sept., Oct., pp. 228–236, on p. 228 View Quote and on p. 236. View Quote
Leavitt, Don; Drukker Leendert (1978): First Look. Polavision instant movies. In: Popular Photography, Feb., pp. 68–70, 72, 162–163.
Secondary Sources
Benedetti, Ignacio (2021): Polavision, an instant failure. In: Silvergrain Classics, 10, Spring, pp. 76–79
Havemeyer-King, Genevieve (2013): Polavision. Immediately Visible Living Images. In: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, on pp. 1–8. View Quote
Pinel, Vincent (1992): La forêt des techniques. In: Michel Ciment (ed.): Ciné mémoire. Colloque international d’information (7-9 octobre 1991). Paris: Femis, pp. 17–24, on p. 21. (in French) View Quote
Measurements
Transmittance spectra measured with a multispectral imaging system using film stripped of the silver emulsion and thus giving unhindered access to the filter line structure. Due to the narrow filter tracks in Polavision (right spectrum) the measurement of transmittances of a single filter was difficult to execute on the system used. The spectra interfere with each other giving less clear results as in Polachrome (left spectrum) where separation was more successful. Looking at the spectra and considering the challenges measuring Polavision it can be assumed that the Polachrome spectrum does also represent the transmittances of the Polavision filters. Credit: Giorgio Trumpy, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors.
A comparison of the spectrum measured from a Polachrome sample with the published spectrum for Polavision shows a similar basic curve progression but all the absorption maxima differ, particularly for the green screen dye.
Credit:
Right: Figure 13 from Land, Edwin H. (1997): An Introduction to Polavision. In: Photographic Science and Engineering, 21,5, Sept., Oct., pp. 228–236, on p. 236.
Left: Giorgio Trumpy, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors.
Links
Havemeyer-King, Genevieve (2013): Polavision. Immediately Visible Living Images. In: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Moving Image Archiving and Preservation.
Contemporary Reception
Havemeyer-King, Genevieve (2013): Polavision. Immediately Visible Living Images. In: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, on p. 9. View Quote
