Impossible PX 680

PX 680 was the first new color instant film for Polaroid 600 cameras since the original Polaroid plant shut in 2008. Impossible released First Flush in mid-2011, roughly a year after the black-and-white debut, sold as beta material to the Pioneer subscribers who funded the rescue of the Enschede factory in the Netherlands. The chemistry was incomplete. Everyone knew it.

What came out of those packs was a slow, dreamy, somewhat washed image that resolved over ten to fifteen minutes and kept evolving for up to a day. Opacification during ejection had not been fully solved, which is why every Pioneer-era pack came with a black plastic frog tongue and a sheet that said: cover the photo immediately or watch it die. Against a fresh pack of original Polaroid 600 from the freezer years, color was muted and shelf life shorter.

Impossible iterated. Color Protection arrived in September 2012 and solved the worst of it: the new chemistry stabilized within seconds of ejection. A revised Color Protection in early 2014 tightened contrast and saturation further. By the time Impossible rebranded as Polaroid Originals in 2017, the gap between PX 680 and the original Polaroid 600 stock had narrowed substantially, though connoisseurs argue the curve never fully matched.

Use it in any Polaroid 600 body or in an SLR 680 / 690. SX-70 cameras need a neutral density filter because their meters were built around the slower 70-series chemistry. Direct sun blows the highlights on principle. Keep the photo warm in winter; the chemistry stalls below about ten degrees Celsius.

Format is the integral pack of eight photos for Polaroid 600. No 35mm, no 120, no sheet. PX 680 as a named product was folded into the standard Color 600 line after the Polaroid Originals rebrand.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.0 in Zone Light Meter, which makes practical sense because integral instant film is designed for shutter times measured in fractions of a second. A metered 2-second exposure on a tripped SLR 680 is treated as 2 seconds at the film.