Polaroid Type 669

Type 669 was the standard color option in the 100-series pack film format, part of the Polacolor line that Polaroid introduced in 1963. By the 1970s it was the stock that commercial and editorial photographers kept in their pack film holders for quick color tests before shooting transparency or negative film. A 90-second wait and you knew if the color balance was off, if the gel on the light was doing what you wanted, if the styling read correctly.

Andy Warhol's Factory used it alongside the SX-70 format; the rectangular pack film print has a different look than the square SX-70 format, more like a conventional photo with the white tab and chemical pod remnants at the bottom. The warm color rendering in tungsten light and the slightly thick shadow response gave the color a particular quality that went with the studio portrait aesthetic of that era.

The color accuracy varied by generation of the emulsion. Earlier versions of Polacolor ran cooler; later 669 formulations pushed warmer, especially in the shadows. It was not a precision color tool in the way a color transparency was; it was a test tool that also happened to produce aesthetically interesting results on its own terms.

No peel-apart negative with 669; unlike Types 55 and 665, you got only the positive print. The pod chemistry supported color dye transfer rather than the silver-halide negative process, so there was nothing to clear in sodium sulfite.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.0. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. Long exposures with pack film color emulsions were unusual in practice; most studio and portrait use was at short shutter speeds with controlled lighting. Polaroid discontinued the entire pack film line in 2008.