Polaroid Colorshot Printer and PZ Film

I recently got on a kick about trying to print to the new Impossible Project films by using an old Polaroid Colorshot printer. These printers came out in the late '90's and eventually ended up on clearance at Ritz/Wolf camera stores online. I didn't buy one back then, but you can still find them on eBay. There are two basic models, a parallel port version and a USB version. The parallel port version comes in a putty colored case, while the USB version is black with a blue film drawer. You may also encounter the printer under the name "PhotoMax Web printer," which seems to also be a parallel port version. Both versions require a computer with Windows95B or 98, since the drivers don't work with anything else. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to use a different, more up to date driver, although it seems that some people might have gotten the thing to work in a virtual PC environment. My initial preference on the printer interface was to go with USB, since it is more modern. However, given the limitations of the driver it seems that one might as well go with the parallel port version since it's likely that old computer hardware will be needed to get the thing to work.

Setup

I opted to get an old computer and load it up with Windows98SE. I got one of the less expensive ColorShot units from eBay (caveat emptor!) and set it up with the computer. Unfortunately, what I got was no joy. Basically the prints developed into blanks, with only some of the whitest areas of the photo reversing to blueish black on the prints. A great deal of experimenting and troubleshooting ensued. After taking the printer apart to see if there was anything obviously wrong inside, I tried to use some ND filtering on the film pack to see if any sort of image would show up. By now I had discovered that the "utility" folder on the CD contains a program that sends a test image to the printer. From the grayscale and RGB boxes on the print it became obvious that the printer was printing a negative of whatever was sent. Interestingly, the CD ROM comes with color matching profiles for the printer, which can be activated manually once the software installation is completed. They can be found in program files\common files\Polaroid\ . I thought that maybe applying those color matching profiles would correct the problem, but once again, no joy.

Test image and output from printer

Take two

Finally I resorted to getting another printer off of eBay. This one had a mechanical problem where the print head was blocked from returning to the starting position because the clear cover for the "LCD shutter" had come loose and was hanging down and getting caught. The built in soft material that wants to wipe the cover when it parks was sticking up too high and also blocking the print head. After my "delicate" repair attempts ended up clouding the cover with glue I ended up just removing the cover and taping the soft material down and out of the way. I plugged the printer back in and ran a couple of prints (with used film) and - voila! - the green light was blinking and pictures were ejecting from the front. Success!
Now, the moment of truth. I put the "real" film pack in (Impossible PZ 680 color protection) and queued up a picture. After a few seconds of "thinking" the print head motor whirred to life, and just a few seconds later the film popped out the front. For those of you who are aficionados of the new film, you will appreciate that the printer comes with a "frog tongue," which shields the photo from light upon exiting the printer. As recommended I placed the picture face down and covered for the first 10 minutes or so of developing.

Impressions

Scarcity makes the heart grow fonder. Now that the film is no longer available at the corner drug store, and also costs three times as much as before, each print seems so much more valuable. The new opacification layer (the part that starts out dark while the film develops and then turns clear) happens to be a beautiful shade of blue. Combined with the shiny plastic cover and the white frame it's like holding a tiny framed piece of artwork in your hands. The new formula also takes a lot longer to develop - almost an hour for all of that blue to disappear. Nonetheless I could quickly see that things were much different this time. Even when the blue layer just started to fade I could already see the silhouette of the image on the film. Slowly but surely a beautiful image appeared. Finally, it was working!
It seems that the first printer I bought had some sort of major problem, most likely with some of the LEDs not working. So, the best bet may be to get one of the units on the market that is "new in box" or verified to be working. The film is very expensive and wasting time with a broken printer will easily end up chewing up the difference in price between the unknown items out there and some of the better bets. Even with a "new in box" printer, we're dealing with a product that is about 15 years old now - that's some ancient archeology in the world of tech.
The amount of setup and the steep price of film relegates this printer to the world of serious hobbyists and hipsters. Still, assuming you can get an old computer with Win98 on it, you can have an old-school version of the "impossible instant lab" for a fraction of the price (minus the portability). It also shows that the "digital Polaroid" has been around for quite some time. It just never really caught on back then.

Polaroid z340 Printing

Answers to questions I had about the Polaroid z340 before getting it. 

There are already several reviews out there regarding performance of the camera and printer. I had a few specific unanswered questions about some of the possibilities regarding the printer, so I thought I would post the answers here now that I have had a chance to use the camera a little bit.

I am also interested in using the printer separately from the integrated camera sometimes - i.e. being able to use the camera and printer together, but also use the printer with other cameras. The z340 can read pictures taken with other cameras, and it is straightforward if you insert an SD card from another camera into the z340. While the z340 can produce a print order file using the DPOF format, it cannot read one from another camera and then print those pictures. You must choose each photo to be printed using the buttons on the z340. Also, if you want to print pictures from other sources (other than another camera) you cannot simply copy the files to a card and insert it. You need to follow the directory structure and file naming conventions that a digital camera would use.

Other reviewers have mentioned that it is easier to take pictures and print them from one integrated device than it is to use a separate printer. I have also found this to be true. People instantly recognize the shape of the camera as a Polaroid and ask whether it can print like the old ones did. In social settings there is no need to fumble with cords or multiple devices. I will say  that there are a few button presses needed to initiate printing if borders are involved.

Regarding borders, the traditional Polaroid borders are attractive and seem quite appropriate for the size and quality of the prints. The designers of the z340 offer two techniques to produce prints with the Polaroid border. The default method is to turn on the Polaroid border in the print menu settings. With this method you take a picture in the landscape orientation and the sides of the photo get cropped when you print (the area that shows up in the print is just a little wider than the Polaroid logo and name that are just below the LCD screen).

The other technique is to turn off the Polaroid border option and use one of the custom borders instead. The custom borders are selectable from the print menu. One of the custom borders is a Polaroid border that is rotated 90 degrees. If you take a photo in portrait orientation (tilt the camera 90 degrees clockwise when taking a photo) and apply this border, then the picture will not get cropped as much. There is still some cropping because the custom borders simply appear on top of the original picture - the picture is not scaled to fit inside the border. The hassles with this method are that you have to remember to take the photo in portrait orientation, and you also have to apply the border to each photo before printing - it won't automatically add the border as it would with the other method.

There are also about a half a dozen or so built in creative borders, such as one for birthdays or 1st place winners, etc. These have been mostly panned by reviewers as being useless, but I find that a couple of them could be used in certain situations. Note that when you apply any of the custom borders the camera gives you the choice to overwrite the original image file or save a new file with the border applied.

Example of a custom border

Speaking of borders, you can load two of your own borders into the camera by saving specially formatted BMP files to a "Border" directory on the SD card. The exact pixel dimensions are included in the manual. You fill the area where you want the photo to appear to a special color (RGB 254,254,254). This is actually a potentially very useful feature once you get it to work properly, because it allows you to create special borders for parties or add your business logo to pictures and print them out at the event without needing a computer. The "border" can actually occupy as much of the picture as you want, so you can have plenty of room for text and graphics. You just have to remember that those areas will cover the picture that is beneath them.

In this day and age of digital photos, it's often still nice to get a paper copy of a photo, especially if your friends aren't good about uploading the photos to a sharing site. If you add a custom border for a party or special event, then you have the possibility to create an instant memento for your friends or business associates. With a brief internet search you can also find special folding cards that are made to hold the photos if you want to dress up the presentation.