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.