Developing Polaroid Film?

[bieber]

A friend of mine has come across an old Polaroid fold-out camera, and is looking to put it to some use again. Apparently, though the film it's designed for is discontinued, 4x5 sheet film fits perfectly in its film chamber. With no facilities to develop film, I've suggested that he go with instant film (I guess it will actually have to be Fujifilm, now that Polaroid has discontinued it). I don't know, however, what exactly that would entail. Do the sheets come with their own method for development, or do you need some sort of special device to develop them? How much investment would be involved?

[DrPablo]

The only way it would take conventional 4x5 sheet film would be if it takes Quickloads or Readyloads (one is from Fuji, the other from Kodak) unless it can take 4x5 film holders. The good news, though, is that it's easy to mail Quickloads / Readyloads off to a lab to be developed. The better news is that developing black and white film is as easy as can be if he so chose.

Polaroid was already expensive while they were still making it. There's still some around in store stock and on E-bay. Fuji's instant films (like FP-100B) are still around, but probably have to be ordered online, I've never been to a store that carries it in house (not even the flagship Calumet store in Chicago).