Recently it seems that the Impossible Project has been dipping its toe into the waters of new, unique instant films. Beyond color and black and white, there are now two different color monochrome films to play with. I’ve already covered Cyan for 600 from the times when it was still called Cyanograph, so when I was buying film the other day my curiosity was piqued by a Magenta Monochrome film that I hadn’t yet had the chance to try.
Basically, both Cyan and Magenta monochrome are exactly what they say they are. They are single color films: black becomes magenta, gray becomes lighter magenta, and white becomes a white-ish magenta. It’s not color film with a magenta hue. It’s all magenta, all the time.
It’s pink! Also slightly overexposed if you don’t adjust your camera.
And by magenta, I mean that it’s pink film. It’s bright pink. Do you want monochrome pink pictures? Here you go. If not, look elsewhere. It’s one purpose film.
Like all modern Impossible Project films, it’s a consistent, durable film with no strange defects or spot issues. Each picture has smooth, consistent tones and great detail.
It appears that Magenta for 600 uses the 2013-era opacifier, so it takes approximately 40 minutes for the film to develop. For best results, I recommend stopping down at least by one stop. Because magenta is fairly light to begin with, it is very easy to blow out the image, especially outdoors. A dark slide isn’t required, but it’s not a bad idea when outdoors.
The blue opacifier can make for some cool images if you scan during development.
The opacifier is blue, which contrasts with the magenta image itself in surprising and fun ways as it develops. Personally, I love how it looks best during this development process, so be sure to watch it and scan it right away if you like what you’re seeing.
I’m honestly not sure what this film would be used on a regular basis for. It might be a cute film to use for weddings or an event of some sort. Personally, I don’t have much of a need for something like this, but I’m glad the Impossible Project is experimenting and creating types of film that didn’t even exist in the Polaroid days. I’m excited to see where they go from here and hope they keep playing around with wild film formulas.
The best place to get Impossible Project films like Magenta Monochrome is from the Impossible Project’s store. Using these links to purchase your film helps me keep this site going. Thanks!