New55 Publishes Radically Improved Direct Positive Film Patent Application

Ashland, MA May 19, 2013.  Robert J Crowley/Soundwave Research, sponsor of The New55 Project, has published a second patent application for instant film materials. Direct Positive Image Transfer System (link to the pdf, here)  is a radical departure from traditional and instant film materials as it employs a single substrate material and a sensitive surface to produce a direct positive AND right-reading image without any intervening steps.  The new material, which is in the research stage, would eliminate "Polatrash" and leave only the desired, display-ready photograph, but without the mirror image reversal of many direct positive processes.  A further advantage of inventor Robert J Crowley's Direct Positive Image Transfer System is its size: "Any size or format of camera can be used, without special processors or holders, from the smallest miniature formats, to the truly gigantic" he remarked.   The new material is not likely to be available soon and would likely first become available in black and white, with a color version following after.  "Post digital photography will be seen as an important step in the evolution of the art of photography, which is in its infancy" remarked Crowley. "The present disruption in the manufacture and use of photographic materials is a natural evolution that must occur for the arts and sciences to progress."

Frequently asked questions

New to New55?  Here are answers to your frequently asked questions. Many of the comments that we do not publish are short questions answered in detail here.

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SK Grimes - The Photographer's Machinist

My recent visit to SK Grimes in Woonsocket, RI was quite interesting and I met Adam Dau, seen standing in front of the window of his well equipped machine shop.  Adam is doing some work on a Xenotar 150 that I do not trust our own machine shop with. SK Grimes has been around a long time and has probably mounted thousands of lenses in shutters for large format photographers and produced many precision machined part for photography.  If you need custom machine work to adapt that Petzval to your Linhof, I believe this is the place to go.  Find out more at SKGrimes.com

The Autochrome

1920s Autochrome, scanned and intensified

Could we produce an instant Autochrome?

The Autochrome is a positive transparency process involving the use of distributed color filters adjacent to a panchromatic emulsion that is reverse processed.  Autochromes were widely commercialized with the greatest concentration in France, where they were manufactured.  Starch grains, dyed various colors, were used for the color filters, and the color matrix and the emulsion were applied to glass plates.

There are various hints that color film production may cease in the future and it could be that the only color film in production would then be The Impossible Project's integral color product.  While this still seems a way off, some people are considering how we will accomplish color photography in large format in the future. There are a number of aspects to the Autochrome that are appealing and that could be useful in the post-digital period.

We need 10,000 clips. at least

The clips are really needed in quantity now. They can be made of half hard steel and painted in the thickness shown, or unpainted stainless steel with a thickness of 0.003".  The stainless steel option is better.  Quite a high load is placed at the center of the clip, so it has to be strong, and not bend, or break.

The target price of 10 cents per clip is possible once we get to the 100,000 quantity level, but the tooling right now is about $8000.  If you wish to bid on the supply of these clips, we are ready to issue a PO, if the price is right.

New55 FILM Mailing List Address

Here is the place:  new55bw@gmail.com

A trickle of packs

Just an update.  The trickle has started and a few packs of New55 FILM have gone out to paying customers at the very high and we-are-grateful price of $20.  The theory is that if we keep doing this the wheels will turn to larger quantities and the price will start to decrease.

The most important aspect of the $20 packets is the message it sends to potential backers of the project who still need encouragement to proceed with a deal that was given a handshake some months ago.

In the meantime we are sourcing parts again, and trying to get 10-100,000 clips started at a reasonable price.

Another milestone has been the filing of all regular patent applications before the cutoff date of the "America Invents Act", which makes it even harder for small companies to develop, own and protect their intellectual property in the face of large corporations.

New55 and 20x24 demonstrate instant color 8x10 without a Polaroid processor

New55 Files Patent Application for Instant "Right Reading" Direct Positive

 New55 invents new "right reading"  direct positive material, files patent application. Second patent application in instant materials adds to "trashless" photography portfolio.


Downloads/Crowley-ProvDirPosFiled.doc -->


Abstract of  the Invention

A direct positive light sensitive projection photographic recording material having right-reading and rapid field processing is disclosed. The film or paper utilizes a novel sensitive negative layer adjacent to an absorber layer juxtaposed with a nucleation and reversal layer to form a sensitive surface on one side, and a right-reading positive photograph on the other side. The invention allows rapid, near instantaneous photographic capture with a camera, a scanner or a projector onto a conveniently sized, practical display format having high quality photographic resolution. The invention may utilize novel channeled directional substrates having controlled diffusion characteristics to preserve sharpness and fidelity of the resulting picture. The substrates may have lightwave limiting apertures capable of selectively passing various colors and polarizations of light, contain filtering elements, and have silver halide coupled or transported dyes located therein to interact with the opposite positive image forming layer. Monochrome and multicolor versions are described. The monochrome embodiment incorporates silver diffusion transfer reversal processes and the multicolor embodiment incorporates dye-coupled diffusion transfer processes. Sheet and rolls of material of various forms may be economically fabricated and rapidly processed in a monobath, via a roller wetter, a heated element, a wet belt, or by spray or vapor to produce a display-ready, high quality photographic print at low cost and with reduced waste.

Astonishingly detailed Daguerreotype

This article (LINK) brings you to an article in Wired about the restoration and presentation of a mid 1800s photograph at the George Eastman House, and it is worth a look.

 This was shot with a simple camera, perhaps with a single uncoated lens. You can read the time on the clocktower, see people, horses and carriages, read all the signs, and more.  

New55 FILM slideshow on Flickr updates

Cropped New55 FILM, click to enlarge

If you have a Flickr account you will see the entire show, and even if you have no account, you can still view this slide show of experimental New55 FILM shots of still life, figures, and other subjects by clicking here.