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I took some pictures with Polaroid Originals' 600 B&W film and aside from a general lack of sharpness, several months after the shots, some orange color casting is starting to appear in the top areas of all frames. It's only a narrow blurry band centered right at the top. It doesn't reach the top corners in most cases.

I can't be sure when it all started, I just recently noticed. Pictures were taken last year March to June (the same single 600 cartridge). I also feel that after these months they have been slowly losing sharpness and contrast in the bottom part (albeit that being much less apparent).

The film was stocked in the fridge until the very first shot, but it remained in camera afterwards. This weird color casting wasn't there when I last checked on them at the end of the year and they have been stored in a box inside a closet (with barely any change in humidity and without extreme temperature changes).

Here's a sample:

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ Do you recall what the expiration was on the box? Batch number? Polaroid Originals is the same film/process (still improving periodically) as Impossible Project, just renamed; the B&W film was always prone to issue with humidity if not stored with silica gel, but some batches were worse than others. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Mar 23, 2020 at 13:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks @ZeissIkon! Unfortunately I can't remember the expiration date. I stored the unexposed film within a sealed plastic back in the fridge for one month after purchase but, as you say, their reliability is very uncertain to start with. What bugs me is that this orange cast started to appear months after the film was developed. Does that make any sense? \$\endgroup\$
    – Carles Araguz
    Mar 23, 2020 at 15:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you add a sample image? \$\endgroup\$
    – xiota
    Mar 23, 2020 at 20:57

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That may be one of the effects of humidity affecting the dyes in the print.

These, like original B&W SX70/600 film, are dye prints, rather than direct silver image, but the silver and undeveloped halide are still present. The sensitive layer is roughly similar to Ilford or Kodak C-41 black and white negative films, but the process for integral instant prints is rather different in detail. The development binds the dyes, and then the unbound dyes (associated with undeveloped halide regions) migrate through the sequestration layer to form the visible image,just as with color integral prints.

One problem that has affected Impossible and Polaroid Originals materials from day one has been that the finished print isn't proof against humidity, and the reaction of the humidity may cause dyes to fade or migrate when they hadn't originally. You may be seeing an effect where normal room humidity has reacted with the undeveloped halide and caused magenta and yellow dyes to migrate at the edge (the top is the last edge through the rollers). This may also be affected by incomplete spreading of some component of the chemicals in the pod.

The original Impossible Project B&W prints would fade -- you may be seeing a case of the cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes fading at different rates where humidity can enter the print at the top edge.

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