Polachrome
It was actually a brilliant concept: a color slide film that could be easily developed at home right after exposure, allowing the photographer to hold the finished slides in their hands after a total processing time of just five minutes, including prep and post-work.
No wet hands, no measuring of water or chemistry, and not even a darkroom was required. Every roll of film came bundled with its own processing pack. The exposed film and the pack were simply loaded into a Polaroid AutoProcessor, where development took place. Watch the video to learn more!
Unfortunately, Polaroid discontinued this entire film lineup in the early 2000s. The most famous among them, Polachrome, was a true instant color slide film.
Polapan
In addition to the three film types mentioned above, Polaroid also manufactured Polablue BN, a high-contrast blue-and-white film rated at just ISO 8.
Polapan, on the other hand, was a black-and-white slide film with a speed of ISO 125, which was available in both 12 and 36 exposure rolls.
For a fun and experimental day of shooting, I highly recommend looking into Polapan and Polagraph films. However, it takes a bit of luck regarding the condition of the vintage stock. Out of five Polachrome films that I personally tried to shoot, I was unfortunately only able to develop a single roll. With all the others, the process failed completely due to the processing chemistry in the packs having dried out entirely over the decades.
Polagraph
Polagraph films were high-contrast black-and-white stocks, specifically designed by Polaroid for capturing charts, tables, and line art, though they can also be used beautifully for artistic and creative photography today.
The viewfinder shot shown above was captured on Polagraph film, while the other two images (featuring the Hasselblad and the film packaging) were taken using Polachrome film.
My final verdict: As long as there are still old, expired stocks floating around out there—go grab one for yourself!