End Of An Era - Polaroid To Cease Production of Instant Film

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What's going to happen to the millions of Polaroid cameras out there? Remember "The Swinger"? My first camera. I later upgraded to a professional model Polaroid in the late 70's that could take 3 or 4 different type of Polaroid film. Unfortunately, it was ripped off in a home burglary we had in the mid 80's.

The Polaroid camera was popular because back then you didn't have 1 hour film services. I remember as a kid coming back from a vacation and dropping our film off for developing on say a Monday. The clerk would hand you a ticket and tell you they could be picked up after 4pm on Thursday.

Digital photography has changed all that. It's sharper than Polaroid photos ever were, and the cost is cheap.
Also as a side bar, Kodak is reducing the number of 35mm films they are producing as well.
 
Digital Cameras

Have pretty much killed off the old film market, even 35mm. Today even top fashion and other professional photographers use digital cameras. Heck, my own dear Mama, loves her digital camera!

You can find old Instamatics, Polaroids, and 35mm cameras by the dozens at thrifts, even some that cost dear in their day and or very late models.

Guess if one owns a Polaroid, better start stocking up on film.

L.
 
My latesest and last film experience...

I've had a Canon digital for 4 years, 3 meg, worked fine. I bumped it or something and it died just before Christmas. I wasn't in the mood to shop for a camera at that point, I had decided to spend $80-$90 on a new one, but did not have the time or the money then. I really wanted to get some pics, my dad is 93, who knows how long he'll be around, so I dug out my old Advantix camera. Batteries dead, no film. Batteries cost $16, single roll of film $8 and add processing and I'm up around $35! A third of what i was planning on spending for basically a one time use, I should have just bought a disposable.

Anyway after 10 or 15 hours of research online i bought a 7 meg Panasonic Limix camera for $125 delivered, picked up a 2 gig media card for $7.95 delivered and I couldn't be happier. Great pictures, as easy or complicated to use as you like an all round great camera.
 
Downside to digital

One point I was going to make is that digital can be very impermanent much as Polaroids. A simple computer crash and all your pictures are gone. Even burning them to CD or DVD does not promise they will last forever. I'm guilty of not backing up as often as i should. I'm thinking of investing in a number of memory stick to save my photos to, they have the greatest chance of surviving long term (not necessarily the format, but the data...).
 
i used to buy Polariod film all the time. think it was 20 dollars. i think one dollar per picture. bought a lot of that stuff. havent bought any in YEARS. sad to see it go...
 
Poloroid Memories

When I was a youngster, my parents were big Poloroid fans--never owned any other type of camera. (Of course, I had an Instamatic, but I was the rebel of the family.)
The first Poloroid I remember in our house was one of the older models (black and white photos in a minute). Then came the Swinger ("It's more than a camera/It's almost alive/It's only 19 dollars and 95"!). Frankly, the pictures were not as sharp as regular film, and I hated that smelly caustic jelly you had to apply onto the photo. But hey, a shot in one minute was still a big deal in the 1960's
Then came 1968, and the Swinger was handed down to me because Mom bought Dad a new Colorpack camera. Now THAT was a great Poloroid--super color pictures and no messy jelly. Of course, the SX 70 and its variants made the Colorpack obsolete--and the digital revolution has put the nail in the coffin.
These days, for occasional shots, I use a disposable camera and have the images transfered to CD for downloading. Yes, I'll get a digital camera. Soon. Maybe with George W.'s rebate check!
But I'll miss my Poloroid days.
 
Mixed feelings

My grandparents were big fans of Poloroid - seems we kids would sit still for pictures better when we got to watch the colors develop.
Myself, if found my very limited photographic talents enormously enhanced by a professional SLR 35mm and diapositiv film. Expensive, but even I could shoot decent pictures that way.
My first digital pictures were taken with a close friends studio camera. Wow! Just as good as my 'chemical' shots and even faster to review than the Poloroid days.

I won't miss 'film', but Poloroid sure matched the 'right now' mood of my childhood.
 
does anyone remember the competition?

Kodak made a competing instant camera....the Handle....in the 70's. Polaroid took them to court and won for patent infringement and the Handle was taken off the market. So was the film...instantly! I have three of them. Took some pretty good snapshots....
 
That Kodak/Polaroid copyright infringement lawsuit was one of the biggest messes in history.
In the early 80's Polaroid sued Kodak for copyright infringement concerning Kodak's instant cameras. The lawyers said it would be a class action lawsuit and the owners of the Kodak Instant Cameras would get big bucks in the end.
In order to qualify, you had to smash your Kodak Instant Camera to little pieces and send in a few of the broken key parts. When you did this you would be added to the class action lawsuit.
A friend of mind did this. He was confident that he would get enough money to pay off his house with his settlement, from what the lawyers were leading the participants to believe. Well, two years goes by and he hears nothing.
Then he gets an envelope from the law firm handling the lawsuit. What was inside? A coupon good for a one time $5.00 off your developing fees at a SELECTED Kodak processing lab, and a handful of $0.20 off coupons for Kodak 35mm film.
Kodak had to pay megabucks to Polaroid and they couldn't produce any more film for the Kodak Instant Camera.

We often wondered how rich the lawyers became off of this one, or did they get paid in coupons too?

 
I think that VHS blanks will linger on for awhile, maybe two years or so. But within a year I don't think that any movie studio will be releasing movies in that format.
They are also talking about CD's becoming a "dead" format.
 
what i drive

Launderess:

I have a 1978 Cadillac el Dorado, mint condition, candy apple red with a white vinyl roof.........the 8tr still works. My partner and I scour yard sales and find the bargains in tapes. Most are so old and brittle that they only play once.....
 
Polaroid Movie Cameras

Does anyone remember the movie camera they made? You would make the movie then when the film ran out you would place it on the projector it would rewind and devlope the film and start projecting. These came out late 70's early 80's right at the beginning of the VHS camera starting to be less expensive. Was not on the market very long.
 
the song for the Swinger comercial

"Meet the Swinger,Polaroid Swinger!It's more than a camera!It's like it's alive. It's only nineteen dolars and ninety five.Swing it up,it says yes take the shot,count it down,strip it off.Meet the Swinger Polaroid Swinger.Meet the Swinger.Polaroid Swinger."
 
Like this?

<object width=425 height=355><param name=movie value=></param><param name=wmode value=transparent></param><embed src= type=application/x-shockwave-flash wmode=transparent width=425 height=355></embed></object>
 
i hate to say this... but i bet an asian company could produce the film and or cameras oveseas for much cheaper than made before. maybe someone will buy the rights?
 
I Shouldn't Think So

Polaroid still owns the rights and patents, anyone seeking to make Polaroid film would have to get permisson from said company and probably pay royalties and other fees. Once they start adding up, given the rather small market, why bother?

Digital cameras are so much a part of things now, especially the young generation on down, film is all but dead if not in a coma. Once things like cell phones and such came with digital cameras, the final nails went into film based photography, Even Kodak is legging it away from it's heritage of film and moving to digital as fast as it can.

If you really wish to see how dead film is, go into any discount drug store, if they are anything like those in our area, 35mm,126 and other film sits in discount bins. Even disposable cameras are moving to digital instead of film.
 
Polaroid may sell the rights and patents to it's defunt film, if the right buyer were to come along. Also, patents do eventually expire, for example the origional Nintendo and the Messiah system (see link, if you have no clue what I'm talking about). It may take a while, but the potential is there...

P.S. There is also the FC Twin too (in case you want both nes and snes)
http://store.videogamecentral.com/supernintendomodel3.html
http://www.playmessiah.com/products/classics/generation-nex-videogame-console.htm
 
the market is so small because the film is so expensive. if the cameras and film was cheap to buy it would be more attractive. and i bet a chinese manufacturer could crank out cheaper instant film.

also, you cant really compare instant film cameras and conventional cameras. the instant aspect gives it potential.
 
~A simple computer crash and all your pictures are gone.

Well one could take the little camera chip to the drugstore and make hard-copies on real photo-paper paper of each photo..........

And if your polaroid is for the purposes of making and taking private pics that don't need to be seen by strangers when developing/printing, one could get a specialize photo-making home printer for digital cameras.
 
Saving pictures

All formats of photography has it good and weak points. I scanned all of my pictures onto my computer and burned them onto a disc. The disc, no matter how good the quality, has a shelf life also. Over time the images or information on a disc will fade away. It sounds like overkill I know. The original and scanned image as well as the disc. That gives me the original and 2 sources of security backup copies in case something happens to the original.

I miss the old fashioned photography we all grew up with. I was sad to see the archives where I work close the photography lab back in the late 90's. We no longer offer photography services to researchers due to the digital revolution. We have a great photography collection (historic photo's) and offer an image scanned on a disc. For anyone interested check out our website at http://www.georgiaarchives.org and click on the "virtual vault" link and look athe column on the left and click on the "Georgia Power Photograph Collection". There are some neat pictures of deco era appliances and a shot of an appliance store interior. You can also find some pictures in the "Vanishing Georgia" collection that will have an appliance in the background.

And yes, we now have some people who have stopped using the disc and have migrated to a memory stick or jump drive. There are so many formats available now. To bad we are loosing the film. It is easier to archive a "real" photograph than the digital image. I have a friend that is really into collecting old camera's simply to decorate with. I guess we will see more of that since they will be relics of the 20th century that can't be used. Sad really. I used to keep an Instamatic for parties and take lots of pictures and give to people attending. It added a bit of fun to the gathering. The digital stuff is cool and has lots of good points but it just won't be the same.
 
This is TRAGIC NEWS!

I lug my SX-70 and 220 with flash outfit to all those special occasions. The SX-70 gets packed with color and is good for "spontaneous" shots, for the 220 I pull out the flash attachment, and blind everyone with a vintage flashbulb. The last one we pulled the waitress into the pic. People my age have never seen anything like it, it's like I work for the AP.

Can't beat the pull-apart b&w shots either. Digital is great for instant gratification or documentation purposes but a stack of polaroids scattered about delievers a tangible kind of fun especially when you stumble on a shot when you least expect it thrown under a book or tossed in a drawer.
 

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