Instant The Story of Polaroid: How a Garage Start-up Became a Pop-Culture Phenomenon

After all, digital pictures are instant pictures. The chief advance of Polaroid photography was that you immediately saw what you had done. If the photo was overexposed, blurry, or badly framed, you could try shooting it again, then and there. With a digital camera, you get your feedback even faster, essentially for free.

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When it introduced instant photography in the late 1940s, Polaroid the corporation followed a path that has since become familiar in Silicon Valley: Tech-genius founder has a fantastic idea and finds like-minded colleagues to develop it; they pull a ridiculous number of all-nighters to do so, with as much passion for the problem-solving as for the product; venture capital and smart marketing follows; everyone gets rich, but not for the sake of getting rich. For a while, the possibilities seem limitless. Then,sometimes, the MBAs come in and mess things up, or the creators find themselves in over their heads as businesspeople, and the story ends with an unpleasant thud.

The American Chemical Society dedicated Edwin Land and Polaroid instant photography as a National Historic Chemical Landmark in a ceremony at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 13, 2015.

Polaroid is an American company best known for its instant film and cameras. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of its Polaroid polarizing polymer.[1] Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,000 in 1978, and its peak revenue was $3 billion in 1991.[2]

When the original Polaroid Corporation was declared bankrupt in 2001,[3][4] its brand and assets were sold off.[5] The "new" Polaroid formed as a result,[3][5] itself declared bankruptcy in 2008, resulting in a further sale to Polish billionaire Wiaczesław Smołokowski. In May 2017, the brand and intellectual property of Polaroid Corporation were acquired by the largest shareholder of the Impossible Project, which had originally started out in 2008 by producing new instant films for Polaroid cameras.[6] The Impossible Project was renamed Polaroid Originals in September 2017,[7][8][9] and in March 2020 was renamed to simply Polaroid.[10]

When Kodak announced instant film cameras in 1976, Polaroid announced they were suing them, accusing Kodak of having stolen its patented instant photography process.[1] In the two years that followed the lawsuit, total sales of instant cameras climbed from 7.4 million cameras in 1976 to 10.3 million in 1977 and 14.3 million in 1978. The suit in federal court lasted 10 years. Polaroid asked for $12 billion for infringements of its patents by Kodak. The court ruled in favor of Polaroid, and ordered Kodak to cease instant picture production, plus pay Polaroid $909.5 million of the $12 billion it had asked for.[1]

In 1977, Land introduced the Polaroid Instant Home Movie camera named Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process. However, the product arrived on the market when videotape-based systems were rapidly gaining popularity. Thus it failed to sell well in retail stores and has been described as the swan song for Polaroid. After four decades as chairman, Edwin Land was coerced into resigning and leaving the corporation he had founded. He died in 1991. The Polavision debacle eventually caused the company to write off $89 million,[1] including most of the manufactured products. The underlying technology of Polavision was later improved for use in the Polachrome instant slide film system.[citation needed]

The Impossible Project (already led by Oskar Smołokowski) was rebranded as Polaroid Originals, with the last factory producing Polaroid-compatible instant film cartridges in Enschede, Netherlands being rebranded under the new name later in 2017.[44]

In March 2019, the new polaroid.com website listed instant cameras and supplies made by Polaroid Originals alongside its other products including digital cameras, sunglasses, the Cube action camera, and television units.[45]

On February 8, 2008, Polaroid (under the control of Thomas J. Petters of Petters Group Worldwide) announced that the company has decided to gradually cease production and withdraw from analog instant film products completely in 2008.[67] Since March 2010, instant film materials for vintage Polaroid cameras have again become available on the market, developed and manufactured by a group called The Impossible Project, at the former Polaroid production plant in Enschede, Netherlands.[68][69]

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009.[70] Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family[71] for what he had named The Impossible Project.[72]

On April 28, 2012, the documentary "Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film", directed by Grant Hamilton, was released in the U.S. It covers the rise, fall, and grass-roots revival of Polaroid's instant film technology.[75]

In summer 2008 Polaroid released the PoGo, an instant photo printer producing 2 by 3 inches (51 mm 76 mm) prints. It uses the Zink ("zero ink") technology which is similar to dye sublimation but has the dye crystals embedded in the photo paper itself.[76] Models CZA-10011B and CZA-20011B exist (which Polaroid claim to be identical).[77]

An instant camera is a camera which uses self-developing film to create a chemically developed print shortly after taking the picture. Polaroid Corporation pioneered (and patented) consumer-friendly instant cameras and film, and were followed by various other manufacturers.

The invention of commercially viable instant cameras which were easy to use is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the model 95 Land Camera, in 1948,[1] a year after he unveiled instant film in New York City.

In February 2008, Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time and announced it would discontinue production of its instant films and cameras, shut down three manufacturing facilities, and lay off 450 workers.[2] Sales of analog film by all makers dropped by at least 25% per year in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2009, Polaroid was acquired by PLR IP Holdings LLC, which uses the Polaroid brand to market various products often relating to instant cameras. Among the products it markets are a Polaroid branded Fuji Instax instant camera, and various digital cameras and portable printers.

As of 2017[update], film continues to be made by Polaroid B.V. (previously the Impossible Project) for several models of Polaroid camera, and for the 810 inch format.[3] Other brands such as Lomography, Leica, Fujifilm, and others have designed new models and features in their own takes on instant cameras.

Models which used SX-70 film were introduced in a folding version, with later versions being solid plastic bodied. Third generation Polaroids, like the once popular SX-70, used a square format integral film, in which all components of the film (negative, developer, fixer, etc.) were contained. The SX-70 instant camera used the print technology that Edwin Land had most desired.[4] It introduced the use of more efficient print technology that developed more instantly than previous film types offered, which cut out some of the user's responsibility and made it easier to use.[4] Each exposure developed automatically once the shot was taken. SX-70 (or Time Zero[vague]) film had a strong following with artists who used it for image manipulation.[citation needed] 600 series cameras such as the Pronto, Sun 600, and One600 used 600 type film which was four times faster than SX-70 film. 600 series cameras were almost all plastic bodied, except for the SLR 680 and 690 models, which resembled SX-70 type cameras, but most came with an electronic flash.

Polaroid also invented and manufactured an instant movie camera system called Polavision. The kit included a camera, film, and a movie viewer. When the movie was shot, it would be taken out of the camera and then inserted into the viewer for development, then viewed after development. This format was close to Super 8 mm film. Polavision film was different from normal film in that it was an additive film, mixing the primary colors (red, green, blue) to form the color image. The biggest disadvantage of the Polavision system was the low film speed (ASA 40),[citation needed] which resulted in having to use very bright lights when taking the movie, as well as requiring a special player to view the developed movie. It also lacked audio capability. Because of this, and combined with the advent of VHS video recorders, Polavision had a short history.

The earliest instant cameras were conceived before Edwin Land's invention of the instant camera. These cameras were, however, more portable wet darkrooms than "instant" camera and were difficult to use.

After Land's instant camera invention was brought to market in 1948, a few different instant cameras were developed, some using Polaroid-compatible film such as cameras by Keystone, Konica, and Minolta. Others were incompatible with Polaroid cameras and film, the most notable of these being made by Kodak, such as the EK series and Kodamatic cameras.

Later, Fujifilm introduced instant cameras and film in selected markets. After taking over an old Polaroid factory in 2008, the Netherlands-based Impossible Project began producing instant film for Polaroid cameras. This helped generate new interest in instant photography.[5] 2ff7e9595c