Polaroid news release - passing of an era

[Mitchell Andrus]

"Notification of Polaroid Instant Film Availability

Due to marketplace conditions, Polaroid has discontinued almost all of its instant analog hardware products. Polaroid has also made the difficult decision to cease manufacturing of instant film products in 2008 "

Times... they are a-changing

[Justin Leiwig]

"Notification of Polaroid Instant Film Availability

Due to marketplace conditions, Polaroid has discontinued almost all of its instant analog hardware products. Polaroid has also made the difficult decision to cease manufacturing of instant film products in 2008 "

Times... they are a-changing

I thought that happened years ago. I'm not sure why anyone would still use them with the price of their product has increased to the point of stupidity. I think last time I saw film it was like $15 for 10 images or something like that. Sure..it was a novel idea...in the 60s :D

[Lee Schierer]

I hear that Kodachrome and Ectachrome are on the same bus! :(

[Dave Lehnert]

I remembered when they made Kodak quit making instant film. They gave a share of Kodak stock for your useless Kodak instant camera.

[David G Baker]

The Kodak version of the instant film was superior to Polaroid's. I had one of the cameras and loved it and was quite angry at the lawsuit. I ended up getting a coupon for $75 worth of Kodak products.
It will be a crime to see Kodachrome and Ektachrome disappear. I processed around 10 million feet of Ektachrome 7240 motion picture film when I ran a TV news motion picture lab. Kodachrome is also an outstanding slide film.

[Frank Hagan]

I remember the first Polaroids ... black and white, and then you had to rub a "fixer" across the image that put a sheen on it; people would fan the Polaroid back and forth to get it to dry quicker. Later we got a color one with a pack that you put the pic in and put under your arm to give it enough heat to work. We were amazed when they came out with the one that developed right before your eyes ... no peeling paper back after 60 seconds ...

We had a Kodak camera also, and liked it better. I was upset at the patent action and thought the class action settlement was stupid. I would have much preferred being able to keep the camera and buy film.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

I remember the first Polaroids ... black and white, and then you had to rub a "fixer" across the image that put a sheen on it; people would fan the Polaroid back and forth to get it to dry quicker
We bought one of those for my dad ~ 50 years ago.
I still have it somewhere - complete w/the Wink Light attachment.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I also remember quite some time back hearing a blurb on the news about the last company that manufactured typewriters (Olivetti, I think) closing its doors.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I just bought stock in Rockwell Buggy Whips & Wagon Wheels, Inc.

...gonna make a fortune when you all start riding horse-drawns to work.

[Pat Germain]

I think a very big sector of Polaroid's customers were Realtors. When they all went digital, Polaroid lost a very big market share. They tried gimmicks like miniature instant cameras. The resulting pictures were of Soviet quality.

I'm hoping inkjet printers will soon have the same fate as Polaroid film. Same concept: cheap hardware and expensive supplies.

Kodak was hurting even before the digital age. If you asked any professional photographer what was in his camera, dollars to doughnuts he'd say, "Fuji".

[Jeffrey Makiel]

My brothers were photographic retouchers that did all their work on Ektachrome. The studio they were employed atin NYC once did a retouch job for a Fuji Film advertisement. Since the re-touch standard was Kodak Ektachrome, Fuji had to re-shoot using Ektachrome. They did not like this. :(

Eventually, the digital era came and my brothers lost their jobs and their career.

-Jeff :)

[David G Baker]

When Fuji tried to enter into the 16mm news film market the San Francisco sales rep for Fuji went over my head and tried to get upper management to force me to convert to their film and chemicals. I spent 3 weeks doing tests on their motion picture film. The base material was much thicker than Ektachrome and during processing the film generated three different types of static electricity on the film. I never did find what caused the static electricity and assumed that it was generated in the magazine loading process. I never had any static electricity problems with Ektachrome. We stayed with Kodak.
I have used Fuji still film a couple of times and it was fine. I did not do enough Fuji shooting to make an honest comparison to Kodak still film.
I still have many rolls of 120 Tri-x and Plus-x that I have kept frozen since 1975. Wonder if I can get them processed if I shoot some pictures on the film?

[Mitchell Andrus]

Anybody have a darkroom when they were kids - or at least younger. I did when I was 12 - 17.

I've tried to 'splain this to some HS students. They just won't understand the sheer joy of developing your own photos with your own enlarger in a darkroom glowing red. B&W of course, color was too expensive. There was a photo supply store about a mile from my dad's house and they had everything I could need.

I can still smell the chemicals. - Funny, the things you remember...

[David G Baker]

Mitchell,
Yup on the darkroom. I still have at least three enlargers. 1 for 2-1/4x2-1/4 and two that will do up to 5x7 negatives. I would spend hours in the darkroom and love every minute of it. At one time I had at least 20 cameras from a Rolli 16mm spy camera to 8x10 cherry wood Kodak view camera. I still have many more than I will ever use.
I spent so much time around photo chemicals that I developed an allergy to ammonium thiosulfate. My skin crawls if I get near a dark room or photo lab.

[David DeCristoforo]

Praise (fill in name of favorite deity here)! Film will never be missed (except for a handful of "art" photographers). Digital imaging rules! No chemistry! No darkroom! No toxic waste! Good riddance!

[Joe Chritz]

While it is a crying shame, the loss of the real vinyl record is a travesty of justice on a cosmic scale. Something about listening to the White album or Hendrix all along the watchtower with those pops and scratches just seems right.

I won't even go into the loss of vinyl Zeppelin.

Nothing stays forever I guess.

Joe

[David G Baker]

David De,
While I was using film I loved it and the darkroom work gave me a lot of satisfaction, but "AMEN" to digital photography. Once in a while I pick up my Nikon 35mm and put it right back down because I won't be able to see if the photo I just shot is any good. I have been crippled by the digital revolution. At one time I was using Polaroid film to confirm the lighting on still life photos. "AMEN" again.