Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Instant Photography


Remember Polaroids?  Those of us who have been around the block remember those accordion style cameras and the film that you pulled out of the camera.... waited a few seconds or so.... peel away the smelly (and probably hazardous) chemical backing and ta-da... photo.

Later on, we had the Polaroids that were spit out of the camera and the images magically appeared before our eyes.  Nothing to peel.  Just sit back and watch.

What wonderful memories.
Granted, the image quality wasn't the clearest, the colors weren't always a true representation of what you shot... but who cared.  You got the image right away.  You shared them with people and frankly... it's FUN.

For the younger audience... this is long before digital photos.  You had to send film away and waited for the results.  Polaroids - you got INSTANT IMAGES thus the name Instant Photography.

I'm now on my nostalgia phase of life and the need to re-discover the magic and art and the images that are Polaroids is a strong desire.

One problem.... the Polaroids we all knew have long since gone away.  The company exists only in name and no longer makes film.   So we all thought.

On my "Journey into Photography", I learned that the old peel away Instant Film (I'll call them Polaroids just like calling facial tissue Kleenex) still exists.

FujiFilm still makes those wonderful Polaroid Pack type film where you pull the white color plastic tab and then pull out the print, wait and peel the photo way from the chemical backing.


Going to shoot this film soon with another new/used camera - the same model I had as my very 1st camera - The Polaroid Super Colorpack Land Camera.


supercolorpack.pack.jpg

I'll have more about this camera and the images in a future posting.


There is also another version of Instant Photography that we grew up on a bit later from the old Polaroid Pack film.

The Polaroid SX-70, Polaroid 600 / Spectra / OneStep type camera.
This is the one where you no longer need to pull out the film or peel the photo away.

Didn't I say Polaroid no longer makes the traditional Polaroid film?
That is correct.

Another discovery is an instant film from another company called The Impossible Project.


When Polaroid went bankrupt years ago and got out of the film business, a group of former Polaroid employees in the Netherlands saved the last remaining Polaroid plant in Europe.  Although all the chemicals were gone and the formula was gone with the parent company, these people decided there is a market out there to produce Instant Print film.

The results aren't the worlds greatest.  In fact, you can call it experimental film (the image at the top is a sample).  The good people at The Impossible Project are trying to come up with the right formula to give us the Polaroid images we remembered.

The beauty is that all those old Polaroids now have a new life and some even have a new home...
An article on this camera to come soon...


Lastly....
If you want a more modern Instant Camera.  One where the camera spits out the image and it appears before your eyes.... you can't buy a Polaroid.  You can buy a FujiFilm Instax.

The Impossible Project is trying to make Polaroid type film for the older non-pack (spits it out) type Polaroid cameras.

FujiFilm in the mean time, already has a film that works and works fairly well called Instax.

The camera is inexpensive - around $80.

I have a few images from this film and  camera but can't post them at this time.  And yes, another article on the FujiFilm Instax 210 will be out soon as well...


If you find an old Polaroid sitting in a closet or garage, don't just put it in the dumpster.... it's not going to be a Leica that will be worth thousands of dollars.  But at the same time, your next garage sale, you may get a few bucks (enough for a McDonalds Happy Meal perhaps) for that old camera and some sick camera-holic like me will find a new friend and a piece of good ol' Yankee ingenuity will live on.






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