Polaroid no longer does Polaroids
By Paul Miller 
posted February 8th 2008 7:25PM
posted February 8th 2008 7:25PM
posted February 8th 2008 7:25PM
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this is a sad sad day.
Yeah, there can't be a follow-up to the movie Mememnto
Sad day indeed.
I used to work in the now closed scottish factory that made Polaroid Peel-Apart film, sunglasses, and lots of cameras. I seen this coming a couple of years ago, but still cant believe it has actually came to this. No doubt we will still see the classic Polaroid picture ident for many years to come.
Hi to all Polaroid ex-pats reading this.
What are photographers going to put in their 'stripped-down, back-to-basics' galleries now?
That's the first thing I was thinking. A Polaroid piece is in my college's art gallery right now.
It's so ironic! Like Xerox not xeroxing or something.
Or Band-Aid not making band-aids anymore!
I guess no one has seen the Xerox monitors. They're awesome, just... expensive.
Or IBM no longer... oh right.
Anyone remember Kodak had a camera that was the same thing and quit making it b/c they got sued? Well, now is the time then for them to bring that back. I've still got mine from back then. LOL A piece of history. (Also aging myself lmao)
I was thinking about the fashion industry. Isn't the Polaroid used to help w/ lighting & quick shots. How're they going to make those people look better than us now?
I thought of the exact same thing as you. LOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_camera
But instant cameras were found to be useful for other purposes such as ID cards, passport photos, ultrasound photos, and other uses which required an instant photo. They were also used by police officers and fire investigators because of their ability to create an unalterable instant photo. Medium and large format professional photographers have also used the higher end instant cameras to preview lighting before taking the more expensive medium and/or large format photo.
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I can't imagine why they can't preview lighting now with a cam connected to a laptop or similar larger display (dunno about the other uses, which i presume have mostly gone digital down to purely cost savings, as most things do)
Haven't most studios migrated to digital cameras and backs?
Digital cameras and LCD screens will not show you what lighting is going to look like when a photo is printed, which is the whole point.
Another industry that's going to be hurt by this is the film industry, although maybe not as much. Polaroids have long been used for both location scouting and continuity. A location scout would go out in the morning with an empty notebook and a Polaroid camera and would come back with a notebook full of Polaroids to show the producer and director for locations. Doing that digitally is not such a big deal but it does require the extra step of transferring shots to a laptop, not to mention carrying a heavier laptop around everywhere. It's a waste of time and energy.
Continuity is a little bit harder, although I'm sure there are already systems in place and that the switchover has already started. But again, in the Polaroid days you'd just take a bunch of shots and put them in folders. Everybody could then pull those out and look at them while they were on set to make sure makeup, costumes, etc. were the same from shot to shot (given that many shots that are supposed to take place at the same time in the same scene are often shot days apart). I imagine these days they use a laptop, but they've either gotta go through the time-consuming process of burning a bunch of discs every day so that multiple people can have simultaneous access while working on different costumes, makeup or sets, or they just have to limit access to whoever's around that one laptop. Either way, it's gotta be a pain in the ass compared to using Polaroids.
I doubt anyone didn't know this was coming, though, so I'm sure the industry's prepared for it... but that doesn't mean they're happy about it.
But you can easily edit the digital photo to fix the details in the final print
I stopped using polaroid 2 years ago when i purchased my digital back. Yes, you see the preview immediately on the computer screen if you are shooting tethered via firewire. What's nice about it is that never again do you lose the "best" first polaroid shot or have to waste time trying to re-create it on film.
I do save about 10K /year by not having to buy polaroid.
Hmmm, the Polaroid thing has a friend in a bit of a tizzy. He has collected and iventoried 250 SX-70s and something else. His problem, what to do with them now. I would imagine that Polaroid would abandom its propriety information to allow third party vendors, but who knows. Any ideas?
I R TEH POLRSAD NOW...
This ought to teach those pop-stars not to get behind products with less than 100 years of existence!
How's it feel OutKast! How's it feel!?!?!?!
On the other hand, "shake it like a Polaroid picture!" is a lot more catchy than "Shake it like a MicroSD solid state flash storage device!"
win
I bet ppl know that even tho solid state memories can handle G-forces, it doesn't mean it necesarry HAVE to be shaken. They could always take on with spraycans, asthma-inhalers.. or your friends can of coke.
Shake it like an asthma inhaler.. *sexy*
"Shake it like a microSDHC card" anyone?
Ooh. Five minutes cost you rankings.
fail
OutKast doesn't look silly, they're gonna be remembered as the last band that mentioned Polaroid before Polaroid film went out of production.
"Shake it like a Polaroid picture."
Polaroid couldn't have been handed a better marketing line associated with a hot pop act at the time, did they sign them up for marketing at all? I'm pretty sure even with a slight push Polaroid could have sold out product because there was so much hype around OutKast at that time.
Those freakin ZINK concepts better get to market!
I remember a press release or an interview or something.
Polaroid did mention that their sales shot up after the song was released. Then they had to remind everyone that shaking a developing shot did not do anything to help it develop faster, thus proving they had no real idea why it was in the OutKast song in the first place or how to capitalize on it.
shoulda just said "you can shake it if you wanna"
Shake it like an Etch-A-Sketch!
@Marvin
You mean they're disappearing? so mean
Title of the article should have been: You Can No Longer Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture...
The boys over at ZINK have revolutionized this piece of the industry. I say this as a silver-halide fan-boy from way back, before th term fan-boy existed. Watch these guys and gals at ZINK, some good things are a comin'!
Yeah, like I'm going to keep a digital camera and printer in the trunk of my car in the event that someone runs into me. Derrr.
I'VE SEEN THE XEROX MONITORS
They are the sweetest things in the world, but you're quite right...their high end ones cost nearly triple what normal high end monitors cost :/
Awwww..memory cards just don't have that same "aroma".
This is a very sad thing to see. Dr. Land who invented Polaroid would be very upset to see what happened to his company. Both my Dad and Mom have lost their jobs and all benefits. 41 years he worked there. Now they did let the digital age by like it was not happening but there is still very useful moments for a instant film.
Movies use them to check the scene real quick, some high end photographers use it still. The film made money.
Like losing a family member.
I feel for you- but it's the American system. You aurvive or you are too stupid. Polaroid (and Kodak too) made all the wrong decisions.
As long as I can keep shaking my monitor to make pictures load faster, I'll be okay.
Funny, when I shake my tablet, the pictures disappear...
now i'll have to go buy a million polaroid film cartridges. my hipster-id demands it of me.
If only you actually COULD stockpile Polaroid film, Sabrina. Alas, the film goes bad after something like 18 months.
and some day in the future we'll learn the news that "Windows no longer does Windows".
Your Windows does windows? What version of Vista has that option? My dogs are always leaving marks on my windows I would love to have a computerized solution to that issue.
Sorry, that wasn't funny at all, Geoffrey.
The first time I ever posed nude for a camera, it was a polaroid. They were a great thing for that. You did not have to worry about showing your bare booty to the geeks at the photolab.
The first time I ever took naked pictures of Angie was through the viewfinder of my Polaroid. It was great.
Care to share with the class?
wtf?
why did you share with the class?
Now future generations aren't going to know the answer to the joke, "What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice for too long?"
Truly the end of an era.
Matt! Awesome. I havew fond memories of that day too. I have updates where should I send them?