I really enjoyed this video, one thing that got skipped is the importance of polaroids in professional applications, when I started as a commercial photographer I worked in product studios. Polaroid was how we were able to test the light when we shot film. it was a vital part of the commercial process.
My wife bought me a Polaroid camera for my birthday soon after we started dating 41 years ago. It was a fun camera to take to parties. I kept the camera for purely sentimental reasons even when I couldn’t purchase film for it. Now the film is being manufactured again I shall buy some and see if the camera still works. I have other much older cameras that work fine so why not?
I had an uncle who had one of the earlier Land cameras. I remember being very impressed with it as a small child. I later mowed lawns and washed cars to buy a Swinger. I used that hint for several years. It was a lot better after color film became available for it. It was still in my garage a couple of years ago. I think my wife finally threw it away in 2019. I still have some of the photos. One of them was one of the first photos of Neil Armstrong after he got out of quarantine at NASA in Houston. A friend of mine were there for the press conference. I was 12 or 13 and it was quite hot. My friend passed out so they took him inside the building and I went along. The press conference was outside and the astronauts were waiting inside with family. They were fresh out of quarantine and as they walked by I stepped out and took a flash pic with my Swinger of Armstrong and his wife. This was prior to any of the pro photographers waiting at the doors got any pics. I still have the original. I had several copies made and have since scanned it. It is a cool memory.
My first Polaroid encounter was my godfather in the early 60's. He had one. I thought it was so cool. My parents gave me one for Christmas when I was around 10. I took a lot of photos with it. I still have some of those photos. The Black and Whites were actually better than the color so I shot more B&W. As I became a teen, I got into 35mm and in high school got my first pro camera, a Nikon F2. I will say the Polaroid helped me become more creative and I learned a lot about composition so I am thankful my parents gave me one! I would spend hours in my room setting up toys and models/rockets and even my little dog would pose for me!! I enjoyed this history video! Thank you, it bought back lots of memories!!
I'm glad how some brands like Polaroid are keeping our history alive. The retro vibes, the colours, those ergonomics... everything about these polaroids brings back some well-remembered memories. Thank you for making this video guys...☺️👍
Back in the 70's my brother was the (A) QC director for Polaroid . He and another engineer was sent to Enschede Holland to set up and get a film production factory going. That is where I first saw the SX 70 . As a budding professional photographer he let me play with it and as much as I liked it I found the color on the cool side . He said he would "Run that up the ladder" . When I returned to the states after a visit , I noticed the color was much improved....... I never got paid for that suggestion but always loved telling the story. Great podcast , good memories Bob Hunt
When I was in 8th grade, back in 1974, I wrote Edwin Land regarding an article that he had written in Sciientific American about color vision. He was very gracious and had one of his associated provide me with all sorts of information. I reproduced the experiment that he described in the article (he had this thing about doing one experiment a day). My science project won first prize in my school, Top in Category in the Northeastern Illinois Science Fair and Outstanding at the State Science Fair held at University of Illinois- Champain -Urbana....I've always been incredibly grateful to him.
Back in the 80's, my grandma bought me a Polaroid camera for Christmas. I loved having the instant photo. I did hate the price for the film and the most you could get out of one was 15 photos. Having the Polaroid, I started taking random photos of my younger sister when I was bored including doing a few "set ups". Little did I know, it was my first photography bug. I don't have the camera anymore. I wouldn't mind getting another one. On another note, I didn't know I was really into photography until the 90's when I worked at a Walgreens for their 1 hour photo station. I have been slowly learning etc every since then.
I discovered Edwin Land in the mid-1960's when I ran across his Retinex Theory in a Scientific American article--he's truly an amazing individual. My first actual Polaroid camera was a Big Shot around 1970, a dedicated headshot/portrait camera. I also remember being blown away by the SX-70 when it came out--a folding SLR? Batteries in the film pack? Flashbar? Sonar for focusing? The camera itself had amazing technology. Sadly, SX-70 film results were, in my opinion, much worse than from their earlier peel-apart film, especially the black and white stuff. I did use a Polaroid back on my Mamiya RB-67 for a couple of years, to 'preview' shots before committing to regular film, though.
My experience doesn't coincide with your timelines. I bought a color Polaroid camera in 1970. I took it with me to basic training. Everyone wanted me to take a picture, so I sold them for $1 per photo. I still made a small profit. The quality was great, and of all the old color pictures I have, they have held up the best by far. Actually, almost perfect after 50 years.
Lots of memories.... thanks.... here is my story.... I had one of those Swinger cameras and had lots of fun with it if I had the money to buy the film... but the funny story was due to a High school project. I was supposed to demonstrate if gravity or the need for water determined how the roots of a seed developed (Down for gravity or up for the water) Skipping over the details.... I forgot all about the experiment and in next to the last day I was working like crazy to put the report together.... But how to you make roots grow in a day??? So I glued (using Elmer's glue) the seeds in place and used the camera to document the "results". It turn out that the white glue looked like roots and the bad quality of the photos (in part due to the photographer -me) allow me to document the "results". Roots go for the water and not gravity!!! Got an "A"!!! Teacher was happy with my use of photos in a report (the start of the multimedia???)..... so I can say the instant photography and the Swinger camera (and lots of imaginations LOL) saved my grades in high schools..... Hope none of my teachers can read this!!!!!
I was working in a local camera store during (and before) the introduction of the SX 70.... Huge hit ! There was a line out the door. Neat that a fresh battery was built into each film pack. Solved one of the major complaints of earlier polaroid cameras... dead battery at picture time.
I sold cameras 1977 era, right out of high school lots of fun. A lot of my customers called the film "sl-70" and flashbulbs. I'm grinning right now thinking about it.
Friend of mine worked at the plant in New Bedford for 20+ years. He lost his whole pension when they went bankrupt. Said everyone came in one day and they told them all in the lobby that all their money was gone. Just like that. It ruined people.
My sister received a Swinger from her boyfriend when she graduated from high school in 1967. Our dad made some comment that it looked expensive and since I was 10 I started singing "it's only 19 dollars and 99" boy was my sister mad. It took black and white pictures that weren't very good. My mom had a Polaroid camera that you needed to brush some fixer thing over the print after it developed.
In 1966, I bought a Swinger at age 14. My friend and I would lay down on the ground and take close-up pictures of miniature toy soldiers and other military equipment...we'd sprinkle dust and dirt on our subjects to make them look more real. It was so much fun!
For a while in the 2005-2012 whoever owned the trademark for Polaroid was licensing out the name and logo to anyone willing to pay. Wal-Mart sold Polaroid TVs, and even many third party camera accessories (battery grips, etc,) carried the logo.
I remember Polaroids from my childhood but it was so expensive back then. We don't have a lot of pictures and the image quality wasn't that good. It was in the 80s. Today, I am using an Instax mini and an Instax Square printer. I love it. I have a board that fits around 40 images. The photos rotate, the photos change, the board is alive and shows family, friends and recent projects. Great!
Just wanted to drop by and tell you guys again how much I appreciate your content. I’ve been watching you for years and I always look forward to seeing what you do next. This episode in particular I was super happy to see, as I’m a huge Polaroid fan, and still have my old Land Camera 250. Keep up the great work!
My 10 year old granddaughter wanted a polaroid camera for her birthday. She was so excited she went around taking pictures of everybody in the family. I was a yearbook photographer in high school in the early 60's and we had the old Graflex and a polaroid camera. I remember you had to manually pull it out and then apply some chemical to it which came on a pad. So I'm guessing it must have been the original model. This was a very interesting video.
I love my Polaroids (SX70 & 690). Original Polaroid film quality has taken a huge step up in the last year or two. However, I'm not convinced that they are fully using the old patents. (Could be due to environmental regulations, cost or availability). The current film takes about 15 minutes to develop to about 90% and you need to keep it in a dark place. Moreover it continues to develop for several hours. The company's FAQ page recommends that you not put anything on top of the photos for 30 days because the chemicals continue to dry during that time. I remember Polaroids in the 70's & 80's being quicker to develop with less trouble. Anyway, I still enjoy them and am taking the 690 and lots of film on a road trip next week.
Leavenworth is a civilian facility that houses 1,705 male inmates. It is one of three major prisons on federal land in Leavenworth County, Kansas. It is often confused with the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), which is a maximum-security military facility adjacent to the Fort Leavenworth Army Base.
I remember decades ago listening to an NPR interview with William Wegman, the photographer famous for the work he did with his Weimaraner dogs. He went on and on about how you had to see the photos in person to appreciate them because they were shot on 20 inch by 24 inch Polaroid film. That blew my mind then and it blows my mind even more now. It's like a modern camera with a 794 mm sensor!
I collect old cameras, Seventies Japanese, germans manufacture after the second war and Polaroids 👉🏻they are increased their price in an impressive way lately.
I have a really crap Polaroid tripod. It barely holds my camera without slowly drooping. It's nice to hear they are trying to restore the name. The cameras I remember were used in portrait studios to quickly capture an image so you didn't have to go home empty handed. My aunt purchased on but the film was quite expensive so she was really stingy about using it. The quality of the shots was really pretty poor and they faded in the sun really quickly. You could get the bodies in the thrift store for a few cents after people got tired of buying the film. I think the disk camera was from about the same era. That was a terrible idea as the negatives were tiny
Yeah I had a Minolta disc camera I think, the images were pretty grainy and it cost as much to develop the film as 36 exposure rolls and yet I remember there being a lot less images, maybe 15, not sure. I'd still say the images were better than a Polaroid overall and where I got my disc films developed did larger prints. I could be wrong but I remember outside bright images looking great with the disc camera but indoors looking grainy. Still preferred my 110 camera for taking about but I quickly moved to 35mm because the 36 exposure film was the best value and quality for buying and developing. Seemed to remember you could buy film for about £1.50 and develop it for about £2 so only about 10p an image. I had a Zenit Lomo camera and then a Ricoh KR-10 Super which was my last camera before moving to digital.
I’ve got the Polaroid Onyx camera that you can see through and it’s just sitting on the shelf waiting to become rare and valuable (that’s a joke). I never thought the film I bought in recent years worked very well. Didn’t realize it was the same film the Polaroid had.
When I was a kid back in the 70's, the only reason I knew what Polaroid meant was because my dad was an insurance adjuster, and had a Polaroid camera to take pictures of claims (and of his kids). I'll never forget the smell and the careful handling those pictures required as they developed. I went the conventional film route as an adult, but fast forward 20 years and I get involved in scavenger hunts involving 24 hour trips through the countryside by motorcycle. The proof of finding the clues was provided by Polaroid pictures of each goal with our motorcycle in the picture! I still have the Polaroid 600(?) that I used back then (the 2000's). My daughter now uses one of the reborn mini-instant cameras that's on the market and produces Polaroid-like pictures.
The formula they’re using now isn’t the original formula for many reasons: some film components and chemicals aren’t available or legal anymore. Therefore the new Polaroid film still takes more time to develop and is light and temperature sensitive during development
You skipped over pack film! Superior in quality to integral film (SX-70), and available in 4x5 and 8x10, it produced a normal print, not a plastic enclosed picture of low quality. The main reason that film wasn't revived is because it is too complex to produce.
I have an original Model 95 and Model 400 (garage sale finds), a 1965 Swinger and a 1974 SX70 Alpha 1 (my dad's cameras). The swinger wasn't THAT hard to use, I could do it at 8 years old. Remember RED (squeeze the focus knob on the shutter release and turn till it says "YES"). WHITE (press shutter release). BLUE (push blue button on back with your thumb, grasp film and pull smoothly out). Wait 60 seconds and peel image from backer paper. The step most people forgot was to apply the stop bath/fixer that came with each roll of film. And the film was black and white only. Somewhere I still have some Swinger images. The Swinger got a bad rap, but it was NOT a bad camera.
My dad had those old Polaroids back in the 1960s. I remember him taking the picture, pulling the tab, then the film and timing it watch to peel it off. My dad also had a camera like Chelsea has in her lap.
When our first born was still in a stroller, circa early 2000s, we bought what seemed to be the best of both worlds... Digital and Instant, an Olympus Camedia. Shot digitally, but exposed instant film inside the camera itself when you wanted a print. It wasn't as chic then as Polaroid and Instax are now, again, though.
My mom worked at Polaroid in Cambridge and Waltham Massachusetts. She worked there for close to 40 years. Back in 1972 I got to meet Tom Scholz before he became uber famous for being in the rock band Boston. He showed me his audio recording machine that he had built. The best part for me as 7 year old was getting to play on the PDP11's in the data center. We of course had plenty of cameras. SX-70's and a couple of 420's. Very fond memories..
You can do this now with any camera, you don't need a polaroid. I have a Canon Selphy printer where you can just pop out your card and into the printer and print any image you want on a 4x6 piece of photo paper. The printer runs on batteries so you don't need cables, and you're not limited to whatever paper fits in the camera. Personally, I think printing on demand is a huge waste of resources and a pain for the shooter, but hey if that's what people want.
I used Polaroid though my youth and in my 20's. Later used Polaroid back's with my medium format cameras to test lighting and approval with clients on photo sessions.
I personally don't have much experience with a Polaroid but it is my daughter's first camera. She loves it and enjoys the instant results on paper. I should borrow it sometime.
My 17 yr old is in love with Polaroid. He has a new one. I think it a One Shot. Well we were in a local camera shop 2 weeks ago. Long story short. We left with a SX70. It’s in Brooklyn NY now for a refub and conversion to 600 film. Now I’m excited to get it back and play with it too!
The revival part was extremely short, that's a pity. It would have been interesting to show that transition in a bit more details including the community aspect.
Love all this older content !!! My first job was selling cameras for a local department store, "Higbees", Polaroid made an autofocus camera too. I remember the price being 189.99, people came in and bought them like they were very cheap back in the later '70s that was a good chunk of change. The one-step was 32.99 we would get 100 in a matter of day they were all sold. The single pack of film was 5.99, a double back was 10.99 the film was out of stock all the time. Those cameras were so much fun It's such a shame I have thousands of photos that rolled up cant even scan them. I can go on and about cameras and film. I have lots of 4x5, 120,620,127 remember the 110 films?
@@rebeccamoore4177 I have 4 big plastic bins. FROM 40-50-60-70-80 Plus negatives. Mom Dad sister's and mine. Good luck on your scanning. Remember to back up the computer.
@@michaelh7506 Indeed. Currently I'm putting them on an external drive and I have a paid backup too, so hopefully all is well. I can't wait to pass them off to the kids. But it is a herculean task!
Tony is probably thinking of the military prison in Fort Leavensworth, which is the only maximum security military prison. But only military personnel convicted to more than 10 years in a court martial go there. Petters would not go to military prison for a ponzi scheme, so he probably went to United States Penitentiary also in Leavenworth. But that is just a regular low and medium security prison.
My father had a Polaroid camera and he took pictures of our family in the early 1960s. They turned out fine and I still have some of them. The camera looked kind of like that "flask". He would expand the camera, take the picture, remove it from the camera, wait a number of seconds, pull off the protective film and apply the "fixer". Et voilà, we would have a black-and-white picture. It was amazing, but expensive.
Hey, Nice video!! Quick question though. Can we expect a video on this channel about the cinematic mode of the iPhone 13 series? I am excited to see your honest opinion about it
As an early teen I owned a Polaroid Swinger. You forgot to mention the disgusting nasty squeegee that came in an airtight container to coat the print once it developed. The Keystone camera company also made an instant camera, can't recall who's film is utilized. Thanks for the history lesson.
I had a Swinger! But even in the 60s and 70s it made more sense to me shoot 35mm or 110 film and have it processed and printed. Instant photography is a fun novelty, or a quirky art form, but it never made sense for most photography.
Nice video, thanks, the Polaroid, Impossible and now again Polaroid factory is in my hometown Enschede, know many people who worked, there and been there a few times, long time ago I had to make a photography serie when all the employees went on a trip by train to the Photokina in Koln, we used in our photostudio ( 6x6 and 4x5" ) Fuji material 😊
This one was so much fun, thank you. I picked up an original SX70 back in 1982 at a garage sale. Seven dollars !!! for the camera and a bunch of accessories like a remote release and close-up lenses. It was so fun to use but even with that bargain price the per image cost was so high that I didn’t use it as much as I wanted. Years later I discovered that, in storage, ants had nested inside my treasured camera and it was hopelessly destroyed. It’s so cool to see both impossible project and Polaroid originals revive this. I can’t see it lasting a long time but it is really cool to see it here at all.
The polaroid SX 70 was one of the most creative camera systems ever invented. Just look at some of Michael Going's work which even made the cover of Sports Illustrated for Wimbledon. Also, let's not forget the Polaroid Land cameras! Look at Bill Burke's work in his ' 'Portraits' collection. Amazing!!!!!
I have my dad's polaroid land camera. I remember as a kid watching him snap a photo, pull the picture out of the camera, wait 60 seconds then rush to pull the outer layer off put the chemicals on it to "fix" the image. I also remember him in the early 1970 being really upset when they stopped making the film for it in favor of the newer cartridges. He had a LOT of money invested in that camera, the leather case he kept it in, the battery powered flash, etc. Some of the various chemical containers are still in the case with the camera. I actually wish that Polaroid would go full bore retro and make the film and chemicals for that again.
My dad had one of those Polaroid cameras too. I can almost remember the smell of that chemical fixative that you had to swipe on the photo to preserve it. If I recall correctly, it was like a thin pink sponge saturated with the chemical mixture that came in a tube with each pack of film.
I remember working at a camera store in Buffalo, NY in 1980 and Polaroid brought out the first "instant movie film" along with the $500 home processing machine. Within a few weeks, VHS and BETA video tape recording became popular - I remember seeing a stack of those $500 machines in the dumpster.
My mom passed away a few years ago and one of the things I got was the old family polaroid camera. Cut to this year, I went to a photoshoot and before leaving my house, on my way out the door I grabbed that camera (I don't know why). I get to the shoot and I take a shot of one of the models with the polaroid and then just carry on with my mirrorless. Later that day, another model asked who had the film camera? There were 3 photographers (including me) and the guy who brought a hassleblad starts to beam with pride. She says no, the instant one, the polaroid, I love those! lol. What can you say? They are fun even in 2021.
Westie (West Haven) right here!! Love Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford for city shots. I do miss the change of season shots, just not the actual change! I loved Polaroid and was happy to see a come back. I've been wanting to pick up a film camera again and go through all that fun times shooting with film!! Thanks y'all for the vid's always a good learn.
Thanks for sharing....I was born in 1943 so it was great to hear your story etc. I have never owned a Polaroid camera but now see them advertised sometimes... cheers 😀
Circa 1982 at age 8 I went to Disneyland and EVERY photo the adults took was an epic fail, So I took over the family Poloriad and nailed ALL the family photos..... the year is now 2021 and I've been a professional photographer/enthusiast ever since! Instant printing is why I own 3 modern thermal sublimation printers, 2 fuji instax, along with a ton of epic vintage cameras... many are working Polaroids!
Leavenworth is a Federal penitentiary in Kansas. GI's who commit horrendous crimes in the military used to get sent there. Used to be they made pea gravel out of boulders there.
I had a Polaroid camera as a child. I think I bought maybe one or two film cartridges for it and that was it. I'm based in the UK and back then you could get film developed very cheaply. Maybe a third of the cost of a Polaroid cartridge and it could have maybe 36 prints and it was all done by post in just a few days. Anyway I went from the bulky Polaroid camera to a 110 based camera which was pocket friendly and you could take with you anywhere. I have to say I felt the cheaper Polaroid cameras like mine were terrible but that model that folds flat looks much better. Ultimately I feel the Polaroid cameras were interesting technology of their day but pretty awful cameras to be honest.
I had no idea the Polaroid story was so thick with details! I worked for an Agriculture library and we had lots of 35mm film to digitize. They had a dedicated digitizer that did a great job and we used it for years. It, after years of good service, broke down and I contacted Polaroid for parts. They were just shutting down and said, hey- we have one here we can ship you. So we got a brand new in-the-box 35mm scanner that 10 years ago was still going strong and extra parts included. Such great service. They also phoned back to see if it worked OK for us.
Loved this podcast. I recall an uncle of mine using a Polaroid "Land" camera in the 1950's when I was a kid. Much later as a Professional Photographer I had Polaroid backs for my Hasselblad, my 6x7 Bronica and my 4x5 inch view camera, so used a lot of Polaroid film for checking lighting. My idol is Ansel Adams and one of my treasures is a first edition of his autobiography where he has a whole chapter about Edwin Land and how he (Ansel) became involved in testing Polaroid film for Polaroid in the 1950's. Good one, Cheers, Bruce
I have a Minolta Instant PRO with advanced features and close-up lens that uses Polaroid Spectra film. Used it once or twice. It’s all in its original box. I don’t remember when I bought it. It was made in UK. I thought it was cool. “Life time warranty !” I had to check how much $20 was in the 60’s. My grandmother would give me and my brother $10 to $20 each for taking her shopping at least once a week. We’d spend several hours with her shopping. We were in high school at the time.
My uncle had an original Land Camera in the early 1950s, and I picked one up sometime in the 1970s for, maybe, $10. I had read in one of Ansel Adams’ excellent books that he experimented with Polaroid’s black-and-white positive-negative film. I shot a few rolls with mixed results and ultimately went back to Kodak’s tried-and-true Tri-X and Pan-X films. I got more use out of the oddball Polaroid Big Shot, which had a fixed lens, no aperture or focus adjustments, and required Flash Cubes (!) for exposure. Its long focal length produced nice informal portraits - with Tony-pleasing bokeh! I still have both, but they’ve been unused for years.
Reminiscent of the resurrection of vinyl LP records that were declared dead after CDs came out in mid-eighties. Thanks for the video. I had no idea Polaroid was back. I am going to look into getting some film for my Hasselblad Polaroid back. Do you know if that is available now?
Helmut Newton’s book on Polaroids was an afterthought which makes sense, before digital pros often used a Polaroid back to dial in the shot. Love the history aspect of these videos.
Go to squarespace.com/Chelsea & save 10% off your first website or domain with code “Chelsea”
I really enjoyed this video, one thing that got skipped is the importance of polaroids in professional applications, when I started as a commercial photographer I worked in product studios. Polaroid was how we were able to test the light when we shot film. it was a vital part of the commercial process.
My wife bought me a Polaroid camera for my birthday soon after we started dating 41 years ago. It was a fun camera to take to parties. I kept the camera for purely sentimental reasons even when I couldn’t purchase film for it. Now the film is being manufactured again I shall buy some and see if the camera still works. I have other much older cameras that work fine so why not?
1
The new film cartridges don't work in the original cameras without modification.
@@msandersen Thanks for the tip. I must admit I had assumed they would be the same.
I had an uncle who had one of the earlier Land cameras. I remember being very impressed with it as a small child. I later mowed lawns and washed cars to buy a Swinger. I used that hint for several years. It was a lot better after color film became available for it. It was still in my garage a couple of years ago. I think my wife finally threw it away in 2019. I still have some of the photos. One of them was one of the first photos of Neil Armstrong after he got out of quarantine at NASA in Houston. A friend of mine were there for the press conference. I was 12 or 13 and it was quite hot. My friend passed out so they took him inside the building and I went along. The press conference was outside and the astronauts were waiting inside with family. They were fresh out of quarantine and as they walked by I stepped out and took a flash pic with my Swinger of Armstrong and his wife. This was prior to any of the pro photographers waiting at the doors got any pics. I still have the original. I had several copies made and have since scanned it. It is a cool memory.
My first Polaroid encounter was my godfather in the early 60's. He had one. I thought it was so cool. My parents gave me one for Christmas when I was around 10. I took a lot of photos with it. I still have some of those photos. The Black and Whites were actually better than the color so I shot more B&W. As I became a teen, I got into 35mm and in high school got my first pro camera, a Nikon F2. I will say the Polaroid helped me become more creative and I learned a lot about composition so I am thankful my parents gave me one! I would spend hours in my room setting up toys and models/rockets and even my little dog would pose for me!! I enjoyed this history video! Thank you, it bought back lots of memories!!
I'm glad how some brands like Polaroid are keeping our history alive. The retro vibes, the colours, those ergonomics... everything about these polaroids brings back some well-remembered memories. Thank you for making this video guys...☺️👍
Back in the 70's my brother was the (A) QC director for Polaroid . He and another engineer was sent to Enschede Holland to set up and get a film production factory going. That is where I first saw the SX 70 . As a budding professional photographer he let me play with it and as much as I liked it I found the color on the cool side . He said he would "Run that up the ladder" .
When I returned to the states after a visit , I noticed the color was much improved....... I never got paid for that suggestion but always loved telling the story.
Great podcast , good memories Bob Hunt
When I was in 8th grade, back in 1974, I wrote Edwin Land regarding an article that he had written in Sciientific American about color vision. He was very gracious and had one of his associated provide me with all sorts of information. I reproduced the experiment that he described in the article (he had this thing about doing one experiment a day). My science project won first prize in my school, Top in Category in the Northeastern Illinois Science Fair and Outstanding at the State Science Fair held at University of Illinois- Champain -Urbana....I've always been incredibly grateful to him.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story.
This is the type of content I love from your channel. I wish the 'Breaking News' eps had this relaxed style without the music and transitions.
After all this time, I remember the sound of a picture ejecting out of an XS70. Oh, Leavenworth is at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Back in the 80's, my grandma bought me a Polaroid camera for Christmas. I loved having the instant photo. I did hate the price for the film and the most you could get out of one was 15 photos. Having the Polaroid, I started taking random photos of my younger sister when I was bored including doing a few "set ups". Little did I know, it was my first photography bug. I don't have the camera anymore. I wouldn't mind getting another one. On another note, I didn't know I was really into photography until the 90's when I worked at a Walgreens for their 1 hour photo station. I have been slowly learning etc every since then.
I discovered Edwin Land in the mid-1960's when I ran across his Retinex Theory in a Scientific American article--he's truly an amazing individual. My first actual Polaroid camera was a Big Shot around 1970, a dedicated headshot/portrait camera. I also remember being blown away by the SX-70 when it came out--a folding SLR? Batteries in the film pack? Flashbar? Sonar for focusing? The camera itself had amazing technology. Sadly, SX-70 film results were, in my opinion, much worse than from their earlier peel-apart film, especially the black and white stuff.
I did use a Polaroid back on my Mamiya RB-67 for a couple of years, to 'preview' shots before committing to regular film, though.
My experience doesn't coincide with your timelines. I bought a color Polaroid camera in 1970. I took it with me to basic training. Everyone wanted me to take a picture, so I sold them for $1 per photo. I still made a small profit. The quality was great, and of all the old color pictures I have, they have held up the best by far. Actually, almost perfect after 50 years.
Lots of memories.... thanks.... here is my story.... I had one of those Swinger cameras and had lots of fun with it if I had the money to buy the film... but the funny story was due to a High school project. I was supposed to demonstrate if gravity or the need for water determined how the roots of a seed developed (Down for gravity or up for the water) Skipping over the details.... I forgot all about the experiment and in next to the last day I was working like crazy to put the report together.... But how to you make roots grow in a day???
So I glued (using Elmer's glue) the seeds in place and used the camera to document the "results". It turn out that the white glue looked like roots and the bad quality of the photos (in part due to the photographer -me) allow me to document the "results". Roots go for the water and not gravity!!!
Got an "A"!!! Teacher was happy with my use of photos in a report (the start of the multimedia???)..... so I can say the instant photography and the Swinger camera (and lots of imaginations LOL) saved my grades in high schools..... Hope none of my teachers can read this!!!!!
LOL!😄
I was working in a local camera store during (and before) the introduction of the SX 70.... Huge hit ! There was a line out the door. Neat that a fresh battery was built into each film pack. Solved one of the major complaints of earlier polaroid cameras... dead battery at picture time.
I sold cameras 1977 era, right out of high school lots of fun. A lot of my customers called the film "sl-70" and flashbulbs. I'm grinning right now thinking about it.
Friend of mine worked at the plant in New Bedford for 20+ years. He lost his whole pension when they went bankrupt. Said everyone came in one day and they told them all in the lobby that all their money was gone. Just like that. It ruined people.
My sister received a Swinger from her boyfriend when she graduated from high school in 1967. Our dad made some comment that it looked expensive and since I was 10 I started singing "it's only 19 dollars and 99" boy was my sister mad. It took black and white pictures that weren't very good. My mom had a Polaroid camera that you needed to brush some fixer thing over the print after it developed.
In 1966, I bought a Swinger at age 14. My friend and I would lay down on the ground and take close-up pictures of miniature toy soldiers and other military equipment...we'd sprinkle dust and dirt on our subjects to make them look more real. It was so much fun!
For a while in the 2005-2012 whoever owned the trademark for Polaroid was licensing out the name and logo to anyone willing to pay. Wal-Mart sold Polaroid TVs, and even many third party camera accessories (battery grips, etc,) carried the logo.
I remember Polaroids from my childhood but it was so expensive back then. We don't have a lot of pictures and the image quality wasn't that good. It was in the 80s.
Today, I am using an Instax mini and an Instax Square printer. I love it. I have a board that fits around 40 images. The photos rotate, the photos change, the board is alive and shows family, friends and recent projects. Great!
Just wanted to drop by and tell you guys again how much I appreciate your content. I’ve been watching you for years and I always look forward to seeing what you do next. This episode in particular I was super happy to see, as I’m a huge Polaroid fan, and still have my old Land Camera 250. Keep up the great work!
My 10 year old granddaughter wanted a polaroid camera for her birthday. She was so excited she went around taking pictures of everybody in the family.
I was a yearbook photographer in high school in the early 60's and we had the old Graflex and a polaroid camera. I remember you had to manually pull it out and then apply some chemical to it which came on a pad. So I'm guessing it must have been the original model.
This was a very interesting video.
I love my Polaroids (SX70 & 690). Original Polaroid film quality has taken a huge step up in the last year or two. However, I'm not convinced that they are fully using the old patents. (Could be due to environmental regulations, cost or availability). The current film takes about 15 minutes to develop to about 90% and you need to keep it in a dark place. Moreover it continues to develop for several hours. The company's FAQ page recommends that you not put anything on top of the photos for 30 days because the chemicals continue to dry during that time. I remember Polaroids in the 70's & 80's being quicker to develop with less trouble. Anyway, I still enjoy them and am taking the 690 and lots of film on a road trip next week.
Leavenworth is a civilian facility that houses 1,705 male inmates. It is one of three major prisons on federal land in Leavenworth County, Kansas. It is often confused with the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), which is a maximum-security military facility adjacent to the Fort Leavenworth Army Base.
This video was so interesting. I love learning about the history of these companies.
Enjoyed this so much. Thank you Chelsea and Tony!
- Robert
My first camera was a Polaroid Swinger camera that I received for my 15th birthday in 1967.
I remember decades ago listening to an NPR interview with William Wegman, the photographer famous for the work he did with his Weimaraner dogs. He went on and on about how you had to see the photos in person to appreciate them because they were shot on 20 inch by 24 inch Polaroid film. That blew my mind then and it blows my mind even more now. It's like a modern camera with a 794 mm sensor!
Polarized glasses are used for fishing.
I collect old cameras, Seventies Japanese, germans manufacture after the second war and Polaroids 👉🏻they are increased their price in an impressive way lately.
I have a really crap Polaroid tripod. It barely holds my camera without slowly drooping. It's nice to hear they are trying to restore the name. The cameras I remember were used in portrait studios to quickly capture an image so you didn't have to go home empty handed. My aunt purchased on but the film was quite expensive so she was really stingy about using it. The quality of the shots was really pretty poor and they faded in the sun really quickly. You could get the bodies in the thrift store for a few cents after people got tired of buying the film. I think the disk camera was from about the same era. That was a terrible idea as the negatives were tiny
Yeah I had a Minolta disc camera I think, the images were pretty grainy and it cost as much to develop the film as 36 exposure rolls and yet I remember there being a lot less images, maybe 15, not sure. I'd still say the images were better than a Polaroid overall and where I got my disc films developed did larger prints. I could be wrong but I remember outside bright images looking great with the disc camera but indoors looking grainy. Still preferred my 110 camera for taking about but I quickly moved to 35mm because the 36 exposure film was the best value and quality for buying and developing. Seemed to remember you could buy film for about £1.50 and develop it for about £2 so only about 10p an image. I had a Zenit Lomo camera and then a Ricoh KR-10 Super which was my last camera before moving to digital.
@@bonzobanana1 sounds about right. 3 pounds 50 was a lot in today's money for tiny 4x3 images on a wide lens
I’ve got the Polaroid Onyx camera that you can see through and it’s just sitting on the shelf waiting to become rare and valuable (that’s a joke). I never thought the film I bought in recent years worked very well. Didn’t realize it was the same film the Polaroid had.
Forget using it again Im afraid, they've discontinued Spectra/Image film as its unreliable, so back on your shelf permanently.
When I was a kid back in the 70's, the only reason I knew what Polaroid meant was because my dad was an insurance adjuster, and had a Polaroid camera to take pictures of claims (and of his kids). I'll never forget the smell and the careful handling those pictures required as they developed. I went the conventional film route as an adult, but fast forward 20 years and I get involved in scavenger hunts involving 24 hour trips through the countryside by motorcycle. The proof of finding the clues was provided by Polaroid pictures of each goal with our motorcycle in the picture! I still have the Polaroid 600(?) that I used back then (the 2000's). My daughter now uses one of the reborn mini-instant cameras that's on the market and produces Polaroid-like pictures.
Somewhere I still have the Polaroid slide making kit and loved it...I miss slides.
The formula they’re using now isn’t the original formula for many reasons: some film components and chemicals aren’t available or legal anymore. Therefore the new Polaroid film still takes more time to develop and is light and temperature sensitive during development
Such a good duo!
You skipped over pack film! Superior in quality to integral film (SX-70), and available in 4x5 and 8x10, it produced a normal print, not a plastic enclosed picture of low quality. The main reason that film wasn't revived is because it is too complex to produce.
please create a Tony and Chelsea Storytime playlist for these types of videos, absolutely love them
When I was just a young blood, my grandmother gave me my first camera to play with, A Polaroid 1 Step that still works to this day.
25:10 Your friend's dog took a photo with his Polaroid camera? That's a talented dog.
I have an original Model 95 and Model 400 (garage sale finds), a 1965 Swinger and a 1974 SX70 Alpha 1 (my dad's cameras). The swinger wasn't THAT hard to use, I could do it at 8 years old. Remember RED (squeeze the focus knob on the shutter release and turn till it says "YES"). WHITE (press shutter release). BLUE (push blue button on back with your thumb, grasp film and pull smoothly out). Wait 60 seconds and peel image from backer paper. The step most people forgot was to apply the stop bath/fixer that came with each roll of film. And the film was black and white only. Somewhere I still have some Swinger images. The Swinger got a bad rap, but it was NOT a bad camera.
My dad had those old Polaroids back in the 1960s. I remember him taking the picture, pulling the tab, then the film and timing it watch to peel it off. My dad also had a camera like Chelsea has in her lap.
What about those crappy Kodak disk cameras?
When our first born was still in a stroller, circa early 2000s, we bought what seemed to be the best of both worlds... Digital and Instant, an Olympus Camedia. Shot digitally, but exposed instant film inside the camera itself when you wanted a print. It wasn't as chic then as Polaroid and Instax are now, again, though.
My mom worked at Polaroid in Cambridge and Waltham Massachusetts. She worked there for close to 40 years. Back in 1972 I got to meet Tom Scholz before he became uber famous for being in the rock band Boston. He showed me his audio recording machine that he had built. The best part for me as 7 year old was getting to play on the PDP11's in the data center. We of course had plenty of cameras. SX-70's and a couple of 420's. Very fond memories..
You can do this now with any camera, you don't need a polaroid. I have a Canon Selphy printer where you can just pop out your card and into the printer and print any image you want on a 4x6 piece of photo paper. The printer runs on batteries so you don't need cables, and you're not limited to whatever paper fits in the camera. Personally, I think printing on demand is a huge waste of resources and a pain for the shooter, but hey if that's what people want.
I used Polaroid though my youth and in my 20's. Later used Polaroid back's with my medium format cameras to test lighting and approval with clients on photo sessions.
I personally don't have much experience with a Polaroid but it is my daughter's first camera. She loves it and enjoys the instant results on paper. I should borrow it sometime.
My 17 yr old is in love with Polaroid. He has a new one. I think it a One Shot. Well we were in a local camera shop 2 weeks ago. Long story short. We left with a SX70. It’s in Brooklyn NY now for a refub and conversion to 600 film. Now I’m excited to get it back and play with it too!
The revival part was extremely short, that's a pity. It would have been interesting to show that transition in a bit more details including the community aspect.
Love all this older content !!! My first job was selling cameras for a local department store, "Higbees", Polaroid made an autofocus camera too. I remember the price being 189.99, people came in and bought them like they were very cheap back in the later '70s that was a good chunk of change. The one-step was 32.99 we would get 100 in a matter of day they were all sold. The single pack of film was 5.99, a double back was 10.99 the film was out of stock all the time. Those cameras were so much fun It's such a shame I have thousands of photos that rolled up cant even scan them. I can go on and about cameras and film. I have lots of 4x5, 120,620,127 remember the 110 films?
I’m slowly going through old family pictures and taking pictures of them to fake digitalize them. I’ve done Polaroid shots and they came out okay.
@@rebeccamoore4177 I have 4 big plastic bins. FROM 40-50-60-70-80
Plus negatives. Mom Dad sister's and mine. Good luck on your scanning. Remember to back up the computer.
@@michaelh7506 Indeed. Currently I'm putting them on an external drive and I have a paid backup too, so hopefully all is well. I can't wait to pass them off to the kids. But it is a herculean task!
Tony is probably thinking of the military prison in Fort Leavensworth, which is the only maximum security military prison.
But only military personnel convicted to more than 10 years in a court martial go there. Petters would not go to military prison for a ponzi scheme, so he probably went to United States Penitentiary also in Leavenworth. But that is just a regular low and medium security prison.
I remember as a kid watching the Polaroid Swinger commercial on TV featuring a young, pre-famous Ali MacGraw.
My father had a Polaroid camera and he took pictures of our family in the early 1960s. They turned out fine and I still have some of them. The camera looked kind of like that "flask". He would expand the camera, take the picture, remove it from the camera, wait a number of seconds, pull off the protective film and apply the "fixer". Et voilà, we would have a black-and-white picture. It was amazing, but expensive.
Hey, Nice video!!
Quick question though. Can we expect a video on this channel about the cinematic mode of the iPhone 13 series? I am excited to see your honest opinion about it
Leavenworth is in Kansas and it’s a military prison for the most part.
Are they still making the peel apart 4x5 film. That was brilliant.
We had a Polaroid Colour Swinger Land Camera, ah the memories! It used to be one of my favorite toys growing up despite being an actual camera!
As an early teen I owned a Polaroid Swinger. You forgot to mention the disgusting nasty squeegee that came in an airtight container to coat the print once it developed. The Keystone camera company also made an instant camera, can't recall who's film is utilized. Thanks for the history lesson.
I had a Polaroid when I was a kid. I spent so much money on their film. I would love to get one now, but I have too much camera stuff now...!
I had a Swinger! But even in the 60s and 70s it made more sense to me shoot 35mm or 110 film and have it processed and printed. Instant photography is a fun novelty, or a quirky art form, but it never made sense for most photography.
Nice video, thanks, the Polaroid, Impossible and now again Polaroid factory is in my hometown Enschede, know many people
who worked, there and been there a few times, long time ago I had to make a photography serie when all the employees went on a trip by train to the
Photokina in Koln, we used in our photostudio ( 6x6 and 4x5" ) Fuji material 😊
This one was so much fun, thank you. I picked up an original SX70 back in 1982 at a garage sale. Seven dollars !!! for the camera and a bunch of accessories like a remote release and close-up lenses. It was so fun to use but even with that bargain price the per image cost was so high that I didn’t use it as much as I wanted. Years later I discovered that, in storage, ants had nested inside my treasured camera and it was hopelessly destroyed. It’s so cool to see both impossible project and Polaroid originals revive this. I can’t see it lasting a long time but it is really cool to see it here at all.
The polaroid SX 70 was one of the most creative camera systems ever invented. Just look at some of Michael Going's work which even made the cover of Sports Illustrated for Wimbledon. Also, let's not forget the Polaroid Land cameras! Look at Bill Burke's work in his ' 'Portraits' collection. Amazing!!!!!
I have my dad's polaroid land camera. I remember as a kid watching him snap a photo, pull the picture out of the camera, wait 60 seconds then rush to pull the outer layer off put the chemicals on it to "fix" the image. I also remember him in the early 1970 being really upset when they stopped making the film for it in favor of the newer cartridges. He had a LOT of money invested in that camera, the leather case he kept it in, the battery powered flash, etc. Some of the various chemical containers are still in the case with the camera.
I actually wish that Polaroid would go full bore retro and make the film and chemicals for that again.
My dad had one of those Polaroid cameras too. I can almost remember the smell of that chemical fixative that you had to swipe on the photo to preserve it. If I recall correctly, it was like a thin pink sponge saturated with the chemical mixture that came in a tube with each pack of film.
I still kept the 645CLm. I have not use it for donkey years. Recently i checked the price of a pack 8 shot film... Price is ridiculous!
CLm? I think m is a typo...
Oops... 645CL
I remember working at a camera store in Buffalo, NY in 1980 and Polaroid brought out the first "instant movie film" along with the $500 home processing machine. Within a few weeks, VHS and BETA video tape recording became popular - I remember seeing a stack of those $500 machines in the dumpster.
Yes that was a huge failure that really accelerated their bankruptcy!
Wow. I wasn’t familiar with instant movie film technology. Sounds like it would have been a good idea if it had been invented 15 or 20 years earlier.
My mom passed away a few years ago and one of the things I got was the old family polaroid camera. Cut to this year, I went to a photoshoot and before leaving my house, on my way out the door I grabbed that camera (I don't know why). I get to the shoot and I take a shot of one of the models with the polaroid and then just carry on with my mirrorless. Later that day, another model asked who had the film camera? There were 3 photographers (including me) and the guy who brought a hassleblad starts to beam with pride. She says no, the instant one, the polaroid, I love those! lol. What can you say? They are fun even in 2021.
Westie (West Haven) right here!! Love Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford for city shots. I do miss the change of season shots, just not the actual change! I loved Polaroid and was happy to see a come back. I've been wanting to pick up a film camera again and go through all that fun times shooting with film!! Thanks y'all for the vid's always a good learn.
Thanks! You two are the best!!
Love the history, thanks for doing the research!
Chelsea's top is lovely
I was amazed the other day when I saw new round-framed polaroid cartridges
This camera history content is great! Thanks you!
Thanks for sharing....I was born in 1943 so it was great to hear your story etc. I have never owned a Polaroid camera but now see them advertised sometimes... cheers 😀
Fascinating! Watching this I briefly considered buying one for my grandson but then I looked at the cost of the film!
not sure but did Polaroid make a 35mm instant slide film? I seem to remember seeing it but never tried it
" I don't know anything about Prisons- Look, I'm wearing a Cardigan"~ Chelsea Northrup
Awesome stuff Love it!
Circa 1982 at age 8 I went to Disneyland and EVERY photo the adults took was an epic fail, So I took over the family Poloriad and nailed ALL the family photos..... the year is now 2021 and I've been a professional photographer/enthusiast ever since! Instant printing is why I own 3 modern thermal sublimation printers, 2 fuji instax, along with a ton of epic vintage cameras... many are working Polaroids!
Leavenworth is a Federal penitentiary in Kansas. GI's who commit horrendous crimes in the military used to get sent there. Used to be they made pea gravel out of boulders there.
Great story, thanks for sharing.
I had a Polaroid camera as a child. I think I bought maybe one or two film cartridges for it and that was it. I'm based in the UK and back then you could get film developed very cheaply. Maybe a third of the cost of a Polaroid cartridge and it could have maybe 36 prints and it was all done by post in just a few days. Anyway I went from the bulky Polaroid camera to a 110 based camera which was pocket friendly and you could take with you anywhere. I have to say I felt the cheaper Polaroid cameras like mine were terrible but that model that folds flat looks much better. Ultimately I feel the Polaroid cameras were interesting technology of their day but pretty awful cameras to be honest.
Tony: "can we get a little nerdy?'
Me inside: "yes, please!"
What a clever and interesting man he was. I remember the 1972 model.
I still have my grandmother's polaroid swinger camera. It's in excellent shape
I had no idea the Polaroid story was so thick with details!
I worked for an Agriculture library and we had lots of 35mm film to digitize. They had a dedicated digitizer that did a great job and we used it for years. It, after years of good service, broke down and I contacted Polaroid for parts. They were just shutting down and said, hey- we have one here we can ship you. So we got a brand new in-the-box 35mm scanner that 10 years ago was still going strong and extra parts included.
Such great service. They also phoned back to see if it worked OK for us.
Loved this podcast. I recall an uncle of mine using a Polaroid "Land" camera in the 1950's when I was a kid. Much later as a Professional Photographer I had Polaroid backs for my Hasselblad, my 6x7 Bronica and my 4x5 inch view camera, so used a lot of Polaroid film for checking lighting. My idol is Ansel Adams and one of my treasures is a first edition of his autobiography where he has a whole chapter about Edwin Land and how he (Ansel) became involved in testing Polaroid film for Polaroid in the 1950's. Good one, Cheers, Bruce
I have a Minolta Instant PRO with advanced features and close-up lens that uses Polaroid Spectra film. Used it once or twice. It’s all in its original box. I don’t remember when I bought it. It was made in UK. I thought it was cool. “Life time warranty !” I had to check how much $20 was in the 60’s. My grandmother would give me and my brother $10 to $20 each for taking her shopping at least once a week. We’d spend several hours with her shopping. We were in high school at the time.
Any Swifties???
❤️❤️❤️
Yay a new video!!!
The last time I remember having pictures developed was 2002 at local CVS or Walmart but I guess the flip phones came out in 2004 and killed it
The swinger - my first camera in 1967!
As I recall Edwin Land talked about Ansel Adams and Adams in depth knowledge and curiosity in regards to film technology.
My uncle had an original Land Camera in the early 1950s, and I picked one up sometime in the 1970s for, maybe, $10. I had read in one of Ansel Adams’ excellent books that he experimented with Polaroid’s black-and-white positive-negative film. I shot a few rolls with mixed results and ultimately went back to Kodak’s tried-and-true Tri-X and Pan-X films. I got more use out of the oddball Polaroid Big Shot, which had a fixed lens, no aperture or focus adjustments, and required Flash Cubes (!) for exposure. Its long focal length produced nice informal portraits - with Tony-pleasing bokeh! I still have both, but they’ve been unused for years.
Reminiscent of the resurrection of vinyl LP records that were declared dead after CDs came out in mid-eighties. Thanks for the video. I had no idea Polaroid was back. I am going to look into getting some film for my Hasselblad Polaroid back. Do you know if that is available now?
I have the polaroid 600 used by Survivor Man in my closet. The other cameras they used like the Sony zvu's are great paper weights...
Helmut Newton’s book on Polaroids was an afterthought which makes sense, before digital pros often used a Polaroid back to dial in the shot. Love the history aspect of these videos.
Just a few days ago i watched the business insider video "How Polaroid Went From Celebrity Favorite To Bankruptcy | Rise And Fall"
Seriously guys, the sound. Please fix it.
Have you tried Polaroid Go or Polaroid Now cameras?