Goodbye Polaroid!

[Lady Day]

Oh, they got Illford to back it.

I kept thinking, "How could they buy all that equipment so fast?"

LD

 

[KittyVonKirsche]

http://www.polaroid.com/CES/ProductDetail.jsp?folder_id=2534374302037099&prod_code=PG009

 

[MrBern]

SavePolaroid.com

http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

Polaroid workers buy old equipment & are looking for a way to keep the tradition going.
Analog workers shaking their fist at the digital future!

http://www.imaginginfo.com/web/online/News/SavePolaroidcom-Co-Founder-Creates-Two-Companies--Will-Develop-New-Polaroid-Compatible-Film/3$5008

SavePolaroid.com Co-Founder Creates Two Companies, Will Develop New Polaroid-Compatible Film

Posted: March 30th, 2009 01:01 PM EDT


source: PMA Newsline

Dave Bias, co-founder of SavePolaroid.com, announces the formation of two new Polaroid Corp.-related companies -- PolaPremium and The Impossible Project. Bias partnered with Dr. Florian Kaps, the proprietor of unsaleable.com, which has been selling Polaroid film and cameras for the past three years out of Vienna, Austria.

The first new company, PolaPremium, is a partnership with Polaroid to celebrate Polaroid's history and to provide the public with the last quantities of Polaroid-manufactured film, cameras and other related items. Throughout 2009, the company will be releasing unique, limited edition and scavenged films, refurbished and new cameras, and other related items, says Bias.

The second company, The Impossible Project, will begin manufacturing new Polaroid-compatible film beginning in 2010. Kaps purchased the last Polaroid factory in Enschede, Holland, retaining the top eleven workers from the factory, and is currently experimenting with new techniques and sourcing materials needed to make film types compatible with Polaroid 600, SX-70 and Spectra cameras, says Bias.

Kaps and Bias have formed a new company here in the United States, and are officially beginning operations as the North American partner and distributor for PolaPremium. The new Impossible film may be distributed in the U.S. when it's available.

 

[MrBern]

the netherlands

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/technology/26polaroid.html

Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film

They want to recast an outdated production process in an abandoned Polaroid factory for an age that has fallen for digital pictures because they think people still have room in their hearts for retro photography that eschews airbrushing or Photoshop.

 

[FinalVestige79]

This is sad, very sad. Curse you digital photography!! Curse you...this is the exact reason I am getting into vintage cameras!

 

[docneg]

Ah, the old b/w Polaroid process with the smelly fixative...

Boy! As soon as I read these words, that smell came back as clear as anything! Nothing else quite like it.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Hopefully either the employees will get it going again, or it'll come up from overseas. I don't think it'll go away altogether. Like the company that quit producing the pink lawn flamingos, somebody else bought up the equipment and started making them once more.

 

[matrioshka]

I work in a investment casting foundry. We used to use Polaroid cameras to record finished wax assemblies. It's a quick permanent record. But the cost of the film killed it for us.

Digital is a lot cheaper. It also takes up less storage space.

M

 

[maybelaughter]

this makes me sad.
i love love love old cameras, and have a handful of various polaroid cameras which will no longer be used.
i hate the way real film photography is overlooked, especially in my town. the only place that developed medium-format film has gone away, and the only place left looks at you like you're crazy if you want to do anything with a real camera. someday i'll have darkroom access, if i ever get around to transferring colleges....
i've only recently got into doing photo-emulsion transfers (which requires polaroid 669 film), and now it's nearly an obsolete art form. (well, they say that fuji has something comparable, but it's really not as good).
goodbye polaroid, i'll miss you.

 

[Lady Day]

Serious photographers know that even an advanced DSLR camera can't compete with film.

Ya know, I know a few professional photographers who use to say that, but just cant anymore, no matter how much they want to. SO many are reluctantly conceding that digital is, now, at least on par with print in many respects.

Hey, I love film too! Will till I die, but honestly with the Herculean advances digital makes every single year, we just cant say this anymore.


LD

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I can fake a Polaroid in Photoshop just as any other competent graphic designer can, but there is very little satisfaction in it. I'm glad I'll still be able to buy new "Polaroid" film.

 

[Flivver]

As a kid in the 1950s, I used to watch contestants on TV game shows win Polaroid Land Cameras. They were very expensive back then so I didn't even know anyone who owned one. Instant photography sounded like such fun!

In the mid-1960s, Polaroid introduced their first affordable camera, the "Swinger", at $19.95. I asked for, and received one for my 16th birthday in 1967. It was *so* much fun! If only the film wasn't so expensive.

I can still smell the "fixer" that had to be manually applied to each photo after it exited the camera! And, the first "Swingers" only took black and white photos.

Polaroid was a major employer around here (Cambridge MA) but now it's just about all gone...

 

[Cigarband]

My High School Darkroom....

Was the best thing about "old school" photography. There was just enough room for me and Sue Brown.

 

[MrBern]

Urban Outfitters loves Polaroid

Urban Outfitters joins the fight

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/instant-classic-polaroid-revival/

 

[Darhling]

I should get one and loads of film before they are gone forever. I love polaroid pics.. brings back childhood memories.

 

[C-dot]

There was a blurb in the Globe and Mail this past weekend about how some people are trying to get money to save the factory by issuing limited edition Polaroid cameras in some stores. I think it'd be a great thing, I hope they can do it!

 

[Matt Crunk]

Polaroid cameras, maybe. But not standard film cameras. Serious photographers know that even an advanced DSLR camera can't compete with film. Part of the editing process (i.e. some of the things one can do in Photoshop) actually takes place in the darkroom. Besides, working long hours in the darkroom is fun!

NH

As someone who has watched with great interest as the professional world transitioned from film to ever advancing digital technology, I have to disagree. Except for nostalgic purposes, film (both static and motion picture) is obsolete. At this point there is nothing that film can produce that cannot be duplicated with high-end digital technology and photoshop, not to mention being cheaper and more controllable (I don't recall any darkroom process that has an "undo" button).

That said, I still hate to see Polaroid film go.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As someone who has watched with great interest as the professional world transitioned from film to ever advancing digital technology, I have to disagree. Except for nostalgic purposes, film (both static and motion picture) is obsolete. At this point there is nothing that film can produce that cannot be duplicated with high-end digital technology and photoshop, not to mention being cheaper and more controllable (I don't recall any darkroom process that has an "undo" button).

That said, I still hate to see Polaroid film go.

Technologically, you may be right, but as someone involved in motion picture exhibition, I can tell you we're still a long way from film-quality digital projection being fully practical -- practical in the sense that any neighborhood theatre can afford it. It'll be a long time before anything that can equal proper projection of 35mm film will be both available and affordable in the average market, especially since the studios and the MPAA have shown no interest in underwriting the cost of conversion. Film will still be with us for the foreseeable future.

 

[DutchIndo]

Polaroid ?! 35mm is pretty much done too. I remember that Aluminum sleeve you had to put the polaroid photo in. You stuck it in your armpit to develop it.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Technologically, you may be right, but as someone involved in motion picture exhibition, I can tell you we're still a long way from film-quality digital projection being fully practical -- practical in the sense that any neighborhood theatre can afford it. It'll be a long time before anything that can equal proper projection of 35mm film will be both available and affordable in the average market, especially since the studios and the MPAA have shown no interest in underwriting the cost of conversion. Film will still be with us for the foreseeable future.

Well, I live in North Alabama, far from any trend-setting cultural centers. We have at least one theatre in our area that is 100% digital, and another one has four VIP rooms that are digital. So the time is coming. But, I agree that film for final projection will probably be around for awhile.

No doubt many films will still be shot in 35mm by film "purists" too, but more and more large-budget features are being shot digitally as a preferred medium. There are really no longer any shortcomings to shooting digital, but plenty of advantages: It's far cheaper; the equipment is less cumbersome, requireing smaller crews; monitoring and playback are instantanious; and now with HD resolution what it is and most cameras shooting in 24p, it can look just like film - if you want it to.

I also want to ad that most all films today, even those actually shot on film, are transferred to digital for editing, effects, and color correction, then transferred back to film again for distribution.