Polaroid has announced that they will no longer manufacture instant film or instant cameras and will instead concentrate on TVs, digital cameras, and printers, says the Chicago Sun-Times:
”We’re trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years,” Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid’s president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday.
Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers who didn’t want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto their old Polaroid cameras.
Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, ”and I’ve got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster,” said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst.
”At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film,” Lee said.
Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said — after which, Lee said, Japan’s Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.
Jessie, the reader who sent in this article says:
Ahh!!! This is so upsetting and yet I absolutely cannot find an e-mail address for ANYONE on their website. I need to revolt. We all need to revolt!! Do you know of any e-mail addresses or anything so I can obsessively write letters?? I would really appreciate any help you could provide.
Google Finance says:
1265 Main St., Bldg. W3
Waltham, MA 02451
USA – Map
+1-781-386-2000 (Phone)
781-386-8588 (Fax)
Sorry, Jessie. This is pretty sad. Polaroid film is pretty cool stuff, and is beloved by art nerds.
Polaroid won’t make Polaroids any longer [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo:Tubes.)
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I hear there is a new way to transmit images and documents using phone lines!
On one hand I see the many uses of them and sad to see them go. On the other hand JESUS H CHRIST them things were heavy to carry around! Many a unpleasant memory of childhood carrying that heavy ass camera all day long at Disney World, Ceder Point, fairs, etc. So much easier now to just carry a pocket sized digital and not see a chiropractor when the day is over.
Polariod cameras are used as proof of task completion for the Iron Butt Motorcycle rallies (like cross country – 10,000 to 11,000 miles in 7 days or such). This is a format that cannot be altered.
I wonder if there is a way/hack for someone to make an insertable digital unit to be able to reuse polaroid cameras…
The SX-70 camera and TimeZero film were great fun. You could manipulate the image as it was developing. Sadly they stopped making that film several years ago. Now the camera is a pretty paperweight.
@SecureLocation:The insertable digital back you’d need would have a HUGE sensor area and cost a hundred to a thousand times the value of the poloroid camera…
There are digital cameras that insert a checksum to make sure the file isn’t altered. Police use them for gathering evidence, so that’s one possibility for the motorcycle nuts and modeling agencies.
You want the poloroid look in your digital images? Desaturate, vignette and blur my friends. You can make ‘em look as “real” as you want.
I’m 99% sure that there’ll be a niche product available for the niche art student market that feels the need to use poloroid cameras.
@ppiddyp: “I’m 99% sure that there’ll be a niche product available for the niche art student market that feels the need to use poloroid cameras.”
When you put it that way, it sounds so ridiculous.
Are they done with the 4×5 stuff as well? What a shame.
Meeeeeeeemories….
@superflippy:
Heh, that was honestly my first thought. Too much America’s Next Top Model, I guess.
@friendlynerd: I’m the Jessie who sent in the article and I do buy Polaroid film. LOTS of it. All the time.
I will be hoarding. :-/ I’m just super bummed.
@nlatimer: It’s not about “usefulness”. It’s about beauty. It’s about art.
Polaroids are the staple of good teachers everywhere. Take snaps of the kids on day one, day 50, day 100, day 130, day 180… you have a year-long art project. So sad.
What a jip. I always loved my Polaroid Camera.
From the blogpost we’re all commenting on:
All other arguments aside, if this was truly part of their strategy then Polaroid has some idiots in its executive suite.
There is absolutely no way that Polaroid will be around for even another 10+ years if their direction is to keep producing junky Chinese digital cameras and leasing their name out to no-name TV companies. (Polaroid electronics are absolute junk…just read the online reviews)
@bluwapadoo: Sammy JANKIS, if I’m not mistaken. Good reference.
As much as I love my digital camera, I think at some point (and apparently at some point soon), I’m going to buy a Polaroid. There’s something pleasantly visceral about that print coming out of the camera and fading into view.
@ceejeemcbeegee: Take digital snaps on day one, day 50, day 100, day 130, day 180… print them out for the in-class art project, email copies to the parents (which have a good chance of getting forwarded to the grandparents), burn copies to a CD to include with the school yearbook, etc, etc, etc.
It’s scary just how easy and convenient digital cameras are. I’ve got a bit of a nostalgic soft-spot for the old Polaroids just like everyone else who grew up with them, but I can’t feel all that sad given just how great the replacements are.
This story should be cross-posted to Wonkette. “Polaraoid Liz” Glover’s going to need a new shtick. Anyway:
@ceejeemcbeegee: I can’t believe there are teachers still using Polaroids. (I spend a fair amount of time visiting elementary schools for work. I see teachers using digital cameras now.) Isn’t the cost-per-print a bit high for the average public school budget?
@econobiker: Actually Polaroid photos are manipulatable, if you’ve got the time (which I assume you wouldn’t during a bike rally). Back around 2000, Polaroid marketed a digital printer that used instant film packs instead of paper. Just take a picture with a digital camera, photoshop it on your PC, and print it on a Polaroid — voila, a fake photo that everyone assumes couldn’t be photoshopped. I always wondered why nobody used that thing for a faking bigfoot photos or some such hoax.
I was actually working in a camera store in 2000. Even then, it seemed like the only people who bought Polaroid cameras were little kids (who thought the photo stickers were neat) and really old men (who didn’t have the patience for photo labs). I’m not surprised the format’s going away, but I’ll miss it a little. I have an irrational soft spot for clumsy and archaic photo formats. In fact, my backup backup camera (the one I keep in case the digital and the 35mm fail me) is a 110 camera. I love it because every photo is blurry and grainy — it doesn’t matter what I’m photographing, every photo taken with that camera looks like it came straight from 1974.
Hell, if 110 goes away next, I may have to break down and buy a Lomo just to keep a toy camera in my rotation.
New direction of Polaroid according to Tom Petters (he spoke at a luncheon this morning that I attended):
[www.zink.com]
Pretty cool idea but if you thought the old polaroid “film” was expensive… imagine what this is going to cost!
I shall weep, just as I weeped when Kodak’s final slide projector rolled of the line.
This is so SAD!! I have a few Polaroid cameras, including the awesome Polaroid Barbie Camera. I’ve taken some great stuff with them, including two amazing shots on b&w at the Warhol museum in PA.
I would definitely be willing to hoard.
@backbroken: I love my 37″ Polaroid. Not the best black level, but other than that, it looks great for the price.
this is sad…i had the model 87 and it was a trip to use, but neat…..
it is sad…i still have a couple of those cameras including a model 87…..
It’s even sadder that outkast said that because you haven’t needed to shake a polaroid picture since it first came out. Back then it peeled apart so it was exposed and you needed to shake it a little to help it dry faster. Ever since then it’s all contained inside the polaroid so shaking it actually can mess it up now. Leave it up to someone looking for a catch phrase to sell records to totally be 50 years too late lol.
@ohgoodness:
Unfortunately art that requires a high level of capital for manufacturing can’t be profitable and sustainable unless useful.