I’d heard the rumblings for years, but I don’t think I really believed Polaroid would stop making its instant film. I figured it would soldier on in that special sort of technically inferior yet undeniably soul-warming niche, like tube amplifiers and vinyl records. Yet apparently, the end really is near.
For me, Polaroid is deeply associated with my mother’s father. For the first eight or so years of my life, Papaw was never without his SX-70. We all delighted in watching the picture appear. And the SX-70 was one of the coolest pieces of consumer gadgetry ever. It was collapsible and quite an elegant beastie, with actual leather on the outside.
After my grandmother died in 2003, we found every other camera I could ever remember him owning in my lifetime, but we never found that damned SX-70. I have no idea what happened to it. I know for a fact that he kept it even long after he’d bought a more modern Polaroid (I have that one), and even after he started using a 35mm SLR regularly. Oh well.
I dug my Spectra 2 out tonight and found it with film loaded, and only one shot taken. The film may have been in there five years, or even longer. I didn’t expect the battery to have lived this long, but I turned it on and it fired right up. Clearly, the film is quite old; the photo I shot tonight has that washed-out look about it.
So that’s eight washed-out shots left in the camera, and I have one more (unopened) cartridge, and that will be it. Presumably I bought the unopened one and the one loaded in the camera at the same time, so the battery in it is probably good—and maybe the fact that it’s been sealed will make its photos a little better. Perhaps I’ll take it around with me at Christmas this year.
It’s a nifty device. Back before digital photography, an instant camera was a great tool to have while car shopping. I remember monitoring the progress of our home construction with this camera. Yet, it’s only a few-months-long death march to Brickville for it.
Polaroid wants to continue in the digital world with the PoGo, a $100 instant photo printer. It’s a neat idea. I may look into one, if only for the nostalgia.
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I hear you, but (having had a couple of them) Polaroid cameras were always crap, crappy cameras and crappy results. Amazingly, there are those who strive for that crappy look in the world of digital photograpy! Hey, let’s be nostalgic, let’s go back to the days before antibiotics.
As you may surmise, kitsch does nothing for me.
Gerry: To be sure, you traded significant quality for the novelty of holding it in your hand immediately…but it was such a magic.
MY grandfather had one of those, too! I remember his taking six pictures, one for each of the grandkids, and our waving them in the air while they developed.
I hadn’t dug that memory up in about 30 years…
I am still watching out for it! 🙂
It even inspired pop culture, viz., “shake it like a Polaroid picture!“
Deep link for the impatient.
Mrs. Chili: Yeah, that’s about how old mine are too. 🙂
Jennifer: Thanks. I’d still like to see it if you do find it, but it’s no big deal. I wanted it mostly to use it, and that’s going to be impossible in a few months.
Greg: If I knew you could do that deep link bit, I forgot. Thanks.
Remember Pete Balazsy’s image transfer stuff he did? This will kill that style of printing, which is a shame. I am pretty sure Pete has moved on from it, but it was a very interesting process.