The Death of Polaroid: a Not-so-Instant Development

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  • Опубліковано 19 жов 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 119

  • @fredblonder7850
    @fredblonder7850 2 місяці тому +67

    One aspect of Polaroid photography that I never see mentioned, is that before the advent of digital photography, it was your only option if you wished to take photographs of an (ahem) extremely personal nature, that you did not wish to be processed in a lab. Likewise, the same would be true if you took photos of a criminal nature, or were themselves a crime.

    • @P_RO_
      @P_RO_ 2 місяці тому +16

      The flipside of this is that Polaroids are almost unquestionable as evidence photos because it's nearly impossible to alter the images without it being very obvious. All other image formats- especially digital ones- can be rather easily altered and if it's done well enough that can be nearly impossible to detect. That's why all the apartment maintenance people used them to document damage on move-outs.

    • @kaitlyn__L
      @kaitlyn__L 2 місяці тому +6

      Indeed. I have some friends who had pictures taken of them that were simultaneously all three >.> By the local chief of police, of course, because there’s no better way to insulate yourself from local investigation…

    • @shibasurfing
      @shibasurfing 2 місяці тому +3

      @@P_RO_ it’s very easy to alter a polaroid if you know what you’re doing. obviously there are limits…but it’s fairly absurd to me that photographs are accepted as criminal evidence

    • @NoahSpurrier
      @NoahSpurrier 2 місяці тому +3

      Black and white is easy to develop. Color slides were also easy.

    • @supernovagamer929
      @supernovagamer929 2 місяці тому

      @@P_RO_ I actually have an old Polaroid that previously was used by my local sheriff's office for this very reason.

  • @johncashwell1024
    @johncashwell1024 2 місяці тому +24

    Here's another example: The Canadian company that makes and barely markets the LabRadar has sold the oversized Doppler Radar Chronograph for several years and it's price and large format form factor have remained unchanged for most of those years with little to no changes or upgrades. Then, out of the blue, Garmin comes on the scene with its own Ballistic Radar Chronograph for about the same price, but it's 1/10 the size and weight and it never misses! I bought one and sold my LabRadar.

  • @jeffclark2725
    @jeffclark2725 2 місяці тому +16

    Never knew there was so much to the Polaroid story,thumbs up great video

    • @robertmaxey5406
      @robertmaxey5406 2 місяці тому

      Polaroid sold many interesting products. They made one of the best copy stands available. They made colored polarizers, a film that gave you a high quality b/w negative and a print as well as the Vectograph process which was widely used during the WW2 for creating stereo photographs from aerial images.
      The process was invented by Joseph Mahler, cousin of the renowned conductor Gustav Mahler.
      Polaroid was an amazing company.

  • @paulbush7095
    @paulbush7095 2 місяці тому +4

    I had to chuckle when you said you were old enough to remember a consumer product in 1999. It’s all relative I guess. Thank you very much for the very nostalgic Polaroid pieces.

  • @rickyrico80
    @rickyrico80 2 місяці тому +11

    Oh congrats on 100k! It's well deserved!

  • @marcberm
    @marcberm 2 місяці тому +13

    Ooh! I hope you'll consider continuing this series with the new film and camera products! And of course the history of The Impossible Project and re-establishment of the brand from the ground up that came in between the bankruptcy and now.

    • @MeteorMark
      @MeteorMark 2 місяці тому +1

      Yes please, and for more information about that Gilles can aks my wife, she works at the Impossible Project / Polaroid since 2018, from Berlin and now Amsterdam.
      The cameras and film keep getting better , although not cheaper 🤔

  • @rickyrico80
    @rickyrico80 2 місяці тому +9

    Ok that intro was a banger 🤣🔥

  • @1967AJB
    @1967AJB 2 місяці тому +15

    I never really saw the point of the domestic instant camera. But as a scientific photographer who studied sensitometry Polaroid film was both central to pre-digital applied photography and a delight to study the the beauty of its chemistry and engineering. The design of the emulation pack and processing layers is so clever and refined it deserves more recognition.

    • @Intelwinsbigly
      @Intelwinsbigly 2 місяці тому

      Good advertising mainly

    • @1967AJB
      @1967AJB 2 місяці тому

      @@Intelwinsbigly
      I don’t understand your point.

    • @Intelwinsbigly
      @Intelwinsbigly 2 місяці тому

      @@1967AJBWhat is more advertise-able:
      A scene of a family at the grand canyon using a polaroid camera and polaroid film
      or
      The same family but with a polaroid instant film camera: the dad takes a photo and it comes out in seconds while the camera zooms to the instantly developing film.
      It is a very advertise-able product, whether or not it is better than alternatives matters very little when the name of the game is getting mom and pop to buy the cool shiny thing they saw on T.V.

    • @RCAvhstape
      @RCAvhstape 2 місяці тому +2

      The point of it is pretty obvious. You get the photo immediately instead of having to wait for processing.

    • @AtheistOrphan
      @AtheistOrphan 2 місяці тому +3

      Pre-digital the ‘point’ was of course home-made porn!

  • @CarletonTorpin
    @CarletonTorpin 2 місяці тому +30

    13:03 - "Best-selling camera between 1999 and 2000". WOW! A popularity that spans two millennia!

    • @anotheruser9876
      @anotheruser9876 2 місяці тому +3

      The millennium did not start in 2000 because there was no year 0. It started in 2001. Yeah, I'm fun at parties.

    • @CarletonTorpin
      @CarletonTorpin 2 місяці тому +5

      @@anotheruser9876 That's ok; I'm just mis-quoting a Simpsons episode anyway. :)

    • @anotheruser9876
      @anotheruser9876 2 місяці тому +5

      @@CarletonTorpin D'Oh! 🤦‍♂

  • @freedomlinux
    @freedomlinux 2 місяці тому +4

    Great information - I received the Joycam in my childhood, as a Christmas gift in probably 2000/2001. Pulling the eject "ripcord" is a long-lost memory.
    You're correct that the materials quality is low, but it seemed appropriate for a child's "toy" camera. Later, my parents accidentally left mine on the ground while loading the car after vacation, where it was run over by the car & promptly shattered into pieces :)

  • @0MetallicaManX0
    @0MetallicaManX0 2 місяці тому +2

    100k subs..and still criminally undersubbed! Keep 'em comin!

  • @KarlBunker
    @KarlBunker 2 місяці тому +10

    Kind of sad to see a once-great company floundering around in their death throws like this.

  • @andrewinnj
    @andrewinnj 2 місяці тому +4

    I loved my i-Zone camera 🥲 while you were doing your segment on it, I was thinking, "I hope he doesn't forget to mention how the photos had an adhesive back" and was not disappointed. Then I thought about how I used to make (very simple) model houses out of shoe boxes and other assorted stuff specifically because I wanted to use the photos I took as the art for the walls of the rooms. A nice little memory - thanks for the reminder!

  • @cartamonir
    @cartamonir 2 місяці тому +9

    Always thrilled for a new episode about instant cameras

  • @jimtheedcguy4313
    @jimtheedcguy4313 2 місяці тому +1

    I had an iZone!!!! It was such a cool camera, but uhhh, I’m gonna need to talk about those exposed photos you used on the example 🤣🤣🤣🤣

  • @Allan_aka_RocKITEman
    @Allan_aka_RocKITEman 2 місяці тому +2

    Great vid, Gilles...👍

  • @penbucket
    @penbucket 2 місяці тому +1

    I used the Izone camera- I think my Mom had it. I loved the teeny tiny pictures it produced. It was a fun novelty. Did not realize it was their very last camera. A bummer

  • @albertroman5444
    @albertroman5444 2 місяці тому

    Like the Polaroid pack film, the i-zone had the exposure count written on the pull tabs of the film. There was also a i-zone scanner that would scan your film into a computer for sharing online. It was essentially a mini flatbed scanner, the same size as the i-zone frame.

  • @Livingdiceman
    @Livingdiceman 2 місяці тому +63

    Polaroid is the poster child for corporate complacency. They were years ahead in digital photography at one point and just stuck with what worked, to their own demise.

    • @MultipleObjectSelector
      @MultipleObjectSelector 2 місяці тому +18

      Fairly certain that's Kodak you're talking about, as far as having some pretty good sensor technology and doing relatively little with it despite being first to market.

    • @Livingdiceman
      @Livingdiceman 2 місяці тому +9

      @@MultipleObjectSelector You are correct. I conflated the two corporations.

    • @roadmaster720
      @roadmaster720 2 місяці тому +8

      the 2, polaroid and kodak had new products in digital modes. they sat on their asses and did not pursue the future worth of the new cameras. always stuck in a position of complacency. they both could have been the amazon of photography. the competitors wasted no time selling digital cameras and products to fill that void.i mean when you can take 100 photos with your digital camera and get them printed at walmart for ~ 10.00 or download them to your computer to view/print at your discretion why bother with a polaroid camera using 10 shots of expensive film. my guess about 20.00 in today's money per cartridge. let's not forget the know it all relative ( every family has one of these jerks )who botched up many polaroid shots wasting film and money at precious family moments or events.

    • @P_RO_
      @P_RO_ 2 місяці тому +5

      Polaroid, Kpdak, and... Xerox. They had all their market segments sewed up and sat still thinking that they were too big to fail, even though they had the technology and money to enter the digital age as the leaders. IBM, who gave birth to the digital age, did something similar in failing to see the burgeoning market for home computing and not shifting it's aim there instead of business computers. Like it or not, your business has to keep up with the times as they change or you're going to fail.

    • @jst7714
      @jst7714 2 місяці тому +1

      Respectfully, Kodak was a chemical company that made photographic film, and nearly every aspect of its operations were devoted to the manufacture of photochemicals. It’s not possible to turn a photochemical factory into a camera factory with comparable cost and profit. Even though they were THE name photography, their actual cameras have always been somewhat of an afterthought throughout history.

  • @RCAvhstape
    @RCAvhstape 2 місяці тому +1

    Hope you talk about the Impossible Project next, and also the Fujifilm Instax.

  • @Jsoberon
    @Jsoberon 2 місяці тому +1

    I think it's wrong to consider Kodak a victim of complacency. Polaroid certainly was but not Kodak. Kodak invented the digital camera, and throughout the 90s, they were one of the only companies making professional grade DSLRs. Those professional cameras weren't the most profitable, and Kodak lacked the design expertise, so they were all converted Nikon film cameras with massive and impractical digital guts bolted on. As a result, Kodak left the professional market and moved into consumer digital cameras. It was the rise of camera phones that killed the market of early 2000's digital point-and-shoots, and with that dead, Kodak didn't have much left to go off of.
    Ironically they are doing rather well now selling film.

  • @kidmohair8151
    @kidmohair8151 2 місяці тому

    !00K subs! YAY!
    keep on keeping on M Messier!

  • @CO84trucker
    @CO84trucker 2 місяці тому

    I remember in grade school during school picture day, when class picture was taken the photographer would snap a picture with the professional camera and do a Polaroid shot as well. That way the teacher had a reference to write down the names of students in correct order.

  • @aj_jk1337
    @aj_jk1337 2 місяці тому +3

    I had a 600 and an i zone as a kid. I loved them.

  • @blackpineapple7817
    @blackpineapple7817 2 місяці тому +4

    What about Polaroid today the company is still alive and kicking sell the NOW/NOW+, the GO and the Polaroid i-2, not to mention the Polaroid Printers, the LAB and Hi-Print.

    • @MeteorMark
      @MeteorMark 2 місяці тому

      True dat! 😉🖖

    • @quincyskis
      @quincyskis 2 місяці тому

      It’s not the same company. The intellectual property was purchased and another company operates using the old companies ip

  • @TTRTIM
    @TTRTIM 2 місяці тому +4

    It's interesting to think about the sort of world we'd be living in if digital had never really taken off. The Polaroid instant 35mm always springs to mind when I think about that

    • @johnopalko5223
      @johnopalko5223 2 місяці тому

      If digital had never taken off I'd probably still be developing and printing in my bathroom. Actually, by now, I'd probably have built myself a real darkroom.

    • @hoilst265
      @hoilst265 2 місяці тому +3

      Man, I love looking at Nat Geo mags from the 90s - that was the peak of film photography (and, also, Nat Geo tended to care about their printing, too). Interestingly, Harman (makers of Ilford black and white film) just released their Phoenix colour film (so named for...well, obvious reasons). It's the first new colour emulsion - as in, ground-up, clean-sheet-of-paper - in decades. And, I gotta say it looks...not great (to my eyes), but this is literally the very first colour film they've made, ever, with no input from anything else.
      Pentax just released its first film camera in 21 years - again, clean sheet of paper, not based on an existing design - and it's on back order around the world. In fact, it was on back order about a week after it was released.
      Film's coming back! Or, rather, it never really went anywhere - it just got crowded out.

  • @MartyJWinkler
    @MartyJWinkler 2 місяці тому +2

    Damnit Gilles, you are a gosh darn treasure

  • @hypotheticalaxolotl
    @hypotheticalaxolotl 2 місяці тому +1

    FYI you forgot to include the links to the previous videos/playlist in the description.

  • @milfordcivic6755
    @milfordcivic6755 2 місяці тому

    I had a Polaroid SUN instant camera growing up. 1 pack of film was $10 for 10 pictures. Pretty expensive. Needless to say, I can count on both hands how often I used it from 1986-2017 when I gave it to Goodwill last move

  • @ronfraser5401
    @ronfraser5401 2 місяці тому

    I truly love your video's, your work is both immensely interesting and informative, keep up the good work. It’s nice to have this little oasis of fun knowledge in a desert of mediocre videos.

  • @clarencesmith2305
    @clarencesmith2305 2 місяці тому +1

    The I-zone one/the last one, I saw one at walmart that is simular in style to the full size rigid cameras in the first or second video but takes the small 1 by 2 inch film. Fujifilm instax Mini SE Instant Camera

  • @WarblesOnALot
    @WarblesOnALot 2 місяці тому

    G'day,
    Ahhh,
    You missed one.
    In about 2000 or 2001 for my kids - who were 10 & 9 at the time ; I got them each a version of the last unit you showed in the Video.
    However the ones my kids had, were Blue & Green Cased, in transparent plastic ; and each of Instant Camera also featured a little (Hearing-Aid Battery powered)
    AM/FM Transistor Radio - built in.
    Did they not sell them in
    Kanadia ?
    Such is life,
    Have a good one...
    Stay safe.
    ;-p
    Ciao !

  • @moth.monster
    @moth.monster 2 місяці тому +2

    I remember seeing someone use a Polaroid camera when I was a small child (in the mid-2000s). Despite digital cameras being a thing already, something about the picture appearing just felt like magic.

  • @Ranger_Kevin
    @Ranger_Kevin 2 місяці тому +1

    I remember having an i-zone as a kid. It was a fun toy at the time, but the small image size realy limited what you could do with it.

  • @hughs591
    @hughs591 2 місяці тому

    Thanks for such a succinct and interesting video!

  • @rq5283
    @rq5283 2 місяці тому +2

    On the next episode of Our Own Devices: "The M67 Hand Grenade"

  • @thrillscience
    @thrillscience 2 місяці тому +3

    You cut to an image of a Fotomat when you mentioned "1 hour photo labs", but Fotomats weren't "1 hours photo labs"

    • @WhatALoadOfTosca
      @WhatALoadOfTosca 2 місяці тому

      Not in the beginning, but by the end they were

  • @kaitlyn__L
    @kaitlyn__L 2 місяці тому

    I had an iZone as a child. Silver because it was the cheapest.
    I recall wanting it for what felt like quite a while? But given the classmates in school I showed it to, received in late 2000 used in 2001 sounds right. But possibly late 01 used in 02. So it could’ve been on bankruptcy clearance, or it could’ve been their last pre-bankruptcy holiday rush.
    I never got another pack of film besides the one it came with due to its price, then eventually due to its disappearance.

  • @skylermorris3379
    @skylermorris3379 2 місяці тому

    Wow, it's been a while since I've seen an iZone! I had one as a kid and absolutely loved it. There was even an iZone digital, which was extremely goofy. Instead of doing something cool like taking an instant and digital picture simultaneously through the same lens, they just slapped a really mediocre 0.3MP camera on top that looked like a tumor growing out of the film camera. Pretty good metaphor for the death of Polaroid to be honest.

  • @quantumleap359
    @quantumleap359 2 місяці тому

    One control virtually all Polaroid cameras had was a manual darken/lighten control for exposure compensation. It would seem that the electronics in the later cameras would take care of this chore, but I think the reason was the pack to pack film speed variances inherent in their instant film. The lengths that Polaroid went to in their last few years is rather pitiful to watch, they were clutching at straws.

  • @mattwilliams3456
    @mattwilliams3456 2 місяці тому +7

    I used my i-Zone to take pictures of friends at gunsmithing school to stick next to their contact info in an address book, since they were adhesive backed.

  • @gnored
    @gnored 2 місяці тому

    Watching Polaroid die was so depressing. Pictures got smaller and smaller, cost as much as older system images did with bigger images, and well, the cheapness of the plastic boxes could not be concealed with flashy, but sleazy designs. It was a long, long fall from the SX70, but they did finally reach the bottom. RIP Polaroid :-(

  • @idahofur
    @idahofur 2 місяці тому

    I can understand them trying to be hip in the 90's with new cameras (Due to cost of film). The problem is I can't tell you how many people including my sister got a camera. Used it a few times and put it on a shelf. Another thing I could not understand (even Kodak and the new Polaroid did this.) remove the battery from the film pack. As for the printed paper printer. That was a great idea but once again felt more like a gimmick. One final note is that no matter what sales was slipping. So they should have closed down plants and consolidated I'm not a business person. But, you get the idea. Yes, I also know the new company had to develop s new formula. Also, look at how long Fuji continued to make pack film and how the new Polaroid begged to get the equipment from Fuji.

  • @Matt_The_Hugenot
    @Matt_The_Hugenot 2 місяці тому

    When it was obvious that digital was going to be the thing I was surprised that they kept on trying to push new versions of the old concept. IMHO they should have split the company in two, one to produce film and professional products, the other to make digital cameras where they were the one company with decades of experience making instantly viewable photos.

  • @newtronix
    @newtronix 2 місяці тому

    How about polaroid backs for medium format cameras like the Hasselblad?

  • @levisayev4398
    @levisayev4398 2 місяці тому

    Looking at some of the slr designs, i wish fuji instax would make something similar

  • @lachlanlau
    @lachlanlau 2 місяці тому +1

    the revival of polaroid by enthusiasts is amazing to me

  • @sergeykoshelev4566
    @sergeykoshelev4566 2 місяці тому +1

    Merci beaucoup!

  • @JeffUmstead
    @JeffUmstead Місяць тому

    Polaroid film is currently made, thanks to the Impossible Project, and polaroid cameras are currently being produced and can be bought new.

  • @Pepsiphopia
    @Pepsiphopia 2 місяці тому

    Would have loved pack-film for my 4x5 view camera. But alas. To late. I will have to settle for Instax Wide and the Lomograflok back instead

  • @wullieg7269
    @wullieg7269 2 місяці тому

    best job i ever had!

  • @11THEFEZMAN11
    @11THEFEZMAN11 2 місяці тому

    I worked in a 1hr photo lab from ‘88-98 ironically we had to use Polaroid film for passport photos

  • @Nderak
    @Nderak 2 місяці тому

    my parents have a captiva. gave up wiating for new film to be made a while ago

  • @StubbyPhillips
    @StubbyPhillips 2 місяці тому +1

    11:32!

  • @shibasurfing
    @shibasurfing 2 місяці тому

    Surely you could find an original captiva pro at wukesong no? Huh?

  • @daleolson3506
    @daleolson3506 2 місяці тому +1

    Hi Fred Anderson

  • @joeminella5315
    @joeminella5315 2 місяці тому +2

    👍👍👍👍👍

  • @asn413
    @asn413 2 місяці тому +1

    i made the mistake of buying a polaroid tv after the name got sold out. lasted 2-3 mo.

  • @ibrahimkocaalioglu
    @ibrahimkocaalioglu 2 місяці тому +1

    Photography moves from Germany and USA to Japan. Where next?

  • @SnepperStepTV
    @SnepperStepTV 2 місяці тому

    what pisses me the fuck off is the digital age made people so stupid to the rhythms in life that they didn't remember what the point of having to wait for things like pictures makes the pictures mean. only upon remembering that will anybody actually get why polaroid's version of instant is so important in ways digital can NEVER offer and people are stupider without

  • @zebo-the-fat
    @zebo-the-fat 2 місяці тому +1

    The popshots looks like a toy!

  • @M80Ball
    @M80Ball 2 місяці тому

    I still hear Gin, not Gilles.

  • @northdetroit7994
    @northdetroit7994 2 місяці тому +1

    TT.

  • @thomasb7464
    @thomasb7464 2 місяці тому

    The end of the Land (Camera).

  • @groenekever
    @groenekever 2 місяці тому

    Polaroid name is bought by old workers at the impossible project

  • @11THEFEZMAN11
    @11THEFEZMAN11 2 місяці тому

    I had an i zone my ex wife bought it I think we ran a single pack of film out of it

  • @bombfog1
    @bombfog1 2 місяці тому +1

    I see from your intro that you’ve never thrown a live grenade before. 😊

  • @GeorgiaRidgerunner
    @GeorgiaRidgerunner 2 місяці тому +1

    at wally world (walmart to you normal weirdos) theres a polaroid camera with the polaroid film buts its way overpriced the film alone varies from 70 to 100 dollars dont recall the camera price but it way overpriced too

    • @briansegarra9312
      @briansegarra9312 2 місяці тому +1

      At my walmart i can get polaroid film for about 20 usd $ dam your wally world are really marking up the price

    • @GeorgiaRidgerunner
      @GeorgiaRidgerunner 2 місяці тому

      @@briansegarra9312 this was about a year ago and yes i live in an expensive town everything here is over priced