Fun fact: the batteries for the 600 packs still hold a charge when you’ve shot your 10 (now 8) shots, and somebody recognized that, and made a little radio that takes empty 600 packs. Just shoot your photos, take the empty pack out, throw it into your lil blue radio, they’re so stupid but so cool.
Used 600 packs are also useful for testing cameras. You can toss a couple already exposed garbage photos back in the pack and make sure things like the flash and eject mechanism are more or less working.
Hey Dank, my grandfather helped design Polaroid cameras in the 70’s, and the ‘metal’ SX-70 cameras are made out of plastic with a matte aluminum chrome on the outside
Not the first year of production .. love that old 48 folding. Dr land sold loads of film back then , 107, 108 and sx 70. Back then a shot on a sx70 cost a buck. Ahh the old days. Rc and multirade paper. Polaroid large format. Yup. Research never lasted. Fondly remember shipping 10thousand one steps from canada to the USA. 22 canadian with 2 packs of film. Film was 10 bux a pack.
Perhaps you might be the correct person to ask this to then, I've heard that the OG sx70 had glass filled polysulfene and then actual chromed metal outside while the alpha 1's chrome is sprayed on
Ethan that’s super cool! I’m actually a current SX-70 technician, and so if your grandfather were to have any factory equipment or stories I’d be happy to connect with him!
5:00 Fun fact about that sonar autofocus: a photographer for Lockheed tried taking a photo of the F-117 but the autofocus wouldn't work on the aircraft. Turns out that sound waves (which the camera the photographer was using used for range finding (like the sx-70)) bounce off like regular radar waves. Lockheed used this to propose an improved stealth submarine based on the F-117 to the navy.
@@UNSCPILOT I think the Zumwalt DDGs have sonar reflection reduction as well as radar stealth. But they only made 3 of them so... Yeah. Maybe for the DDG-X project or the Columbia class SSBNs they'll do something with it
Reminds me of something I read where a pilot told a story about when they were stationed in saudi arabia. In the hangar the aircraft was in there were bats, and in the morning they found dead bats all around the aircraft because they kept running into it because they couldn't "see" it with their echolocation
@@speedman69420 To my knowledge, the Sea Shadow's shape is intended for radar absorption and redirection, particularly against maritime patrol aircraft and the like. As stated, Lockheed did pitch a submarine specifically to defeat sonar and H.I. Sutton has an excellent article (and speculative artwork) on what is publicly available. I'd link it, but UA-cam will get uppity.
It really is amazing how good old film cameras can be when someone knows how to use them. Much better than a modern point and shoot for sure. It's the skill, expense, and general difficulty that makes it impractical though.
I've always enjoyed getting surface knowledge about random topics, so Dank starting to expand his content borders is one of my favourite things of the year so far. Keep it up! You make many peoples days every day just by making the content you love, so thank you!
My great grandmother gifted me her original SX-70 land camera before her death. It still has the original leather carry bag and little instruction sheet. It's probably one of the nicest item I have on display 💛
As a camera collector who has a few too many Polaroids on his shelf, this video was a real treat. I'd love to see you do more camera reviews, especially vintage ones, in the future!
My folks have an old polaroid camera... it has removable... disposable flash cube bulbs... basically it has some type of flash powder in it and when you press the button to take a photo it sends a small electrical charge to the bulb to light the powder... it then simultaneously turns the cube to the next flash bulb (4 flashes per bulb). Really cool when you think about it.
I love how Polaroid has expanded in recent years with the growth of nostalgia stuff. I mean hell, you can _buy_ a polaroid printer and just use the *app* to make photos. Still, I'd happily buy a polaroid just for the simplicity of getting insta-photos.
But why would you wanna print out photos from your phone, there's no fun in that... Just buy a brand new Polaroid camera and shoot with it in the proper way. I think you'd be missing the point of instant photography if you had a preview on your phone, IMO...
@@Ryan-lc4bl Well, printed photos do have that, for lack of a better word, "vibe" to them. I think a lot of people got it for that. Plus, polaroid sells a subpar digital camera with a screen, and you can choose to either print the photos, or just save them to the camera, which I honestly don't understand the point of, because the camera quality is worse than any smartphone made in the last decade. I do agree with you on that though. Half the fun of a polaroid picture is taking it with a really clumbly, uncomfortable to hold camera, with no settings and no idea of how your picture will even end up.
@@tbuk8350 Kind of agree, but there're still a few Polaroid cameras that allow you to have full control over exposure and focus, so they're not completely unpredictable... Any hybrid digital/"instant" camera out there is just not going to match up with any conventional instant camera, their sensor is just tiny in comparison to instant film...
Think about this: A time traveler who was able to travel with only a few things to 2023 and among them carries a Polaroid instant camera to document his findings and take them back in time. How cool is that?
I like seeing dank extending his content variety and seeing him nerd out on this stuff! I love it keep it up dankman! Edit: :0 Can’t say I expected that, Thank you all!
im happy to see dankpods go from a professional drummer who had no money to a youtuber who can just spend patreon money on cool shit to show us its really cool and im so happy for him
I like old stuff also my bro/sis. :) Dank Pods did get something wrong though. The flash design on the Big Shot at 2:20 is not just any diffuser, it is a Fresnel Lens. I am not a photographer, but I know that cos I like science.
@@lazywriting7044 Yep, I am, and am glad, since that is how I was created. Uniquely different. ツ For instance, I have a bit of ADHD, and enjoy science, engineering and learning about our human society.
all of my cameras are over 20 years old and the “point and hope” applies to me so much. you can take some amazing photos on them but you never know if they are good until you load em up or develop. *old cameras are so faffy*
Yeah. I'm a digital person (i love the crispiness of some larger CMOS sensors, and also HFR video is fun), but film cameras always have an amazing look to the images they produce, and a lot of the nice ones take incredibly good photos, that look better than digital cameras a lot of the time. My guess has always been that it's because film has a basically "infinite resolution", because you can just make the film grain finer for "more resolution".
I've seen portable radios made by Polaroid that actually use the spent film cartridges as batteries. Super neat concept and a decent way to somewhat reduce waste, if only for a little bit!
I have a Sun 660 and idk if you’ve tried this but you have to hold the red trigger down halfway so it will manually charge the flash, then it will fire. There is a red indicator light inside the viewer. Great video and I hope the tip helps!
I also have one. There’s another part of the trigger button I think is called the flash override, which is weird bit behind the red part of the trigger. If you pull on that without pulling on the red bit, it takes a picture with no flash.
Yes! I have a 640 and charging the flash takes quite a bit of time... So when I first got it I really thought it was broken - turns out you just have to be patient
Hey Dank, I am a person who likes to do photography with old film cameras. If you really like the feel of vintage cameras, you should consider buying 35mm film and developing the film at home. It is actually quite simple, easy and cheaper than getting it professionally developed, also they still make 35mm film and it’s actually a hobby that is becoming more popular recently.
Ken Block's Ford Fiesta Gymkhana is a sight to behold. Built by Olsbergs specifically for Gymkhana, it's a lightweight, manoeuvrable little car, with massive performance.
Exactly! I own ca. 30 35mm and MF film cameras from different brands and decades and use them (not all) relatively often. I also develop and enlarge or scan the films at home. Even my worst film camera produces much better and higher resolution images than a polaroid (that i had back n the 90s).
As a kid in the Seventies, I remember my mom having cameras with single-use flashes, and then little cube-shaped and bar-shaped flash attachments that you could use four times before having to swap in a new one. Seems crazy to have to keep track of how many flashes you had left in addition to how many film exposures were left on the roll.
@@froges5422 Frankly I'm still shocked to remember that there are people born after the Xbox 360's release lmao. Am I elderly yet? I'm only 18 damnit!!
Here comes another hobby Dank will make much harder to get into! Something tells me this will have another iPod effect, but don't ever stop! These videos are so great!
The thing with old cameras is: that there's already a lot of people in UA-cam that have made videos about it, so getting a functioning one is going to cost you an arm and an eye already lol
Imho content creators are the bane of ebay, the stuff they feature in a video gets sold out, happened to me I dont remember what I was looking for but it wasnt available when it usually is.
I found out how Polaroid photos actually work, and it's actually really interesting. Inside the individual photos, there wide bottom part contains a mix of different gooey chemicals. When you take a picture, a completely normal piece of film is exposed to light and then the photo is forced through the opening on the front. This pushes the goo out of the bottom and spreads it evenly across the surface of the film. This goo is designed to degrade under normal light conditions over the course of a few seconds, but is also the developing solution for the film itself. By the time the film finishes developing, the goo has turned transparent. I still don't fully understand how it develops into a true-color image instead of a negative, but that could be down to the kind of photochemicals they use to produce the image.
You can get an old 35mm film camera for next to nothing at a thrift store, and film isn't that expensive. It is worth learning how to use it first though.
They're great to teach you exposure - if they have a built-in light meter. Otherwise... a dedicated light meter is your friend. Also with film, every shot counts, so it can also teach discipline. They might be 'point and hope' but digital cameras have always been 'spray and pray'.
@@Tracert-mc1hu film is getting expensive if you’re looking at pro-grade film stocks (even the cheap stuff is getting expensive). Plus if you find a camera at the thrift store make sure it works and I would also take it because some of these cameras have ridiculous mark ups on the secondary market and now I expect Polaroid to get the “Some Jerk” effect on eBay and mercari. I sell film cameras on the side which is how I know about the market.
Polaroid cameras were in pretty heavy use by professional photographers until digital cameras were high enough quality to compete with medium- and large-format firm cameras. They were used as a quick test to test everything was set up properly before risking expensive film and time (not to mention having to re-shoot).
Hold on.. What dimension did I slide into? Ive been a big polariod photographer for a long time and this video gives me butterlies! I was a Pioneer for the Impossible project back in the day and own basically every polaroid camera ever made. SLR680 is God Tier for polaroid cameras , an additional note on the Big Shot is that it was the main camera Andy Warhol used to take alot of his iconic portraits with.
So this video has given me IDEAS for christmas so before I start googling and finding who knows what info from who knows where, I hope you don't mind if I ask what's the best instant develop camera to give to a five year old for them to run around on christmas and annoy everyone with?
yo, a photographer here! I just wanted to say, you captured that feeling of value in a photo perfectly in the beginning, pun intended lolol. It’s why I don’t really enjoy taking photos on a phone and instead settle for my professional camera, there’s something special about really being involved in what you capture, every detail every manual adjustment and mistake. I hope to see more camera based videos on this channel man, this is great!
I work at a Five Below and was so surprised to see we were selling not only rolls of film again but tiny cameras! So glad Polaroid managed to come back from the dead, and its been real neat seeing actual film cameras again. After Stranger Things did it I thought it would have died as a fad, but nope. Still going strong X3
My grandfather actually helped develop the developing stuff for the color polaroids and was also granted the first ever phd in organic chemistry for uvm His name was paul huyffer
If there is something I learned about techonology: if things are sufficiently old enough, people will come around that decide to extend support on their own. So there is actually a decent chance that some person in France or India or Brazil to make more films for these cameras. The fact that a new group not only bought the factory to make new films, but also was able to aquire the name Polaroid shows it. Now if Kodak and AGFA can do the same...
Unfortunately all extant tooling for Packfilm has been destroyed, so it would take an initial investment of millions of dollars to make the necessary machines to even start producing any more. And the market probably can't support that, so it's unlikely to ever be made again.
This reminds me of the manual SLR cameras I used in school. They weren’t plaroid but the film had to go through 3 different chemicals and adjusted at a special booth before you knew what each photo would look like. Old cameras are a great way to learn photography properly because you have to know how focus, lighting, iso, lenses work to figure out how to take a picture.
3 steps is a good scenario, not the best since you can usually get it in 2 by omitting stop bath, not the worst because kodachrome has a whole 14 steps. Also colors in 3 steps is somewhat recent, c-41 used to have separate bleach and fix, so 4 steps and proper E-6 has 6 steps.
@@John-Doe-Yo according to someone in another comment thread the batteries weren't completely used up once you finished taking photos with it, so there was still a bit of power left afterwards
The One Step used to have a disposable flash array. It was a bit like a flash cube, except the bulbs were next to each other & formed a bar. I think there used to be a One Step with a sonar. I always wanted one of those. There were commercials with James Garner & Mariette Hartley. The 70's models had a wind up timer on the back. For its time, the Polaroid wasn't THAT bad. I'd say the majority of cameras were fixed focus & often used cheap film cartridges. The cameras were massive enough, that they were fairly easy to keep steady. Keeping steady was the key for good pictures.
That's gotta be a great feeling. Dank is expanding out to things that have absolutely nothing to do with ipods like 70 year old cameras and cars that barely run and we're eating it up. We love your content because of the thing that every video has. You. You have a great personality in which we all love to see in every video you upload.
As somebody who does estate sales for a living I can say that camera is of insane quality for its age. Normally EVERYTHING about those old leather cases fall apart, same with the tunnel for when you extend the camera out. They always get insanely dry and crunchy. Idk how much you paid for that but it’s worth a very pretty penny
I found the same one (not sure about model number tho) in a thrift shop near me less than a year ago- missing the cool lenses but otherwise in similar shape! I can’t seem to find any film compatible so for now I just keep it safe lol
No joke, like 15 years ago when I was in daycare they had the OneStep 635CL as one of the toys we could play with. It didn't have any film for us to use but wow, seeing that in this video was such a throwback and I completely forgot about it until today.
When you showed how the SX-70 popped up I literally gasped out loud that's soooo cool! I would have had no idea that was a camera. I felt the moment my brain ticked over from "What is that object?" to "CAMERA" so hard it was like being smacked with a book. Taking photos of very modern things (like the iphone) with the Polaroid film is also very funny, I enjoy the concept immensely.
I was literally just thinking "It's about time Wade released a video" and fortunately I was right! As a fellow Aussie it's possible I am somehow tapping in to the nugget frequencies.
There was a time when Polaroid photos had an emulsion layer. Click-zzz then set the timer for, like, 3 minutes then peel off the developer layer. So good. I've still got a photo taken in 1976 that still has great colour. The ones you show here take a while to develop, but then fade over time.
My heart aches for polaroid cameras so being able to see videos with people enjoying them is always so so fun. Been really enjoying your content and its been a great source of fun that i throw at my friends too. Keep up the good work, you and your funky long "cat" lol
Edwin H Land, one of the guys that co-founded Polaroid, went to my high school. The school's library is named after him, and there's a section of the place that's a mini museum made for him. It's super cool. 👌🏻
There's a part of my brain that says seeing pictures of modern technology on Polaroid feels wrong, lol. I see them and I think of the 90's and earlier, so seeing things like flat screened Mac's and smartphones feels like some form of deceit or meshing of universes that should have never happened (like someone going back in time and mucking things up). This also being said, I'm really happy that Polaroid was able to come back. I still have the photos I took on a disposable Kodak camera from the early 2000's and also recently took a look through my own photos on my phone...and I have very few of my family. It seems when the act of taking a photo was something not to be taken for granted, my family took more of them. Now that all of us have phones in our pockets, my family has done the exact opposite of others these days (we're also not very vain people and don't live our lives on social media, sharing way too much about ourselves), and have slowed down considerably on taking photos. I think it would be cool to get a cheap Polaroid or something similar and take some pictures of the family again, maybe surprise my mom with one on her birthday as she used to have a beloved camera that took most of "us kids'" pictures from between the ages of about 3 to 8. Would also give me something to display as I don't have a photo printer and haven't cared to order digital prints. So, I don't mind helping to continue this space-time distortion 😂
Same. Late last year, I got my hands on a 1999 Panasonic VHS-C Palmcorder Camcorder, and my family has a surprising amount of blank tapes. I've been recording on it, and seeing what modern technology looks like on VHS tapes. One difference is the focus sensor on my phone seems to flash on the screen of the camcorder, probably has something to do with the scan rate. Also, to my surprise, modern computer screens don't look like a big massive bar, in fact, they don't even have that wrapping effect like CRTs do! (And yes, it does almost feel like I'm making an ARG, even though I'm most definitely not.)
I wasn't allowed to use the fancy Polaroid when I was a kid even though I did sneak a few pictures because I was fascinated with the tongue, but later on, I got to use one and it is just such fun. You had to really focus on what you were doing and it helped me learn how to take better pictures, same with regular film cameras. You had to learn how to frame the subject and shoot your shot and hope you got the picture and you didn't have the lens cap on. I think I might pick up a polaroid again and do pictures.
I love this man’s content He’s gone from ipods, to mp3s , nugget phones, head pahonees, ancient calculators and now ancient cameras Maybe he should do ancient video game consoles
Bruh, "ancient"? Alright, no hate, I know for most people- anything older than 10 years is typically considered "ancient", I just feel bad when I see this phrasing. It feels like it's discrediting the work that went into making some this tech by passing it off as ancient... sorry for the rant.
7:40 I have almost that exact polaroid except mine has a single red stripe and I absolutely love it, the waste does suck though. The newer i-type cameras kinda help because the film they use doesn't have a battery in the pack and the cameras are actually good in quality
i’ve been watching your content for a while and as a film photographer, this is so awesome to see someone else i’ve been following for a while with the same passion! i started on a polaroid land camera and i miss taking pictures with it, it’s really sad the film was discontinued. your polaroid collection is beautiful!
I never thought you would talk about my favorite camera ever! The Sx-70 is such a beautiful camera and such an experience to use! I wish you would've talked about the inventor of Polaroid; Edwin Land, that guy was a proper genius.
Dude, I remember in the early 2000's getting into photography on my camera phone. It had very much the same vibe as polaroid - a phone camera was super limiting and not near as good as a real one, but it was instant, shareable, and fit in my pocket.
I remember I had a little Polaroid camera circa 2000. It was a long, narrow thing that produced little mini pictures about the size of a 35mm negative. You pulled the pics out manually and they could also be used as stickers if you pulled the backing paper off. I can’t remember the model name but it was a fun camera.
Instant Camera person here, I’ve seen people convert those first two cameras to use modern Instax film. It does take a lot of work and custom pieces but it’s possible! Also polaroid realized that the cartridge was wasteful so they made a radio that is powered by used cartridges which is so sick! Also I have a completely clear Sun 660 like you have that was used for demonstrations in Polaroid authorized stores Overall great video that shows how the fun of instant film and sharing that passion with others and keeping instant film alive 😎🙏🏽
This is fascinating! It's so nice to see old cameras, and see just how far we've come since the 70's and 80's. Amazing vid, Dank! Love your content as usual!
I found one of those in a Canadian thrift shop. Being in Canada, they wanted 100 bucks for it. A bit too steep after my last adventure in thrift store electronics
Our issue in Canada these days with thrift stores is who ever is pricing them is googling how much they sell for on ebay, the days of picking up great cameras for $10 at the thrift is long gone.
@@jonathansmith4737 I bought a Yamaha Receiver the HTR-6030 for 10 bucks at Goodwill BUT they wanted 100 bucks! So I switch out the sticker. Fuck that shit! I rather spend 100 bucks on something else or just save it! I think I had it for about 2 years and still working like a champ! But seriously tho, when you go to a Thrift Store your thinking cheap prices NOT 100 bucks for one single thing! But I wouldn't be surprise some people will pay those prices! I use the amp for desktop speakers and has alot of power for my medium size room and sounds great! Beats the shit out of cheap ass computer speakers! If im gonna pay those prices, it better be brand new with a warranty! Nuff said!!
@@jonathansmith4737 everything with Canadian re-sellers is they don't want to make losses. Pay what they bought it for. I don't think half of canadians have "depreciation" in their vocabulary
I collect cameras like these and two of my favorites (name wise) are the Kodak Pleaser (shaped really awkwardly) and the Kodak Partytime. What lovely names ♡
@@nataliefleming3630 I kinda want to enjoy owning a house at some point and you need a good down payment so you don't end up a wage slave working to pay off a mortgage your entire life.
I picked up an Impulse AF (late 80s) for less than one pack of film costs. It's basically in mint condition and I am surprised how well it works. The Sonar AF and lightsensor/exposure "control" are just good enough to not have pictures come out atrocious as long as you keep it steady. I love the aesthetic of these pictures and it's just kind of magical to see the film develop.
Functionally the big shot is not useless. It’s still holds it’s own as an instant camera that can do something unique where many others fall short. The majority of instant cameras are relatively wide and cannot focus closeup. There is still plenty of fuji peel apart on the secondary market to keep the big shot fed and personally it’s on of my favorites to shoot with.
The film planes of the early Polaroids that took 40 series roll film are just about the perfect size to hold a sheet of 4x5 film. Back in college I used a Model 95 for a large format photography class by hand loading 4x5 sheets of Tri-X 400 into the back of the Camera, taking a shot, then changing out the exposed sheets in a blackout bag. Worked pretty well.
There's a lot I didn't know about Polaroid in here. Thanks! About two years ago I finally developed some film I had from my old childhood camera, nearly 20 years later, and the "hope you got the shot" was so true haha. I had no idea what to expect, and the photos were aged looking and off color, but it was cool to see them finally! It was like a time capsule. They got me digital copies too which was great. Maybe I'll have to pick up a Polaroid someday! I feel like I'd be too scared to waste precious photos though. :P
I bought a Polaroid 640 at a garage sale about 4 years ago. Never got film for it, never used it. This video may be what pushes me to finally buy some film for it and use it
If you remember shaking the film after it was taken, then kudos to you. - I actually appreciate polaroids I dunno what it is. Probably the nostalgia speaking but the art of posting them all up on a board or your wall with memories with your friends was dope back in the 90s.
Y'all know that normally when some specific Channel tryes to do something new, they do it terrible, well this is not the case, I just love how dank-mate introduce new things to he's Channel, well done mate.
One of my friends is a photographer but he also collects cameras and I always love checking out his collection of those same Polaroids cameras. So when you said that no one would expect for that to be a Polaroid camera I thought that that was hilarious.
Genuinely would love to see more vintage film camera or older photography on the channel, as a photographer I love people showing others this very fun light science experiment!
Oh my god! I love old Polaroids, I've got like 5 of them (I have like 50 functional cameras total lol, all rescued on the cheap). Though Polaroids have always been an expensive hobby here; cameras themselves are dirt cheap, but the assorted amenities never were and prolly won't ever be.
Man, I wish I still had the ol' Polaroid camera my parents had when I was growing up in the 90s. I definitely remember is being a folder like the SLR 680, but I don't remember it being that big. I always had great shots from that thing, and I have really fond memories of lugging that thing around with my friends and shooting photos of random stuff (and trying to take pics of ghosts lol). So much nostalgia! I love this video for reminding me of such a niche set of memories.
Polaroid is one of those companies that actually bother to keep up with the times and innovate. Who would have thought the brand synonymous to instant photos could also be linked to nostalgia yet also be available as an app for printing?
Here's the thing - while in a vacuum Polaroid/the impossible project's progress might look impressive, compared to the current market they're honestly lagging behind a bit and when it comes to brand new cheaper things for the average user, are kinda coasting off of brand recognition Fujifilm's been doing instant cameras for a fair while now and honestly, their fare is better than Polaroid's if you're just looking for a fun thing to take photos with. Their film's way cheaper and also way easier to get ahold of and the cameras are more solid and just easier to use (no stupid little exposure dial!)
I already have a sort of addiction to collect all sorts of old casette tapes to play on my mom's casette player, and now Dank shows us all these awesome looking vintage cameras n I'm wanting to get into collecting them too. God these are so cool, I love how you present them too, makes the video very enjoyable!
this makes me unreasonably happy to see, especially the sx-70. your channel's kinda a tech nerd's intro to weird nerdy tech from yester year, and aside from the cult around film cameras, this stuff's relatively unknown, so it's rad to see it 'exposed' to a new crowd
Love seeing all of your "Nugget-adjacent" passions! I've always been a big fan of How Things Work, and my Mom gave me my first "big boy camera" (Olympus OM-1) when I was 7. I took photos with it, but it wasn't until I was like 16 that I actually learned how to use it. Then I got a used Canon T3i (funnily enough, in trade for an iPad 2nd Gen), but the instant/digital aspect made the photos seem less "artistic" I suppose? Now, I can appreciate photos taken with an old Kodak disposable, but walking into a pawn shop and finding a fully CIB Kodak Land Camera (unopened box of bulbs to boot) for $25 is what eventually tempted me into Medium Format Photography. I still use my T3i for 99% of photos, but my Eastman Kodak Six-16 always piques interest, but even more so when I can tell/show how it works. Now I'll be diving headfirst into the Instant Film format!
I once found an old Polaroid camera inside the dirt and it was DESTROYED! It was filthy, parts were missing and it was literally coming apart like an orange. I LOVED IT! Unfortunately I don't have it anymore since we threw it away without knowing.
I bought an Impossible i1 for my partner when they launched, and that is absolutely a camera I recommend. There is some maintenance required, you need to clean rollers (which smear the developer on) etc. in order for it to work correctly. It has multiple lenses, with amazing functionality, definitely something you should look into - I have some absolutely insane photos that were taken on it. Love the vid
Since Polaroids are making a comeback, and having bought one myself not long ago, this was a nice little history lesson. It's so cool to see how they changed throughout the years and what they did!
@ 6:37 - "It's always got humorous guff on it-" It's just telling you to store your film in a cold place or else it will expire before you expose it. That's why you should never leave film in a hot car.
I remember my dad having a camera that looked like that Big Shot. After taking the picture, you would rip the photo and it's developer from the side via a tab that stuck out of the film pack. You then would turn the manual timer dial on the camera, wait for it to tick down and then peal the photo off the developer pad.
I remember when I was younger I went to work with my dad and he worked in an office building so I was quite bored and one of his coworkers took me into one of the rooms and pulled out a Polaroid camera like the one you have at the time stamp 0:53 I still have it to this day it was so fun shooting pictures and having them instantly dispense I need to find some more film cuz I didn't even know if they still made it.
I’m literally buying one for my kid. Looks like i need to take a trip to cashies. The film packs are so dang expensive. I’ve got Sun 635 and a 320 at the moment. But the collection needs to grow.
I have several different methods of using the super old polaroid cameras with modern film if you want to try it out! I've shot with several cameras that used the old polaroid roll film like the 95b you have, both with standard negative film that I've had to develop and also with modern instant film. I put down rolls of painter's tape on the pressure plate on the inside of the film door, and then go into the dark and tape a piece of film onto it. 4x5 sheet film works well, or polaroid film can be carefully removed from its cartridge in the dark and taped on. After shooting with the polaroid you can in the dark carefully put the exposed film back into the cartridge, put it into a camera it was designed for, and have that camera print and develop the photo! Very inefficient but a cool way to still see what those old cameras can do!
From a photographing family, I totally relate to this. Going through my family's whole history of cameras from the mid 60's to today is so interesting. And yes, the iPhone is a great camera for videos and photos (only the Pro Max's)
they are all good when it comes to quality. however they just aren’t the same to proper cameras since you can’t just just the aperture or shutter-speed just like that
@@testing_oscar I do understand your point, but I was just saying about how it's useful as a personal use, because, no one would want to carry a second camera to their already existing one.
I have an old vintage 1940-50's Kodak camera, & these are called "bellow" camera's. & I love pushing little metal switches & hearing the moving mechanical parts!
Lovely video! I m a big Polaroid enthusiast myself and seeing you go over some of these cameras was amazing! Btw the body of the SX70 cameras is made of a glass fiber strengthened plastic that is coated with a copper-nickel-chrome coating.
Fun fact: the batteries for the 600 packs still hold a charge when you’ve shot your 10 (now 8) shots, and somebody recognized that, and made a little radio that takes empty 600 packs. Just shoot your photos, take the empty pack out, throw it into your lil blue radio, they’re so stupid but so cool.
Innovation at its finest
Used 600 packs are also useful for testing cameras.
You can toss a couple already exposed garbage photos back in the pack and make sure things like the flash and eject mechanism are more or less working.
What’s a 600 pack battery?
The batteries in the film packs for the 600 series cameras
@@ir-dan8524 ah thanks.
Hey Dank, my grandfather helped design Polaroid cameras in the 70’s, and the ‘metal’ SX-70 cameras are made out of plastic with a matte aluminum chrome on the outside
like new cars too huh
Not the first year of production .. love that old 48 folding. Dr land sold loads of film back then , 107, 108 and sx 70. Back then a shot on a sx70 cost a buck. Ahh the old days. Rc and multirade paper. Polaroid large format. Yup. Research never lasted.
Fondly remember shipping 10thousand one steps from canada to the USA. 22 canadian with 2 packs of film. Film was 10 bux a pack.
Your grandfather is a absolute gigachad
Perhaps you might be the correct person to ask this to then, I've heard that the OG sx70 had glass filled polysulfene and then actual chromed metal outside while the alpha 1's chrome is sprayed on
Ethan that’s super cool! I’m actually a current SX-70 technician, and so if your grandfather were to have any factory equipment or stories I’d be happy to connect with him!
5:00 Fun fact about that sonar autofocus: a photographer for Lockheed tried taking a photo of the F-117 but the autofocus wouldn't work on the aircraft. Turns out that sound waves (which the camera the photographer was using used for range finding (like the sx-70)) bounce off like regular radar waves. Lockheed used this to propose an improved stealth submarine based on the F-117 to the navy.
That's actually pretty neat, wonder if anything came from that particular project
@@UNSCPILOT I think the Zumwalt DDGs have sonar reflection reduction as well as radar stealth.
But they only made 3 of them so... Yeah.
Maybe for the DDG-X project or the Columbia class SSBNs they'll do something with it
Reminds me of something I read where a pilot told a story about when they were stationed in saudi arabia. In the hangar the aircraft was in there were bats, and in the morning they found dead bats all around the aircraft because they kept running into it because they couldn't "see" it with their echolocation
wait did this start the creation of the sea shadow by skunk works?
@@speedman69420 To my knowledge, the Sea Shadow's shape is intended for radar absorption and redirection, particularly against maritime patrol aircraft and the like. As stated, Lockheed did pitch a submarine specifically to defeat sonar and H.I. Sutton has an excellent article (and speculative artwork) on what is publicly available. I'd link it, but UA-cam will get uppity.
As a photographer that has old cameras, I certainly love to compare the cameras of today from before and I love it!
ye
It really is amazing how good old film cameras can be when someone knows how to use them. Much better than a modern point and shoot for sure. It's the skill, expense, and general difficulty that makes it impractical though.
same
Likewise!
Jesus Christ loves you
I've always enjoyed getting surface knowledge about random topics, so Dank starting to expand his content borders is one of my favourite things of the year so far.
Keep it up! You make many peoples days every day just by making the content you love, so thank you!
too bad you usually get it only randomly over long time, like there's no "learn something random" button... but yeah...
It's time to bring back hipsters.
@@jan_harald Well actually, there kinda is. Wikipedia have a random article link on the sidebar.
Dank, man, he make good content.
I never thought I'd see a fellow Moomoo in a DankPods comment section 0.0
My great grandmother gifted me her original SX-70 land camera before her death. It still has the original leather carry bag and little instruction sheet. It's probably one of the nicest item I have on display 💛
Imagine if it breaks
@@rekoroblox9918 let’s not
As a camera collector who has a few too many Polaroids on his shelf, this video was a real treat. I'd love to see you do more camera reviews, especially vintage ones, in the future!
I may not be a collector of cameras, but I find them very interesting
No please, no, they're managing to stay reasonably affordable and we don't need that to be ruined
@@DimIsHigh oh i get it... the ipod thing lol
@@DimIsHigh canon AE-1s used to be 80-100 dollars, now they clear for around 200
My folks have an old polaroid camera... it has removable... disposable flash cube bulbs... basically it has some type of flash powder in it and when you press the button to take a photo it sends a small electrical charge to the bulb to light the powder... it then simultaneously turns the cube to the next flash bulb (4 flashes per bulb). Really cool when you think about it.
I love how Polaroid has expanded in recent years with the growth of nostalgia stuff. I mean hell, you can _buy_ a polaroid printer and just use the *app* to make photos. Still, I'd happily buy a polaroid just for the simplicity of getting insta-photos.
Yes I have one of those, and it gives a nice retro vibe to my printed photos. Added plus is that I still get to watch the photo develop
But why would you wanna print out photos from your phone, there's no fun in that...
Just buy a brand new Polaroid camera and shoot with it in the proper way.
I think you'd be missing the point of instant photography if you had a preview on your phone, IMO...
@@Ryan-lc4bl personal preference ig
@@Ryan-lc4bl Well, printed photos do have that, for lack of a better word, "vibe" to them. I think a lot of people got it for that.
Plus, polaroid sells a subpar digital camera with a screen, and you can choose to either print the photos, or just save them to the camera, which I honestly don't understand the point of, because the camera quality is worse than any smartphone made in the last decade.
I do agree with you on that though. Half the fun of a polaroid picture is taking it with a really clumbly, uncomfortable to hold camera, with no settings and no idea of how your picture will even end up.
@@tbuk8350
Kind of agree, but there're still a few Polaroid cameras that allow you to have full control over exposure and focus, so they're not completely unpredictable...
Any hybrid digital/"instant" camera out there is just not going to match up with any conventional instant camera, their sensor is just tiny in comparison to instant film...
There is something really uncanny valley about seeing extremely modern gear through an 80s polaroid camera
@@SatanenPerkele thats what i love about them
yep
yeah it just dosent feel right real sense of liminality from it
@@vapor404 I think it has to do with the way polaroids capture light, and most being used by inexperienced photographers too
Think about this: A time traveler who was able to travel with only a few things to 2023 and among them carries a Polaroid instant camera to document his findings and take them back in time. How cool is that?
Dank is just collecting hobbies and we are thrilled to be along for the ride.
Danks helping the rest of us collect Hobbies too!
I like seeing dank extending his content variety and seeing him nerd out on this stuff! I love it keep it up dankman!
Edit: :0 Can’t say I expected that, Thank you all!
Honestly I could watch him review a piece of lint as long as he called it a stinky nugget.
I also love the dankdude
only so many ipods and headphones one man can make content for. i welcome the expanded range of things
I like you videos
Yeah
7:13 "You can still buy- like they still make thi- this is brand new"
that tickles me lmao
im happy to see dankpods go from a professional drummer who had no money to a youtuber who can just spend patreon money on cool shit to show us
its really cool and im so happy for him
I like old stuff also my bro/sis. :) Dank Pods did get something wrong though. The flash design on the Big Shot at 2:20 is not just any diffuser, it is a Fresnel Lens. I am not a photographer, but I know that cos I like science.
@@thatguyalex2835 oh boy I bet ur quirky
@@lazywriting7044 Yep, I am, and am glad, since that is how I was created. Uniquely different. ツ
For instance, I have a bit of ADHD, and enjoy science, engineering and learning about our human society.
@@thatguyalex2835 bruh 💀
@@lazywriting7044 Bruh ☠️
My skull has crossbones, while yours doesn't. Lol...
all of my cameras are over 20 years old and the “point and hope” applies to me so much. you can take some amazing photos on them but you never know if they are good until you load em up or develop. *old cameras are so faffy*
Yeah. I'm a digital person (i love the crispiness of some larger CMOS sensors, and also HFR video is fun), but film cameras always have an amazing look to the images they produce, and a lot of the nice ones take incredibly good photos, that look better than digital cameras a lot of the time. My guess has always been that it's because film has a basically "infinite resolution", because you can just make the film grain finer for "more resolution".
Props to ya, I was taught with DSLR’s through Highschool and I dunno if I could use much else anymore
I've seen portable radios made by Polaroid that actually use the spent film cartridges as batteries. Super neat concept and a decent way to somewhat reduce waste, if only for a little bit!
Thats awesome! Thanks for the factoid.
‘How did you focus?’
‘You don’t’
Hi
point and hope is the way to go baby!
not having adhd meds be like
"That's the neat part! You dont."
Tfw the user is the one focusing to not shake
I have a Sun 660 and idk if you’ve tried this but you have to hold the red trigger down halfway so it will manually charge the flash, then it will fire. There is a red indicator light inside the viewer. Great video and I hope the tip helps!
I also have one. There’s another part of the trigger button I think is called the flash override, which is weird bit behind the red part of the trigger. If you pull on that without pulling on the red bit, it takes a picture with no flash.
Yes! I have a 640 and charging the flash takes quite a bit of time...
So when I first got it I really thought it was broken - turns out you just have to be patient
Dude this will help me too. I actually have a Time Zero One-step so will that actually do the same thing?
Hey Dank, I am a person who likes to do photography with old film cameras. If you really like the feel of vintage cameras, you should consider buying 35mm film and developing the film at home. It is actually quite simple, easy and cheaper than getting it professionally developed, also they still make 35mm film and it’s actually a hobby that is becoming more popular recently.
I got 2 canon ae1s for 5 dollars don’t know if they work
Ken Block's Ford Fiesta Gymkhana is a sight to behold. Built by Olsbergs specifically for Gymkhana, it's a lightweight, manoeuvrable little car, with massive performance.
Exactly! I own ca. 30 35mm and MF film cameras from different brands and decades and use them (not all) relatively often. I also develop and enlarge or scan the films at home. Even my worst film camera produces much better and higher resolution images than a polaroid (that i had back n the 90s).
and only "old camera" can fit in "the elvator game otherworld" thing tho they never sied WHAT age makes it not work :P
@@nightmarerex2035 What are you talking about? Did you put random words together
As a kid in the Seventies, I remember my mom having cameras with single-use flashes, and then little cube-shaped and bar-shaped flash attachments that you could use four times before having to swap in a new one. Seems crazy to have to keep track of how many flashes you had left in addition to how many film exposures were left on the roll.
Sort of like counting buns and frankfurters.
kodak instamatic cameras
wow your channel is from 2008... just a few months after i was born
@@froges5422 youtube in 2007 was wild! Its nothing like today
@@froges5422 Frankly I'm still shocked to remember that there are people born after the Xbox 360's release lmao. Am I elderly yet? I'm only 18 damnit!!
Here comes another hobby Dank will make much harder to get into! Something tells me this will have another iPod effect, but don't ever stop! These videos are so great!
Luckily there's about 72385783544 different types of film cameras, but only 1 ipod, so hopefully it won't be THAT bad
The thing with old cameras is: that there's already a lot of people in UA-cam that have made videos about it, so getting a functioning one is going to cost you an arm and an eye already lol
Imho content creators are the bane of ebay, the stuff they feature in a video gets sold out, happened to me I dont remember what I was looking for but it wasnt available when it usually is.
Momento Mori
@@azul8339 also seen that they're making new cameras to go with the new film
I found out how Polaroid photos actually work, and it's actually really interesting.
Inside the individual photos, there wide bottom part contains a mix of different gooey chemicals. When you take a picture, a completely normal piece of film is exposed to light and then the photo is forced through the opening on the front. This pushes the goo out of the bottom and spreads it evenly across the surface of the film. This goo is designed to degrade under normal light conditions over the course of a few seconds, but is also the developing solution for the film itself. By the time the film finishes developing, the goo has turned transparent.
I still don't fully understand how it develops into a true-color image instead of a negative, but that could be down to the kind of photochemicals they use to produce the image.
Dankpods = my favorite UA-camr
Cameras = my favorite topic
Old cameras = always excites me
This video is perfect.
Retro cameras are weird yet interesting. I would love to get one sometime in the future
trust me, they are super fun however they take some getting used to lmao. each one has its own character
You can get an old 35mm film camera for next to nothing at a thrift store, and film isn't that expensive. It is worth learning how to use it first though.
They're great to teach you exposure - if they have a built-in light meter. Otherwise... a dedicated light meter is your friend. Also with film, every shot counts, so it can also teach discipline. They might be 'point and hope' but digital cameras have always been 'spray and pray'.
@@Tracert-mc1hu film is getting expensive if you’re looking at pro-grade film stocks (even the cheap stuff is getting expensive). Plus if you find a camera at the thrift store make sure it works and I would also take it because some of these cameras have ridiculous mark ups on the secondary market and now I expect Polaroid to get the “Some Jerk” effect on eBay and mercari. I sell film cameras on the side which is how I know about the market.
Polaroid cameras were in pretty heavy use by professional photographers until digital cameras were high enough quality to compete with medium- and large-format firm cameras. They were used as a quick test to test everything was set up properly before risking expensive film and time (not to mention having to re-shoot).
Hold on.. What dimension did I slide into? Ive been a big polariod photographer for a long time and this video gives me butterlies! I was a Pioneer for the Impossible project back in the day and own basically every polaroid camera ever made. SLR680 is God Tier for polaroid cameras , an additional note on the Big Shot is that it was the main camera Andy Warhol used to take alot of his iconic portraits with.
wow man thats sick! will keep in mind i wanna get a polaroid
@@testing_oscar HIT ME UP, i know way too much about Polaroids.
@@jonathansmith4737 will do 👀
I don't think too many people would understand or appreciate what the Impossible Project did, it's awesome that you were a key part in it!
So this video has given me IDEAS for christmas so before I start googling and finding who knows what info from who knows where, I hope you don't mind if I ask what's the best instant develop camera to give to a five year old for them to run around on christmas and annoy everyone with?
yo, a photographer here! I just wanted to say, you captured that feeling of value in a photo perfectly in the beginning, pun intended lolol. It’s why I don’t really enjoy taking photos on a phone and instead settle for my professional camera, there’s something special about really being involved in what you capture, every detail every manual adjustment and mistake. I hope to see more camera based videos on this channel man, this is great!
you got the nugget cams?
I work at a Five Below and was so surprised to see we were selling not only rolls of film again but tiny cameras! So glad Polaroid managed to come back from the dead, and its been real neat seeing actual film cameras again. After Stranger Things did it I thought it would have died as a fad, but nope. Still going strong X3
My grandfather actually helped develop the developing stuff for the color polaroids and was also granted the first ever phd in organic chemistry for uvm
His name was paul huyffer
so he's a developer developer? that's awesome
If there is something I learned about techonology: if things are sufficiently old enough, people will come around that decide to extend support on their own. So there is actually a decent chance that some person in France or India or Brazil to make more films for these cameras.
The fact that a new group not only bought the factory to make new films, but also was able to aquire the name Polaroid shows it. Now if Kodak and AGFA can do the same...
“France or India or Brazil” interesting choice of countries.
Unfortunately all extant tooling for Packfilm has been destroyed, so it would take an initial investment of millions of dollars to make the necessary machines to even start producing any more. And the market probably can't support that, so it's unlikely to ever be made again.
@@monika.alt197 considering the fucking sega genesis was still being produced in brazil i didnt really question it
@@sangan3202 Film is a whole order of magnitude more difficult to make than anything electronic.
Kodak has no chance in hell, Rochester is a dump now, coming from someone who lives in Rochester
This reminds me of the manual SLR cameras I used in school. They weren’t plaroid but the film had to go through 3 different chemicals and adjusted at a special booth before you knew what each photo would look like.
Old cameras are a great way to learn photography properly because you have to know how focus, lighting, iso, lenses work to figure out how to take a picture.
3 steps is a good scenario, not the best since you can usually get it in 2 by omitting stop bath, not the worst because kodachrome has a whole 14 steps.
Also colors in 3 steps is somewhat recent, c-41 used to have separate bleach and fix, so 4 steps and proper E-6 has 6 steps.
They used to sell accessories that used spent Polaroid packs for things like flashlights and FM radios! Those flat batteries did find re-use.
How does that work if the packs dead ?
@@John-Doe-Yo according to someone in another comment thread the batteries weren't completely used up once you finished taking photos with it, so there was still a bit of power left afterwards
I hope these types of cameras would come back like vinyl did. Would love to walk around taking pictures with something analog.
You mean instant photo cameras? They are still in production and you can buy them. Fujifilm Instax for example.
The One Step used to have a disposable flash array. It was a bit like a flash cube, except the bulbs were next to each other & formed a bar. I think there used to be a One Step with a sonar. I always wanted one of those. There were commercials with James Garner & Mariette Hartley. The 70's models had a wind up timer on the back. For its time, the Polaroid wasn't THAT bad. I'd say the majority of cameras were fixed focus & often used cheap film cartridges. The cameras were massive enough, that they were fairly easy to keep steady. Keeping steady was the key for good pictures.
That's gotta be a great feeling. Dank is expanding out to things that have absolutely nothing to do with ipods like 70 year old cameras and cars that barely run and we're eating it up.
We love your content because of the thing that every video has. You. You have a great personality in which we all love to see in every video you upload.
Also Frank
It's funny to laugh at how bad it is now because we have so much better now but it's also great to see where it started back then
As somebody who does estate sales for a living I can say that camera is of insane quality for its age. Normally EVERYTHING about those old leather cases fall apart, same with the tunnel for when you extend the camera out. They always get insanely dry and crunchy. Idk how much you paid for that but it’s worth a very pretty penny
I found the same one (not sure about model number tho) in a thrift shop near me less than a year ago- missing the cool lenses but otherwise in similar shape! I can’t seem to find any film compatible so for now I just keep it safe lol
I always loved the "spit-out" style Polaroids! I remember way back in sunday school getting our pictures taken with the Polaroid.
No joke, like 15 years ago when I was in daycare they had the OneStep 635CL as one of the toys we could play with. It didn't have any film for us to use but wow, seeing that in this video was such a throwback and I completely forgot about it until today.
Finally a new video to fall asleep to and watch 10 times till the next one!
...
Back at u
@@Potato_Major it’s a part of my routine by now
When you showed how the SX-70 popped up I literally gasped out loud that's soooo cool! I would have had no idea that was a camera. I felt the moment my brain ticked over from "What is that object?" to "CAMERA" so hard it was like being smacked with a book.
Taking photos of very modern things (like the iphone) with the Polaroid film is also very funny, I enjoy the concept immensely.
I was literally just thinking "It's about time Wade released a video" and fortunately I was right!
As a fellow Aussie it's possible I am somehow tapping in to the nugget frequencies.
I live in Austria, and I feel very much the same!
Who’s wade?
@@A_Prius Wade is Frank's captive.
@@stueyphone I'd like to imagine that's because our countries name's are spelt similar. c:
Me too
Except it's about garbage time
Cuz I know Wade uploads a day before WAN show
There was a time when Polaroid photos had an emulsion layer. Click-zzz then set the timer for, like, 3 minutes then peel off the developer layer. So good. I've still got a photo taken in 1976 that still has great colour. The ones you show here take a while to develop, but then fade over time.
My heart aches for polaroid cameras so being able to see videos with people enjoying them is always so so fun. Been really enjoying your content and its been a great source of fun that i throw at my friends too. Keep up the good work, you and your funky long "cat" lol
Edwin H Land, one of the guys that co-founded Polaroid, went to my high school. The school's library is named after him, and there's a section of the place that's a mini museum made for him. It's super cool. 👌🏻
There's a part of my brain that says seeing pictures of modern technology on Polaroid feels wrong, lol. I see them and I think of the 90's and earlier, so seeing things like flat screened Mac's and smartphones feels like some form of deceit or meshing of universes that should have never happened (like someone going back in time and mucking things up).
This also being said, I'm really happy that Polaroid was able to come back. I still have the photos I took on a disposable Kodak camera from the early 2000's and also recently took a look through my own photos on my phone...and I have very few of my family. It seems when the act of taking a photo was something not to be taken for granted, my family took more of them. Now that all of us have phones in our pockets, my family has done the exact opposite of others these days (we're also not very vain people and don't live our lives on social media, sharing way too much about ourselves), and have slowed down considerably on taking photos.
I think it would be cool to get a cheap Polaroid or something similar and take some pictures of the family again, maybe surprise my mom with one on her birthday as she used to have a beloved camera that took most of "us kids'" pictures from between the ages of about 3 to 8. Would also give me something to display as I don't have a photo printer and haven't cared to order digital prints. So, I don't mind helping to continue this space-time distortion 😂
Same. Late last year, I got my hands on a 1999 Panasonic VHS-C Palmcorder Camcorder, and my family has a surprising amount of blank tapes. I've been recording on it, and seeing what modern technology looks like on VHS tapes. One difference is the focus sensor on my phone seems to flash on the screen of the camcorder, probably has something to do with the scan rate. Also, to my surprise, modern computer screens don't look like a big massive bar, in fact, they don't even have that wrapping effect like CRTs do! (And yes, it does almost feel like I'm making an ARG, even though I'm most definitely not.)
I wasn't allowed to use the fancy Polaroid when I was a kid even though I did sneak a few pictures because I was fascinated with the tongue, but later on, I got to use one and it is just such fun. You had to really focus on what you were doing and it helped me learn how to take better pictures, same with regular film cameras. You had to learn how to frame the subject and shoot your shot and hope you got the picture and you didn't have the lens cap on. I think I might pick up a polaroid again and do pictures.
I love this man’s content
He’s gone from ipods, to mp3s , nugget phones, head pahonees, ancient calculators and now ancient cameras
Maybe he should do ancient video game consoles
@@ItsAndy985 only a matter of time
The console one is the job of AVGN
Taking us back to the past
@@LastBastion to play the shitty games that suck ass
Bruh, "ancient"?
Alright, no hate, I know for most people- anything older than 10 years is typically considered "ancient", I just feel bad when I see this phrasing. It feels like it's discrediting the work that went into making some this tech by passing it off as ancient... sorry for the rant.
7:40 I have almost that exact polaroid except mine has a single red stripe and I absolutely love it, the waste does suck though. The newer i-type cameras kinda help because the film they use doesn't have a battery in the pack and the cameras are actually good in quality
Another Ian here? Nice!
i’ve been watching your content for a while and as a film photographer, this is so awesome to see someone else i’ve been following for a while with the same passion! i started on a polaroid land camera and i miss taking pictures with it, it’s really sad the film was discontinued. your polaroid collection is beautiful!
I never thought you would talk about my favorite camera ever! The Sx-70 is such a beautiful camera and such an experience to use!
I wish you would've talked about the inventor of Polaroid; Edwin Land, that guy was a proper genius.
Can't believe they named an entire word after him.
Dude, I remember in the early 2000's getting into photography on my camera phone. It had very much the same vibe as polaroid - a phone camera was super limiting and not near as good as a real one, but it was instant, shareable, and fit in my pocket.
I remember I had a little Polaroid camera circa 2000. It was a long, narrow thing that produced little mini pictures about the size of a 35mm negative. You pulled the pics out manually and they could also be used as stickers if you pulled the backing paper off. I can’t remember the model name but it was a fun camera.
Instant Camera person here, I’ve seen people convert those first two cameras to use modern Instax film. It does take a lot of work and custom pieces but it’s possible!
Also polaroid realized that the cartridge was wasteful so they made a radio that is powered by used cartridges which is so sick!
Also I have a completely clear Sun 660 like you have that was used for demonstrations in Polaroid authorized stores
Overall great video that shows how the fun of instant film and sharing that passion with others and keeping instant film alive 😎🙏🏽
The moment Dank pulls out the OneStep, my immediate reaction was "omg its the instagram logo"
"Lemme take a proper photo"
(Photo comes out exactly the same)
Fucking slayed me
This is fascinating!
It's so nice to see old cameras, and see just how far we've come since the 70's and 80's. Amazing vid, Dank! Love your content as usual!
fedi.nullob.si user spotted
@@semicolon4452 Yep! I hate Twitter so I moved to Misskey.
I found one of those in a Canadian thrift shop.
Being in Canada, they wanted 100 bucks for it. A bit too steep after my last adventure in thrift store electronics
Our issue in Canada these days with thrift stores is who ever is pricing them is googling how much they sell for on ebay, the days of picking up great cameras for $10 at the thrift is long gone.
@@jonathansmith4737 I bought a Yamaha Receiver the HTR-6030 for 10 bucks at Goodwill BUT they wanted 100 bucks! So I switch out the sticker. Fuck that shit! I rather spend 100 bucks on something else or just save it! I think I had it for about 2 years and still working like a champ! But seriously tho, when you go to a Thrift Store your thinking cheap prices NOT 100 bucks for one single thing! But I wouldn't be surprise some people will pay those prices! I use the amp for desktop speakers and has alot of power for my medium size room and sounds great! Beats the shit out of cheap ass computer speakers! If im gonna pay those prices, it better be brand new with a warranty! Nuff said!!
@@jonathansmith4737 everything with Canadian re-sellers is they don't want to make losses. Pay what they bought it for. I don't think half of canadians have "depreciation" in their vocabulary
@@mizanurabu-ramadan7430 The only item not depreciating in todays finical climate is an automobile.
@@jonathansmith4737 ye, they are appreciating
That's another issue all together but whatever
I collect cameras like these and two of my favorites (name wise) are the Kodak Pleaser (shaped really awkwardly) and the Kodak Partytime. What lovely names ♡
it's amazing watching Dankpods slowly turn from an iPod channel into Techmoan
Since literally every asset is either insanely inflated or crashing, cool vintage junk like this might actually be a good investment right now.
Trueeee
i suppose so
Thank you world economic forum, boy howdy will I ever be happy not owning anything by 2030!
Enjoy dont invest
@@nataliefleming3630 I kinda want to enjoy owning a house at some point and you need a good down payment so you don't end up a wage slave working to pay off a mortgage your entire life.
I picked up an Impulse AF (late 80s) for less than one pack of film costs. It's basically in mint condition and I am surprised how well it works. The Sonar AF and lightsensor/exposure "control" are just good enough to not have pictures come out atrocious as long as you keep it steady. I love the aesthetic of these pictures and it's just kind of magical to see the film develop.
10:46 "it's completely fu-"
That killed me 🤣
I love your vintage technology videos. This one and the calculator episode were both so enjoyable to watch
Functionally the big shot is not useless. It’s still holds it’s own as an instant camera that can do something unique where many others fall short. The majority of instant cameras are relatively wide and cannot focus closeup. There is still plenty of fuji peel apart on the secondary market to keep the big shot fed and personally it’s on of my favorites to shoot with.
The film planes of the early Polaroids that took 40 series roll film are just about the perfect size to hold a sheet of 4x5 film. Back in college I used a Model 95 for a large format photography class by hand loading 4x5 sheets of Tri-X 400 into the back of the Camera, taking a shot, then changing out the exposed sheets in a blackout bag. Worked pretty well.
There's a lot I didn't know about Polaroid in here. Thanks!
About two years ago I finally developed some film I had from my old childhood camera, nearly 20 years later, and the "hope you got the shot" was so true haha. I had no idea what to expect, and the photos were aged looking and off color, but it was cool to see them finally! It was like a time capsule. They got me digital copies too which was great. Maybe I'll have to pick up a Polaroid someday! I feel like I'd be too scared to waste precious photos though. :P
I bought a Polaroid 640 at a garage sale about 4 years ago. Never got film for it, never used it. This video may be what pushes me to finally buy some film for it and use it
I love how dank is reviewing things beside headphones and MP3 players
Same
DankPods is slowly turning into an Auzzie Ashens and I LOVE it
If you remember shaking the film after it was taken, then kudos to you. - I actually appreciate polaroids I dunno what it is. Probably the nostalgia speaking but the art of posting them all up on a board or your wall with memories with your friends was dope back in the 90s.
Y'all know that normally when some specific Channel tryes to do something new, they do it terrible, well this is not the case, I just love how dank-mate introduce new things to he's Channel, well done mate.
One of my friends is a photographer but he also collects cameras and I always love checking out his collection of those same Polaroids cameras. So when you said that no one would expect for that to be a Polaroid camera I thought that that was hilarious.
as a camera collector myself, i do gotta say that the origional ploaroids look absloutley amazing. hoping to get one for my collection soon
Genuinely would love to see more vintage film camera or older photography on the channel, as a photographer I love people showing others this very fun light science experiment!
Oh my god! I love old Polaroids, I've got like 5 of them (I have like 50 functional cameras total lol, all rescued on the cheap). Though Polaroids have always been an expensive hobby here; cameras themselves are dirt cheap, but the assorted amenities never were and prolly won't ever be.
This made me remember the 635 cl that I inherited from my father, happy to see they are still making film for it
Man, I wish I still had the ol' Polaroid camera my parents had when I was growing up in the 90s. I definitely remember is being a folder like the SLR 680, but I don't remember it being that big. I always had great shots from that thing, and I have really fond memories of lugging that thing around with my friends and shooting photos of random stuff (and trying to take pics of ghosts lol). So much nostalgia! I love this video for reminding me of such a niche set of memories.
Polaroid is one of those companies that actually bother to keep up with the times and innovate. Who would have thought the brand synonymous to instant photos could also be linked to nostalgia yet also be available as an app for printing?
Polaroid didn't innovate, that's why they went under and the impossible project stepped in. It's briefly covered in this video.
Here's the thing - while in a vacuum Polaroid/the impossible project's progress might look impressive, compared to the current market they're honestly lagging behind a bit and when it comes to brand new cheaper things for the average user, are kinda coasting off of brand recognition
Fujifilm's been doing instant cameras for a fair while now and honestly, their fare is better than Polaroid's if you're just looking for a fun thing to take photos with. Their film's way cheaper and also way easier to get ahold of and the cameras are more solid and just easier to use (no stupid little exposure dial!)
I already have a sort of addiction to collect all sorts of old casette tapes to play on my mom's casette player, and now Dank shows us all these awesome looking vintage cameras n I'm wanting to get into collecting them too. God these are so cool, I love how you present them too, makes the video very enjoyable!
this makes me unreasonably happy to see, especially the sx-70. your channel's kinda a tech nerd's intro to weird nerdy tech from yester year, and aside from the cult around film cameras, this stuff's relatively unknown, so it's rad to see it 'exposed' to a new crowd
As a photographer this makes me so happy. Its a wonderful collection of fun and beautifully kept cameras. Great vid
Love seeing all of your "Nugget-adjacent" passions! I've always been a big fan of How Things Work, and my Mom gave me my first "big boy camera" (Olympus OM-1) when I was 7. I took photos with it, but it wasn't until I was like 16 that I actually learned how to use it. Then I got a used Canon T3i (funnily enough, in trade for an iPad 2nd Gen), but the instant/digital aspect made the photos seem less "artistic" I suppose? Now, I can appreciate photos taken with an old Kodak disposable, but walking into a pawn shop and finding a fully CIB Kodak Land Camera (unopened box of bulbs to boot) for $25 is what eventually tempted me into Medium Format Photography. I still use my T3i for 99% of photos, but my Eastman Kodak Six-16 always piques interest, but even more so when I can tell/show how it works. Now I'll be diving headfirst into the Instant Film format!
I once found an old Polaroid camera inside the dirt and it was DESTROYED! It was filthy, parts were missing and it was literally coming apart like an orange. I LOVED IT!
Unfortunately I don't have it anymore since we threw it away without knowing.
I bought an Impossible i1 for my partner when they launched, and that is absolutely a camera I recommend.
There is some maintenance required, you need to clean rollers (which smear the developer on) etc. in order for it to work correctly.
It has multiple lenses, with amazing functionality, definitely something you should look into - I have some absolutely insane photos that were taken on it.
Love the vid
9:54 the dentist
Since Polaroids are making a comeback, and having bought one myself not long ago, this was a nice little history lesson. It's so cool to see how they changed throughout the years and what they did!
2:39 that one guy in warzone that uses aimbot
@ 6:37 - "It's always got humorous guff on it-" It's just telling you to store your film in a cold place or else it will expire before you expose it. That's why you should never leave film in a hot car.
The day I order an old polaroid 350 you upload this. Man, I would love to see more retro stuff like this from you. Love the content
6:00 this is just a very realistic original instagram logo
I remember my dad having a camera that looked like that Big Shot. After taking the picture, you would rip the photo and it's developer from the side via a tab that stuck out of the film pack. You then would turn the manual timer dial on the camera, wait for it to tick down and then peal the photo off the developer pad.
I remember when I was younger I went to work with my dad and he worked in an office building so I was quite bored and one of his coworkers took me into one of the rooms and pulled out a Polaroid camera like the one you have at the time stamp 0:53 I still have it to this day it was so fun shooting pictures and having them instantly dispense I need to find some more film cuz I didn't even know if they still made it.
I’m literally buying one for my kid. Looks like i need to take a trip to cashies. The film packs are so dang expensive. I’ve got Sun 635 and a 320 at the moment. But the collection needs to grow.
This video single handedly got me into photography. I now have a severe gear addiction.
2:14 Spamton called, he wants his camera back.
I searched your comment
@@z.e.l7412 Thoughts?
@@carllinden533 it was absolutely wonderful.
Now is your chance to be a [BIG SHOT]
what he be takin pictures of? Mettaton?
Ooh, Polaroids! I have one of their digital cameras!
I have several different methods of using the super old polaroid cameras with modern film if you want to try it out! I've shot with several cameras that used the old polaroid roll film like the 95b you have, both with standard negative film that I've had to develop and also with modern instant film. I put down rolls of painter's tape on the pressure plate on the inside of the film door, and then go into the dark and tape a piece of film onto it. 4x5 sheet film works well, or polaroid film can be carefully removed from its cartridge in the dark and taped on. After shooting with the polaroid you can in the dark carefully put the exposed film back into the cartridge, put it into a camera it was designed for, and have that camera print and develop the photo! Very inefficient but a cool way to still see what those old cameras can do!
From a photographing family, I totally relate to this. Going through my family's whole history of cameras from the mid 60's to today is so interesting. And yes, the iPhone is a great camera for videos and photos (only the Pro Max's)
they are all good when it comes to quality. however they just aren’t the same to proper cameras since you can’t just just the aperture or shutter-speed just like that
@@testing_oscar I do understand your point, but I was just saying about how it's useful as a personal use, because, no one would want to carry a second camera to their already existing one.
@@mohicanyt ah fair enough
13:02 - "We've come full rectangle."
Oh Polaroid you frikkin nerds.
I have an old vintage 1940-50's Kodak camera, & these are called "bellow" camera's.
& I love pushing little metal switches & hearing the moving mechanical parts!
Lovely video! I m a big Polaroid enthusiast myself and seeing you go over some of these cameras was amazing! Btw the body of the SX70 cameras is made of a glass fiber strengthened plastic that is coated with a copper-nickel-chrome coating.