Polaroid cameras feature film that develops itself in moments.
The Polaroid camera, invented by Edwin Land in 1947, was a breakthrough in photography. Previously, photographers had to remove from the camera and develop it in a darkroom to produce usable pictures, a long and tedious process that exposed the developer to a host of chemical substances. The Polaroid process, however, allowed the user to snap a picture and hold the fully developed photograph in her hands in a matter of moments, and Land's self-portrait demonstration at the Feb. 21, 1947, meeting of the Optical Society of America drew international attention. The Polaroid camera's ease of use made it popular with families, and many professionals took advantage of the ability to produce photographs in moments rather than hours.
The Land Camera
Land's film design featured a thick, layered sheet containing the photo film, the negative, and a capsule containing a special reagent. After the user snapped a picture, rollers in the camera would break the capsule, spreading the reagent between the negative and photo surface, transferring the image. After waiting a predetermined time, the user simply peeled away the negative sheet, revealing the final photograph. Early film stock produced sepia-toned images, and the company quickly followed it up with black-and-white film. A defect in the process, however, required users to treat the finished pictures with a separate fixative to prevent fading, a problem that would linger until 1963.
Early Success
Despite early technical glitches, the Polaroid line of cameras proved to be immensely popular. Black-and-white units sold well until the release of the first instant color camera in 1963, when the company began to maintain a line of cheaper black-and-white cameras geared toward younger photographers. In 1966, the company produced a system that could pair instant photographs with automatic lamination to produce ID badges. By 1970, the company's sales topped $500 million.
The SX-70
In 1972, Land produced a new color camera that would become iconic under the Polaroid name. Unlike earlier models, which required manual manipulation of the film, the SX-70 featured an internal motorized film cartridge that handled the development process automatically, ejecting a blank white slide that slowly faded into the finished picture. Sales continued to expand, but the expense of research and development into this new camera, as well as failed ventures into instant film for movie cameras and medical imaging, eventually began to take their toll on the company.
The Rise of Digital
While Polaroid continued making instant cameras into the 21st century, the rise of digital photography ate into the company's market share. The company eventually moved into the digital realm and discontinued its line of instant film cameras in the mid-2000s. By 2011, however, the company introduced the Polaroid 300 instant film camera, geared toward the nostalgia market as well as at first-time camera users.
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