Polaroid

The Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continue to be the company's flagship product line. The company's original dominant market was in polarized sunglasses, an outgrowth of Land's self-guided research in polarization after leaving Harvard University at the age of 17 (he later returned to Harvard to continue his research). After Polaroid defeated Kodak in a patent battle, Kodak left the instant camera business on January 9, 1986.

Early instant cameras were often referred to and titled as "Land Cameras," named after the inventor of the instant process, Dr. Land. Instant cameras have been produced to use three main categories of film: rollfilm, packfilm, and integral film. All of these films can be expensive, usually costing about $1 per shot, or print. Through its history, Polaroid has been known as a company that builds quirky cameras cheaply that work quite well. Most Polaroid cameras have fully automatic exposure systems, with an electric eye to determine correct exposure. Quality can range from extremely good, as in the Pathfinder or SX-70 cameras, to extremely poor, as in the JoyCam. Despite its history of innovation, the company entered the digital photography market very late in the game, and as a result has neither a significant market share nor significant innovation in this area.

The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection in October 11, 2001, and most of the business was thereafter carried on by the Polaroid Holding Company (PHC), managed by Bank One. Significant criticism surrounded this takeover because the process left executives of the company with large bonuses, while stockholders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing. Polaroid's bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to see the effect of digital cameras on its film business, a fate that also befell its primary rival, Kodak. Since the bankruptcy Polaroid branded LCD and Plasma televisions and portable DVD players have appeared on the market.

On April 27, 2005, Petters Group Worldwide announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year, Flextronics purchased Polaroid's manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China.

Types of Polaroid Instant Cameras

Instant Rollfilm

• Polaroid Pathfinder
• Polaroid Highlander
• Polaroid Swinger

Instant Packfilm

• Polaroid 100-400 series
• Polaroid Land Model 360
• Polaroid 600/600 SE
• Polaroid ProPack
• Polaroid Square Shooter
• Polaroid Big Shot
• Polaroid CB80 Camera Back for Holga

Instant Integral film

• Polaroid SX-70
• Polaroid SX-70 Model 3
• Polaroid One Step
• Polaroid sun 660
• Polaroid Spectra

other kinds of instant film

• Polaroid i-zone
• Polaroid MIO
• Polaroid JoyCam

Links

• Various Polaroid Cameras at Sylvain Halgand's collection