Polaroid Instant Cameras

[TelePlay]

It's sad to see such an incredible camera manufacturer like Kodak relegated to making throw-away cameras by the end of its life.

It's not instant film but it seems Kodachrome color slide film was the gold standard in it's day and the day they stopped making/processing it was a milestone in the transition from film to digital. I have many slides, some 45-50 years old, and they still retain their original color and the resolution of each is still remarkable. When digital chips became capable of capturing images in the 12 MByte range, that allowed many pros to convert from Kodachrome to digital, IIRC. Only problem with digital is finding and paying for hard copy prints, if desired. Nice part of digital is you can take multiple images and discard those that are less than acceptable immediately. So much more convenient that taking a photo, taking the roll to a processing point and waiting a few days to find out the whole role is mostly junk. Ah, those were the days.

[19and41]

Kodak's earlier digital cameras were more likely to have been of their own manufacture.  Today's cameras are most likely just branded as Kodak.  For my money, Kodak's dropping of Kodachrome signed their death warrant.  There are many products that carry the Polaroid name, but the name is all there is.

[Doug Rose]

Janet found a Polaroid Spectra in a case with attachments yesterday at an Estate Sale. Is this something for the collector or as Christian said

"Yep, those cameras are in very high demand. Every photographer at my age desperately wants a Polaroid for the 'old school' look, including my sister."

Seems to be in nice, used condition. The attachments look like the were never used

If anyone is interest, PM me with an offer...Doug

[19and41]

The Polaroid cameras were marketed as the Polaroid Land Camera.  The process had nothing to do with the polarizing filters the company manufactured,  'Land' was for the company's co founder and the inventor of the instant photography process.  He was a interesting person in his own right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_H._Land

[Fabius]

Here's my small Polaroid collection Most found in a Goodwill and the rest on eBay. The one on the left under the Western Electric fan is one of Polaroid's SLR (single lens reflex) cameras. All bought on the cheap.

[19and41]

I saw an old Polaroid J66 automatic exposure roll film camera today in a thrift store for 2.50.