The Polaroid Camera

The first Polaroid Camera, The 95 Land Camera

The Polaroid camera was invented by Edwin H. Land. He came up with the idea while on holiday in 1943 when his daughter asked him why she couldn't see the picture he just took. The first instant camera was demonstrated on February 21st 1947 and the first Polaroid 95 Land camera was sold for $89.95 on November 26th 1948. They were hugely successful and by 1956 the one millionth Polaroid camera made its way to be sold. In 1963 the first instant colour film camera was released, the Polacolour, as well as the 100 Land camera, the first fully automatic pack film and exposure control camera. Then in 1977 the most well known Polaroid camera was released, The Polaroid OneStep Land Camera. It was a fixed focus camera that used 600 film and was hugely popular as it was inexpensive. As Polaroid gained more and more popularity they have been releasing many more instant cameras until their most recent instant camera release, The Polaroid Z2300 which was released in 2012 and is an instant digital camera that produces 2x3" instant photographs.

The Polaroid Z2300, the digital instant camera 

The Polaroid OneStep Land Camera with the famous Polaroid coloured stripes. 

Producing photographs using a Polaroid camera is essentially a chemical reaction. The film inside the camera, which the photograph is developed onto, is made of many layers of light sensitive grains on a plastic sheet. Underneath the plastic sits the image layer, the timing layer and the acid layer. Below is the light sensitive layer and below that are the layers containing all the essential chemicals for the development process. At the very bottom is a black base layer. The component that starts the reaction is the reagent which sits as a blob at the border on top of the light sensitive layer. When a picture has been taken the film is pushed out of the camera through rollers which spread the reagent all over the film. The reagent then reacts with each layer as it moves downward to produce the photograph.

The development process 

I really enjoyed researching Polaroid and instant cameras as they are very interesting in the way they develop film so quickly. I love the idea that physical photographs can shared so easily as each represents a memory or a moment in time. Also, I found it interesting that although they were originally released a long time ago they are still popular to this day.

Some cool Polaroid posters:





Bibliography:  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question6051.htm
http://www.polaroid.com/history