Polaroid to End Instant Film Production

[LUXXX]

from where? everwhere seems to be sold out

I went to a drug store (Rite Aid) the other day and they had 3 left...all one shots. That's what I have...the little compact gray one.

 

[aristobrat]

OMG I heard this news a week or so ago & I didn't even think about how it'd affect the fashion industry

 

[omgspicegirls]

I heard about this last weekend and almost passed out. How can they do this!?
polaroids are so handy! I was about to start stocking up when I realized I have no money
A ten film pack costs around $100
Are they as expensive where you guys live?

 

[seanutbutter]

Sad news, but it certainly shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. I mean, we're in the age of technology. Times change, and we should change with them too.

 

[paperbag]

It's not an end to instant film. I have a Fuji Instax 200 and Fuji is still producing instant film. It looks really nice too! I would post pics up, but I'm currently at work, but I think you can find some at Flickr. Hopefully Fuji continues to produce instant film and will take over Polaroid's factories.

 

[James1057]

this is crazy! i really do hope Fuji take over and produce polaroids. My dad told me about this earlier and i flipped! i LOVE my polaroid camera!

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

Ughg ,I partially hate technology.Digital is fine if you are doing simple snap shots or shooting something that needs to look flawless, but otherwise I love film.Plus digital pictures are a pain to print out and get the color right if you work in depth with your pictures.I would rather be in a darkroom working manually any day than trying to figure out a photo printer.

 

[paperbag]

Ughg ,I partially hate technology.Digital is fine if you are doing simple snap shots or shooting something that needs to look flawless, but otherwise I love film.Plus digital pictures are a pain to print out and get the color right if you work in depth with your pictures.I would rather be in a darkroom working manually any day than trying to figure out a photo printer.

I agree! I have so many polaroid cameras I'm in love with instant film. I have Polaroid SX 70, Polaroid i-zone, Polaroid Spectra (which usually casting agents and agencies use), Fuji Instax 200... I just love the way the colors look and the gratification that my picture will develop by itself. When I try to print pictures I have to do color correction, buy the right photo paper (most of which do not have a matte finish and feel kind of cheap) and then battle with my printer. My printer right now prints black horizontal lines on the picture! Ugh. I hope and pray Fuji takes over instant film. If not, at least I have the SX70 blend film that they keep making...Digital photography is good and all, but nothing will beat film!

 

[ChloeFrancoise]

Digital cameras are too easy. You just take the picture and upload it onto the computer. It's very unsatisfying. I don't even feel like I'm doing anything when I'm using a digital camera.

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

So true.I have made some amazing black and white prints with an old Mamiya medium format camera.Currently I'm doing a documentary for school where I get profile shots of people in the downtown area of a city near me.This camera is perfect for it, the images come out raw and slightly fuzzy which is great.I can hardly wait for summer when more people will be out and about, plus people will probably be in better moods and therefore more willing to be photographed.I do come across some mean people but there are still the nice ones who are ok with me borrowing them for a few seconds.I would absolutely love to do a series like that in New York ,chicago or L.A.Really any city or town would be great.

 

[paperbag]

^ Oooh! I really want a Mamiya camera. I think the pictures look fantastic. So you're a photographer? I just take pictures as a hobby. I'm so envious of photographers. They have the artistic eye that I can't seem to possess

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

Yes ,well I'm still in high school but it's my senior year and next year I will most likely be going to a college just down the road from my high school to get my general credits done with so I can transfer to a better college.Which is good in a way because I can still hopefully use the darkroom at the high school free of charge ,and I can still see a friend of mine in the photography class who will be a senior there next year.

What I really want to do is runway/backstage photography and test shots for models just to get my foot in the door and make connections ,and then see what happens after that.I don't want to be the next steven meisel or anything ,working for a smaller magazine would be great as long as I could make money doing other things in the industry.Of course I would still do photography with my cameras of everyday things, and hopefully by then I will have a medium format camera of my own.I really plan to do a lifetime of work that documents a ton of things, that would make me so happy.

 

[Destined]

I blame Sia's Breathe me Video

 

[LUXXX]

I blame Sia's Breathe me Video

That video makes me dizzy...

 

[Destined]

That video makes me dizzy...

me too Buttons is even crazier,
But yeah she used like how many polaroids in that thing? Atleast 1500 O_O

 

[softgrey]

if anyone really cares about this here is a petition they can sign...

many photographers and artists rely on polaroid film and to end production would be very tragic..

go here to sign the petition!
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/save-polaroid-film.html

 

[softgrey]

NY Times article

Polaroid Closing Instant Film Factories

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 8, 2008
Filed at 4:58 p.m. ET
BOSTON (AP) -- Polaroid Corp. is dropping the technology it pioneered long before digital photography rendered instant film obsolete to all but a few nostalgia buffs.
Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico and the Netherlands and cutting 450 jobs as the brand synonymous with instant images focuses on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions and DVD players.
This year's closures will leave Polaroid with 150 employees at its Concord headquarters and a site in the nearby Boston suburb of Waltham, down from peak global employment of nearly 21,000 in 1978.
The company stopped making instant cameras over the past two years.
''We're trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years,'' Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid's president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday, after the company's plans were reported in The Boston Globe.
Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers who didn't want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto their old Polaroid cameras.
Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, ''and I've got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster,'' said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst at the research firm InfoTrends Inc.
''At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film,'' Lee said.
Privately held Polaroid doesn't disclose financial details about its instant film business.
Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said -- after which, Lee said, Japan's Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.
Polaroid got its start making polarized sunglasses in the 1930s, and introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Film packs contained the chemicals for developing images inside the camera, and photos emerged from the camera in less than a minute.
Polaroid's overall revenue from instant cameras, film and other products peaked in 1991 at nearly $3 billion. The company went into bankruptcy in 2001 and was bought four years later for $426 million by Minnetonka, Minn.-based consumer products company Petters Group Worldwide.
Polaroid's newly announced job cuts include 150 positions to be eliminated over the next couple months at Massachusetts operations in Norwood and Waltham, which make large-format films for technical and industrial photography. Later this year, Polaroid will close plants employing 300 workers in the Mexican state of Queretaro and in Enschede, Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights for its instant film, in hopes that another firm will continue making the film to supply Polaroid enthusiasts.
As it seeks to gain a foothold in digital photography this year, Polaroid plans to sell an 8-ounce photo printer slightly bigger than a deck of cards that requires no ink and prints business card-sized pictures. It uses thermal printing technology from Zink Imaging Inc., founded by private investors who bought technologies from Polaroid as it was coming out of bankruptcy.
Polaroid also has its brand name on foreign-made TVs, DVD players, digital photo frames, cameras and MP3 music players. Those products generated nearly $1 billion in revenue last year for Polaroid's parent firm, Beaudoin said.

 

[omgspicegirls]

if anyone really cares about this here is a petition they can sign...

many photographers and artists rely on polaroid film and to end production would be very tragic..

go here to sign the petition!
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/save-polaroid-film.html

ooh its up to 5640!
when i signed it there were only around 800 signatures.
but then again, do these petitions ever help?

 

[liashoes]

I signed the petition. I have 2 polaroid cameras which are in use mostly at parties. I have only 20 shots left--guess I better stock up.

 

[fourboltmain]

As it seeks to gain a foothold in digital photography this year, Polaroid plans to sell an 8-ounce photo printer slightly bigger than a deck of cards that requires no ink and prints business card-sized pictures.

Yeah, way to stick a fork in it Polaroid. Who the f#@% is going to buy that?

Grr... mass emailing petition around...

Anyway, the aforementioned book is now a website and will be released shortly, I'll be sure to link it all over TFS if I can get away with it.