Cameras, Polaroid. Technology

Edwin Herbert Land and Polaroid, the company that he founded, produced the first self-developing cameras by employing synthesized sheet material that could align light waves. Discovered in 1934, this plastic was dubbed Polaroid for its resemblance (-oid) to polarization. Initially, the company used the plastic in sunglasses and filters. Concluding that the sheeting had potential as part of an instant camera, Land assigned a team to develop such a product.

An immediate sensation, the first Polaroid Land camera went on sale in 1948 in an upscale department store. Marketed as a luxury item for amateur photographers, the camera cost more than other types yet quickly found buyers among people drawn by the appeal of instant results. Since instant photography skips the step of submitting film to developers, the Model 95 also found a market among those who wanted to keep intimate photos of lovers away from the eyes of others.

Professional photographers often purchased the camera to test setup conditions. More than half a million Model 95 cameras sold in the first five years of production. The camera contained a folding bellows that connected the lens housing to the body, which was covered in imitation leather. A latch popped the camera open and, when locked into the closed position, the sensitive interior was fully protected meaning that no lens cap was necessary.

The camera produced 3.25- by 4.25-inch (90 by 110 mm) sepia-toned photographs, eight to a roll. It weighed just over 2 kilograms when loaded with a film roll, making it difficult for many people to handle. An exposure value (EV) number from one to ten described settings for aperture and shutter speed. Polaroid recruited General Electric to design an inexpensive exposure meter to read the light of the scene expressed in the same EV numbers.

With the meter clipped to the camera, the photographer checked the meter then set the same number by turning a wheel on the shutter board before taking a properly exposed picture. Within a few years, this EV system would be adopted, with some modifications, as the standard of the amateur photographic industry.

To produce an instant photograph, the camera exposed an image on a roll of negative photographic paper pulled down from the top of the camera into view of the lens. This paper met a set of rollers with positive paper pulled up from the bottom of the camera. Interspersed on the positive roll were small pods of chemicals: the standard developer hydroquinone and the typical fixer sodium thiosulphate.

As the papers pulled through the rollers together and out of the camera body, the pressure of the rollers burst the reagent pod, spreading chemicals evenly through the middle of the positive-negative sandwich. The chemical reaction took about sixty seconds to complete, at which time the photographer peeled the positive print from the negative. The process was not foolproof and the film did not always peel easily.

The Model 95 failed to produce consistently good photographs because Polaroid had been unable to produce a high-quality, easy-to-use film. The company solved this potential customer satisfaction problem by encouraging camera users to think of photography as a creative process filled with trial and error. In 1950, Polaroid introduced black and white film but consumers soon reported a fading problem.

After determining that the problem was caused by contaminants present in the air, Polaroid reconstructed the positive print and instructed consumers to add the annoying step of painting pictures with a protective coating. Famed photographer Ansel Adams, serving as a paid consultant, suggested ways to improve the tonal value of Polaroid film and persuaded the company to market 4- by 5-inch (100 by 130 mm) sheet film. The smooth surface of the film showed smudges, picked up glare, and revealed fine-detail flaws in the photograph.

Color film, Polacolor, became available in 1963. Polacolor records the three primary colors in three light-sensitive layers. When the film is exposed, some dye is trapped while the remainder transfers to the receiving layer thereby reproducing the color of the subject. The film did not hold its color over the years. Wastage and quality of film remained concerns, and Polaroid was never able to match the quality and consistency of Kodak’s equivalent 35 mm film.

While Polaroid worked to perfect its film, it continued to introduce instant cameras. Like other photography companies, Polaroid made most of its profit on film, giving it an incentive to reduce camera prices as much as possible. In 1954, the moderately priced Highlander reflected the company’s plan of offering increasingly lower-priced models.

The 1963 Automatic 100 had pack film that developed outside the body, so the photographer could take a series of shots without waiting for the film to develop. In 1965, the Swinger became Polaroid’s first low-cost model. Named after a slang word for ‘‘fun person’’ to appeal to the teenage market, this camera had a high-impact plastic boxy body. It used roll film that produced small black and white photographs and tended to jam if the camera suffered rough treatment.

The Swinger contained an innovative exposure control device. When the user gripped a small red stick that projected above the shutter, an electric bulb inside the camera illuminated a checkerboard display in the viewfinder just above the image of the scene to be photographed. By rotating the control stick, the photographer could open or close the aperture to admit enough light to balance the brightness of the bulb which was keyed to light sensitivity of the film. When the two brightnesses were balanced, the checkerboard spelled YES. Later versions of the Swinger included a T-bar strap to make the camera easier to hold while extracting film.

In 1968, the Big Swinger replaced the Swinger before the Colorpack II succeeded it in 1969. The Colorpack accepted black and white or color film, had an electronic shutter for automatic exposure control, an electric eye, a more precise lens, and a built-in flashgun that relied upon four-shot flash- cubes. In 1971 the company added a self-timer that gave the photographer three seconds to enter the picture frame before the shutter snapped.

Additionally, a beeper sounded when the picture was ready to be peeled from the negative. A third device also activated when insufficient natural light existed for a good picture. In 1972, SX-70, the first pocket-sized Polaroid camera, used cast plastic technology to fold light through internal lenses and mirrors. The 116 mm lens was slightly wide-angle to make the best compromise among all the possible situations under which camera users might be operating.

Portraiture remained difficult since the lens tended to flatten and distort anything filling up the frame at a short distance. To remedy this problem, Polaroid eventually developed a telephoto lens attachment. Later Polaroid cameras featured automatic focus, a built-in flash with an automatic recharge feature, a frame indicator displaying the numbers of pictures remaining in a film pack, and a close-up adaptor.

In the 1980s, the popularity of Polaroid cameras dipped as cheap 35 mm cameras and one-hour photo shops permitted consumers to produce better-quality photos without sacrificing a great deal of developing time. In the 1990s, the advent of digital photography further eroded the market for Polaroids as photographers began to use computers to transmit images although the cameras remained in heavy use for identification purposes, particularly for licenses issued by motor vehicle bureaus.