Polaroid Instant Film

The inventor of Polaroid photography was Edwin Land. Land was a physicist and American inventor who created a revolution in photography with his one-step process - instant photography. Edwin Land wanted to manufacture his new instant camera so he created the Polaroid corporation. In November of 1948, the first polaroid camera was sold to the general public.

Land approached the Henry Dreyfuss design company in 1960 to work with them on on a camera design, and the result o that collaboration was the Automatic 100 Land Camera and then Polaroid Swinger camera, released in 1965. The Swinger camera was black and white and sold for under $20 dollars which was a big hit with consumers and the general public.

On April 26, 1976, one of the largest photography related patent suits was filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. Polaroid Corporation, the owner of numerous instant phototography patents, sued the Kodak Corporation for infringement of 12 Polaroid patents relating to instant photography. On October 11, 1985, after over five years of pretrial activity and 75 days of actual trial, seven of Polaroid’s patents were found to be valid and infringed upon by Kodak. Kodak was basically forced out of the isntant picture market and left several customers with cameras but no film to use in them. Kodak was forced to offer their customers various forms of compensation for their loss.

The most common use for Land’sm polarizing filters was Polaroid photography cameras, with the popularity of digital cameras increasing this type of camera is losing popularity.  Originally, polarizing filters had various uses in military during WWII  such as dark-developing goggles, target finders,  and Vectrographs which used a stereoscopic viewing system to view enemies even though they utilized camoflage.

The most popular use for Land’s polarizing, though, was instant film and polaroid photography.  His Polaroid Land camera, was the first self-developing camera to be a commercial success.  Land continued his breakthroughs in the 1970s by creating the SX-70, an instant color film developing camera.

Land’s polarizing filters also found in 3-D glasses used today. There are various other uses for his polarizing filters today as well.

Unfortunately, Polaroid announced they would stop production on all Polaroid film in 2008.  Professional photographers often use high-end instant cameras to test the lighting at photo shoots before moving over to the more expensive camera equipment.  It is unfortunate that Polaroid photography has apparently been phased out by technology.