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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Polaroid Film |
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February 2008
Posts: 247
Location: Delaware | Only 19.95, wonder what they're worth today? Great web site Cliff, really like "Learn To Fly", gonna have to look that one up and give it a whirl ! |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | I heard a spot on NPR a couple of weeks ago that said Polaroid used to employ 21,000 people. As of now they're down to 150. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I had an upgraded 210 model or something like that. Loved it. Took maybe a 100 rolls of film with it from 1969 until the mid-70's. I think it was 8 or 10 pics per roll. The flash required individual light bulbs. Still have the camera someplace. Probably some unused film as well. |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| In the 80s they made a huge plate camera - something like 16" x 12", maybe way bigger, and they invited a whole range of photographers to take a few shots with it. The exact opposite of firing off 300 digital shots - with only a few shots available per session and taking half an hour or more to set up each shot really made photographers think. The exhibition I saw in London was wonderful.
RIP indeed. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | That was the 24"-wide stock. I remember it as well. While it was designed to be the "instant gratification, point/shoot" film, in the right hands (& the right light) it yielded prints with a warm, "creamy" consistency that'll NEVER be duplicated digitally.
I still have a couple of the larger models up on top of the bookshelf, and a "Swinger" SOMEwhere (probably in the ex's basement). Last time I looked at it the "YES" on the viewfinder still worked.
I can still remember the "contact high" y'used t'get from using that horrid-smelling "stop" liquid that y'had to swipe over the prints . . . |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| The B&W negative stock was very cool - if you could put up with the aggravation of developing it. Better than most Kodak/Ilford b&w film. And you got an instant contact print. |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| It is just fascinating how far we keep advancing with technology. I have many Photo's as an amateur Historian and author of two books on my area's history. I have found and copied many thousands of the old Salt emulsion and albumen photo's on paper and metal. Most of the photo's I am copying are some 100 or 150 years old. Now depending upon the talents of the photographer and the quailty of his chemicals, and the storage practices used since they were taken, many of these great old photo's are fading out.........Think about it.........I have copied thousands of photo's on 35mm high resolution film but my celuloid film and the prints I have emlarged are only as good as I was as a photographer and will last as long as my techniques and film will allow.
I now have some of the only exsisting photographs from my area and they are second generation. If I have my entire collection copied onto digital then the best the future generations will do is third generation photo's.
There is no gaurantee the Digital will survive either. Electromagnetics and even something as simple as a computer virus can possibly wipe out entire collections of photographs.
In a thousand years there may be no images of the past still around unless we find a better solututionbecause so many of these images are not being copied by what technolgy we have now..
Poloroids do not seem to last very long. The chemicals used were to strong and not designed for longevity..... just instant gratification.
Anything on Poloroid you have that has any value to you you should copy now. When they go they go fast.
Food for thought |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| You used to be able to buy an emulsion that you could paint onto a Polaroid print and virtually turn it into archive quality.
I may have a senior moment tomorrow and forget why I went to the bathroom but remember the name of the emulsion.
That kind of thing is happening a lot lately. In my more lucid moments I'm pretty sure jW has billed me for the ute seven times in the last year, but I can't remember where I put the check counterfoils to check it out.
Anyway - Polaroid, great technology but always way too expensive for the film stock. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | You still need to reimburse me the airfare for my visit this past fall... |
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March 2005
Posts: 2791
Location: Atlanta, GA. | A nostalgic video... 'specially if you're a fan of Ali McGraw or Barry Manilow.
In the early 70's I went for the Kodak Instant camera. Their production of the film lasted about 6 months before the lawsuits shut them down!
Still have the camera. FWIW. |
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February 2008
Posts: 247
Location: Delaware | I remember taking some photos of my eXXX wife with one of these. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | My Dad just bought a couple cases of film. He shoots medium format, but uses the Polaroids for checking lighting and such.
He's still old school. Can't get him to even look at digital. Unfortunately his biz is goin down the tubes these days too. Good thing he's only got a couple years left to retirement. |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| I have a hage collection of old Glass plate negatives and boxes in sleves of large format celuloid. I use an old Omega D-2 for enlargements and it is still the best for me. It is getting more and more expensive to do this process, it used to cost pennies apiece to make an 8 X 10 but those days are gone. And the High resolution film is getting hard to find much less afford to buy. My days are shortly numbered.... in the darkroom anyway.
Randy |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by cholloway:
A nostalgic video... 'specially if you're a fan ... Barry Manilow. Barry Manilow died?
Party at my place!
The Witch is Dead |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | :D |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Cliff, if you can make it before sun up there's two bottles of Patron
(one anejo, one reposado) with your name on them.)
....how'd you do that BTW? |
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R.I.P.