Polaroid cameras to be produced once again

chris

Polaroid cameras and Polaroid film should both go one sale by the middle of 2010, less than two years after the company collapsed for the second, and what appeared, final time.

The instant cameras will be made in China by Summit Global, the company which bought the license to the Polaroid name after the company collapsed.

The film, meanwhile, will be created by The Impossible Project – the company rescued from the ashes of the Polaroid manufacturing plant based in Enschede, The Netherlands. Over the last year former managers of the factory have worked, as mostly a labour of love, to recreate the magic of the film on a low budget.

Summit Global announced the new Polaroid camera in Hong Kong on Tuesday morning.

Not only will it bring back an analogue version of the original Polaroid One, the most popular model of the instant camera, it will also manufacture a digital version.

Although most famous for the instant camera, Polaroid began life producing polarised sunglasses and goggles for US servicemen during the Second World War.

The famous Polaroid camera was first conceived by Edwin Land in 1947 and thanks to its iconic SX 70 version, which first went on sale in 1972, the company had sold 13 million cameras by 2000.

It won over a whole generation to the fun of photography because of its simplicity. Instead of having to wait for your film to be developed at a local pharmacy or camera shop, users could see their photographs within a minute of taking the picture.

However, the rise of digital photography, combined with internal problems at the company, meant that Polaroid slowly declined before collapsing into Chapter 11 in 2001 and then again in 2008.

A joint venture between Gordon Brother Brands and Hilco – a company that specialises in rescuing and cutting costs at collapsed companies – now owns Polaroid and has licensed the use of the name to different camera and film manufacturers.


Source:telegraph

T_G

to wohoooo or not to woohoo, that's the instant question. Other than hired killers who really like them polaroids, who needs this when digital cams are so cheap, you can check instantly if the picture is ok (one of the advantages a polaroid had compared to a regular camera is that you were never sure if the picture was ok), and developing is so quick and easy...

T_G I only believe stuff that comes straight from Mr. Horses mouth!

Topper

To some extent I agree T_G however if you have ever watched any of the professional photgraphers on TV doing a photo shoot they still take polaroids before the shoot to balance the lighting and also I think it is a touchy feely thing that people like. My sister-in-law was just over for a wedding in London and she had 800 photos in her camera which I put on CD for her using my lappy for posterity, she has just had them all printed and put in an album......, touchy feely

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T_G

Oh, I develop my pictures as well, but unlike before I did not take every picuter twice just in case, and I don't develop bad pictures either...I was never sure about the colour properties of polaroids either, after all they were not that clever when it came to lenses etc, so how can it be used to evaluate lighting etc?

T_G I only believe stuff that comes straight from Mr. Horses mouth!