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Peer Review: Polaroid stops making instant film, critics get shaken up
Just last year we were touted the benefits of getting your loved one an old-fashioned Polaroid camera for Valentines Day. After all, the cameras only cost $30, and they're so much fun. Today, those same cameras cost $140— scarcity has lead to to gigantic opportunistic markups. Polaroid has stopped making the cameras, and last week the company announced that it would stop manufacturing instant film altogether.
Yes, Polaroid is laying off 450 people, abandoning the product that made it famous, and breaking thousands of hearts along the way. Of course, the technology won't disappear entirely: Fuji will continue to make instant film. And soon there may be tiny digital photo printers that achieve similar results to the old-fashioned Polaroid. They just won't make that same satisfying click and whirr. After the jump, requiems for a dying technology from around the web.
Everything we love is quietly dying
"First the CW cancels Girlfriends without telling us, and now Polaroid is taking away their famous instant photo cameras with hardly a whisper. Ever notice that when there's a new type of flatscreen or a $50 hamburger, it's all over the news, but when they take stuff away from us, we find out from minimum wage electronics employees?" , Connie Talk
Calm down, people, this nostalgia is unseemly
"There's no room for sentiment when technology claims another victim (except maybe for the 450 Polaroid film employees worldwide)." , The Manchester Evening News
But Polaroid changed British crime fiction irrevocably!
"As a mass medium, the technology was barely in its 40s, which means it outlived the fax and the VCR, but it still feels too soon… The device also visibly changed crime and thriller fiction by ending the inevitable existence of two separate sets of images — negatives and prints — which had driven numerous blackmail and break-in plots." , The Guardian
An important pop song is being made incomprehensible and obsolete
"Polaroids are incredibly awesome and future generations will have no idea WTF "shake it like a Polaroid picture" will mean when Outkast comes on the oldies station. "Hey Ya!" will be irrelevant. Do we really want that?!" , Ego Sermo, Vos Audio
The film still has a real, professional market. It's not going anywhere
"There will still be a thriving market for 4x5 film for view cameras. Nothing in their digital product lineup fills a distinct niche the way that film does. If Polaroid don't want to keep supplying that market, then someone else certainly will. When that happens, Polaroid will realise that they've sold off the family jewels." , Scotland's Sunday Herald
If Laurence Olivier loved it, it should never die
"Another day, another innocent pleasure trembles on the edge of extinction… Polaroids retain a kind of magic, and arguably more than a hint of modernity… this is still the only product that Laurence Olivier agreed to endorse." , The Times (UK)
Porn's moved from Polaroid to the Internet
"I haven't seen an amateur porn polaroid in a while. Obviously this is obsolete technology. The porn has spoken." , Digg
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By texasguy at 2:57 PM ON 02/17/08
The late Stanley Marcus once spoke to me about the "decline of products and services in America," and lamented over the shame of it all. Mr. Stanley (as we called him) was dead on. Without waxing nostalgic, let's look at all the industries who use Polaroid (not digital) to get instant results: 1) The Police (crime scene - they show pictures of victims to potential witnesses--no time to bring the camera back to the station, connect it to a printer, print the picture and then go back and try to find a close-to-the-crime-scene who may have seen something. 2) Surgeons who need to record before and after procedures in the OR for comparison; plastic surgeons to check before/after comparisons; dentists to give a patient an image to take with them to consider treatment and so many more medical utilizations 3) Scientists/Archeologists who must get instant results without the need to lug printers (often there is no electricity in the field) to get what they need 4) Children. They gaze in amazement at the picture popping out of the front of a Polaroid and seeing it develop before their eyes. It helps engage children's interest in photography, laying the groundwork for future artists via its inspiration. These are but a few of the reasons to keep the Polaroid process alive. I don't believe they thought through this action. One plant could have been kept open, machines and production lines moved to accommodate the varying processes, and film sold (at least) directly. There would be no huge cost for distribution to many retailers. They would gain the markup that retailers get by selling direct. And the consumer would pay for the shipping charges. I cannot, in all my years of business experience, think that this would be a losing proposition. Come on Polaroid. Think outside the box here. It's OK to say, 'we made a mistake.' We can forgive, but we cannot forget.
By wbluemax at 3:46 PM ON 02/18/08
VERY UNFORTUNATE that Polaroid is NOT loyal to its instant photo customers. Perhaps we should take on the same attitude toward Polaroid and then the company shall weep what they sow.
By Curtis at 11:20 PM ON 02/18/08
Perhaps Fuji will license the technology.
At the moment, stocks are dwindling, but the best bargain on 600 type file is at Sam's Club where you'll get 4 packs for about $36, which works out to $.87 a photo. I've got about 15 packs in the fridge. Hopefully, they will last the rest of my lifetime.
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Curtis:
Perhaps Fuji will license the technology. At the moment, stocks are dwindling, but the best bargain on 600 type f...More »