Polaroid Land Camera Model 95
[1948-1953]

On February 21, 1947, Dr Edwin Land introduced the world’s first successful instant camera. Production started in 1948 and the success of instant photography is still being enjoyed today. The first Polariod cameras used roll film. A roll of negative film was loaded and threaded through rollers where it was joined with the actual print paper by a leader. The print paper had small packets of developer placed between frames. Once the exposure was made the leader was pulled which advanced the negative and printing paper together between spring loaded rollers which burst the developing agent evenly coating the negative and print paper and processing was started. After a minute, the positive image was complete and a door at the back of the camera was opened and the final 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ in. print peeled off from the negative.

Over the years Polaroid has provided photography with many innovations including a camera that focused using a sonar type ultrasound mechanism.

Polaroid photography is widely used by amateurs but more important applications are found in science, police work and proofing by professional photographers. The largest Polaroid film available is 16 x 20 inches and the handful of large format view cameras supporting this size and are mainly used to produce fine art images.

The smallest Polariod print is produced by the i- Zone camera which became on of the best selling cameras in the world in 1999.

Polaroid stands alone as the world leader in this field. They were challenged briefly by Kodak in 1952 (see Kodak EK4 instant camera). Today the only other instant film manufacturer is Fugi.