Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture - the Instant Film Camera is Back!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Mama may have taken Paul Simon's Kodachrome away, but she's given us back the Polaroid instant film camera! Before digital photography, Polaroid cameras were the closest thing we had to instant photo gratification (um...I also know of someone who had a ball with his girlfriend at the time when these cameras came out.) So I was psyched today to see a little write up in the August issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine that Polaroid has brought back a retro revival of its famous camera, due to be available next month for $90. There's good news and bad news about the Polaroid 300. The good news is it's smaller and lighter than its original bulky model and has an automatic flash and a few lighting settings to accommodate different conditions. The bad news is because it's nearly as small as a standard digital camera, the photos themselves are teeny: only 2.1" X 3.4" prints, and the actual image size is only 1.8" X 2.4"! The design could use a vintage boost - how about a white one with the rainbow stripe that they used to make? Still, I'm tempted to preorder one on Polaroid's site; Fuji also offers its own version called the Instax 200 for $95. Hopefully the image quality and color has improved since the one I owned during the 80s.

Now if only we could get James Garner and Mariette Hartley to hawk the new camera...

6 comments:

  1. But are the pictures hazy with tons of glare and smudges? They were endearingly bad. I miss shaking them while they developed.

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  2. I liked when Dad used his Polaroid when we were kids. Always enjoyed those commercials too. Thanks for bringing back these good memories- my brain has been dwelling on too many bad ones lately.

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  3. Ooooh...I had totally forgotten about those old commercials until now!!! :)

    I remember foolin' around with my then boyfriend and a polaroid...but...errrrr...we won't go into details there. (Luckily I married him......but then I divorced him - so many not so luckily...)

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  4. Howard Jones, great synth god of the 80s used to do Polaroid Art where he'd take a photo and then as it developed, he'd run this fingers across it to mess up the image. I always wanted to do that, but the film itself was so expensive, I never got a chance. We loved our Polaroid, but I don't know where any of those photos may be now...

    My mom just KNEW James Garner and Mariette Hartley were married! They had such wonderful chemistry in those ads. A definite precursor to the Folgers Soap Opera ads! :)

    A good friend of mine took Polaroids at another friend's wedding back in the late 90s. It was hysterical how LOUD it was. He'd take a shot during the ceremony and we'd break out in giggles because it was kind of embarrassing.

    Ah, I love Polaroid cameras! :)

    Thanks for this!

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  5. Polaroids are cool! I've got vintage Polaroid 600 camera which is still in good nic.

    Annie

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  6. Mama may have taken Paul Simon's Kodachrome away, but she's given us back the Polaroid instant film camera! Before digital photography ... epolaroidkamera.blogspot.de

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