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An instant camera is a camera which uses instant film to create a chemically developed print shortly after taking the picture. Polaroid Corporation pioneered (and Patent) consumer-friendly instant cameras and film, and were followed by various other manufacturers.
The invention of commercially viable instant cameras which were easy to use is generally credited to Edwin Land, the inventor of the model 95 Land Camera, widely considered the first commercial instant camera, in 1948, a year after he unveiled instant film in New York City.
In February 2008, Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time and announced it would discontinue production of its instant films and cameras, shut down three manufacturing facilities, and lay off 450 workers. Sales of analog film by all makers dropped by at least 25% per year in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2009, Polaroid was acquired by PLR IP Holdings LLC, which uses the Polaroid brand to market various products often relating to instant cameras. Among the products it markets are a Polaroid branded Fuji Instax instant camera, and various and portable printers.
, film continues to be made by Polaroid B.V. (previously the Impossible Project) for several models of Polaroid camera, and for the 8×10 inch format. Other brands such as Lomography, Leica, Fujifilm, and others have designed new models and features in their own takes on instant cameras.
After Land's instant camera invention was brought to market in 1948, a few different instant cameras were developed, some using Polaroid-compatible film such as cameras by Keystone, Konica, and Minolta. Others were incompatible with Polaroid cameras and film, the most notable of these being made by Kodak, such as the EK series and Kodamatic cameras.
Later, Fujifilm introduced instant cameras and film in selected markets. After taking over an old Polaroid factory in 2008, the Netherlands-based Impossible Project began producing instant film for Polaroid cameras. This helped generate new interest in instant photography.
Even so, Polaroid brought a patent-infringement lawsuit against Kodak, and eventually Kodak was forced to stop manufacture of both the camera and film. "Kodak's instant-picture camera" Popular Science, July 1976, pp. 54. Kodak was also left to pay a settlement to some customers who were left without a way to use their now defunct cameras. One settlement offered owners of Kodak instant cameras a credit towards a new Kodak camera. Many Kodak instant cameras still exist and can be found on auction sites. Kodak also lost the contract to manufacture Polaroid's negatives which subsequently took production in house. Recently photographers tried to use Instax mini and square film inside the Kodak EK4 being somewhat successful and only being able to load one picture at a time in a darkroom.
Fujifilm was one of the first manufacturers who added different shooting modes to Polaroid cameras. "Kid mode" for example, will shoot photos at a faster shutter speed for capturing fast moving objects or people. Fujifilm later introduced Instax Mini 8 and advertised as the "cutest camera" targeting young women and girls. Shortly after, they introduced Instax Mini 90 and Instax mini 70, Targeting middle-aged men with the new sleek and classic design. [2]
In the late 1990s Fujifilm introduced a new series of cameras using a new film called Instax it was available in markets outside the US. Instax became available in a smaller size with the introduction of the Instax Mini/Cheki line. Polaroid's Mio was available in the US, it uses the same film as the Fujifilm Instax Mini series but were rebranded as Mio film. This was also true of the Polaroid 300, and this film is still being sold. None of Fujifilm's products were sold officially in the United States originally. With the announcement in 2008 of Polaroid ceasing film production, Instax and peel apart type films became available in more channels. Fuji ended production of peel-apart films in 2016, FP-100C being the last such product from them.
In 2019, it introduced the InstantKon RF70, a rangefinder camera that uses Fuji instax wide film. Two years later in 2021, it introduced another rangefinder camera, the InstantKon SF70, that uses Fuji instax square film.
The following year, the company released the Lomo'Instant Wide, a variation on the original Lomo'Instant which shot larger photos using Fujifilm's Instax Wide film. These images are more similar in size to original Polaroid film.
In the summer of 2016, Lomography announced the development of a new instant camera. Called the Lomo'Instant Automat, Lomography describes it as "the most advanced automatic instant camera.”
In August 2017, Lomography released the Lomo'Instant Square Glass. It takes 86mm x 72mm photographs and is the "world's first dual-format, glass lensed instant camera".
Script supervisors in film production used instant cameras (until superseded by digital cameras) as standard to aid visual continuity by photographing actors, sets or props, to take photographs that could be instantly referred to when a particular set or character's appearance needs to be reset and shot again, or recalled later due to reshoots or the out-of-sequence shooting schedule of a film or television production.
The fashion industry relied upon Polaroid prints as a record of models or potential models.
Instant photography was also useful in conducting a study about the perception of vehicle accidents. The instant photos were used to document accidents to show medical professionals the condition of a vehicle after an accident. Having this visual in turn changed how the physician viewed the accident their patient was in.
With the advent of digital photography, much of the instant camera's consumer appeal has been transferred to digital cameras. Passport photo cameras have gone to digital, leaving instant cameras to a niche market.
Instant Cameras and Society
The introduction of instant camera technologies was important to society because it allowed for more creativity among camera users. Instead of having to use a darkroom to develop photographs, users were able to explore and document their world and experiences as they occurred. Instant Camera photography acted as an activity to some of its users. Instant cameras were portrayed by Polaroid as being able to combine the activities of both taking a photo and viewing one, into a singular past time.
Because instant cameras were easy to use, didn't require a darkroom or sending out the film for processing, this allowed couples to take personal private photos without concerns about unwanted third parties viewing the photos.
Pack film cameras were mostly equipped with automatic exposure, but still had to be focused and a flash bulb or cube unit needed to be used with colour film indoors. The development of the film required the photographer pull two tabs, the second tab which pulled the positive/negative "sandwich" from the camera, where it developed outside the camera. If the temperature was below 15 °C (60 °F), the positive/negative "sandwich" was placed between two aluminum plates and placed either in the user's pocket or under their arm to keep it warm while developing. After the required development time (15 seconds to 2 minutes), the positive (with the latent image) was peeled apart from the negative.
Integral film cameras, such as the SX-70, 600 series, Spectra, and Captiva cameras went a long way in accomplishing Edwin Land's goal of creating a seamless process in producing instant photos. The photographer simply pointed the camera at the subject, framed it and took the photo. The camera and film did the rest, including adjusting the exposure settings, taking care of focusing (Sonar autofocus models only), utilising a flash if necessary (600 series and up), and ejecting the film, which developed without intervention from the photographer. The new design of the frame film for the SX-70 cameras allowed for their convenient usage. With all of the ingredients necessary to develop the photograph in the thicker portion of the frame, the user only has to take the photo to initiate the reaction which provided them their photo.
The artist Lucas Samaras, for example, was among the first to modify the images taken with the Polaroid SX-70 through the "Polaroid transfer". Thus, he developed the series "autoentrevistas", a set of self-portraits in which he takes the place of a model in different circumstances.
John Reuter, the director of the Polaroid 20×24 camera studio, for years experimented with snapshot transfers.
Andy Warhol also made use of instant cameras. Warhol began taking snapshots to use as sketches of his popular Lithography. In spite of this, their peculiar vision and the passage of time have turned these Polaroids into famous and interesting photographs from an artistic point of view. They are also part of pop art or pop culture.
David Hockney also utilised polaroids within his work to create Photomontage. Hockney was skeptical about photography, until instant photography was suggested to him by a museum curator. In the 1980s he began to experiment and creating composite photo collages. These include portraits, still lifes and the iconic swimming pools that Hockney is known for. He admitted that his works are very Cubist and often reference Cubism with their distorted perspective. He later moved on from polaroids to 35mm film.
The popular 2003 song "Hey Ya!" by Outkast features the line "Shake it like a Polaroid picture", referring to the myth that shaking an instant photo makes it dry faster. In reality, shaking has no positive effect and can even damage the photo. As a result of the song, the Polaroid Corporation released a statement discouraging the practice.
The name and app icon of the social photo sharing platform Instagram, founded in 2010, originated from the instant camera, with the 2010 icon directly resembling a Polaroid Land Camera 1000.
In 2014, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift used Polaroids as the aesthetic for her fifth studio album 1989.
Instant cameras featured prominently in the 2015 video game Life Is Strange in which the protagonist, Max Caulfield, frequently uses one.
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