SX-70 Polaroid Photo c1997
Toronto. George Dunbar sent me a few old photography ads including this July 1950 Popular Photography Polaroid ad. The Polaroid ad brought to mind many old memories.
As a kid in Allandale, I had my first camera – an old Kodak box camera. After I used up the roll of film with about 8 to 12 shots, I ambled down to the local drugstore. My exposed roll was sent off to Chas Abel in Toronto for processing and printing.
Developing the roll cost a dime while any frames worth printing added a few cents per print. A week or so later, my film would come back processed and – hopefully – printed.
Before Polaroid, finding out if your shots were good took days to weeks depending on how fast you finished the roll and where you took it for processing. All this changed in the late 1940s with Polaroid’s revolutionary “picture in a minute” process. But there was a big problem with Polaroid’s very complex and well built cameras and process: cost. The camera and film (and subsequent print) were far more expensive than a Kodak box camera, traditional film, and processing. Which is why so many Polaroid cameras were used briefly then set aside on the shelf. Continue reading
