advertisement for the1955 pictures-in-a-minute camera from the December 5th, 1955 edition of LIFE.
Toronto. What a heady time! WW2 was over a decade earlier; improvements in photography came fast and furious, and everyone wanted to get in on the game. Faster films; more colour options; better lighting; flash bulbs; portable electronic flash; etc. were just a few of the ‘fresh eggs’ being touted.
One incredible feat was performed by Edwin Land. Land devised a chemical process to create a decent finished print in-camera in about 60 seconds. Unheard of! For Christmas 1948 a handful of his cameras and films were offered in a single store (in Boston) – CAMERAS and FILM SOLD OUT the same day.
This ad, about 7 years later, continued to push the primary difference of Polaroid Land cameras and film – a finished print in 60 seconds. To the modern day smartphone camera user, 60 seconds seems like waiting an eternity just to see a crummy small B&W photograph. But over 70 years ago such rapid turnaround on a photograph was astounding! Most photographs took a week or two after the roll was mailed to the processing firm (remember Chas Abel here in Toronto).
Again, we are indebted to my good friend, George Dunbar, for spotting and sharing this bit of photographic history. While Polaroid Land cameras and film (original colour film in SX-70 size) are still around, Fuji also makes similar film along with their Instax cameras. Others also make and/or sell cameras that use Instax films. The modern day “Polaroid” style film in full colour takes less than 10 seconds to process in-camera.
