{"id":31904,"date":"2025-07-14T01:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T05:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=31904"},"modified":"2025-07-11T22:27:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T02:27:24","slug":"a-rash-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/a-rash-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"a rash decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kodak introduces its version of the Instant Camera<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. \u00a0Have you ever heard of a Kodak Instant camera? No? Not surprising, since Kodak was sued by Polaroid and lost the toss. The Kodak Instants (in any condition) were bought back by Kodak for a small sum after the 1986 loss.<\/p>\n

In issue 24-4, collector Peter Venema (Caledon, ON<\/a>) wrote an article titled, “Kodak Instant Cameras – ‘Made in Canada'” (copyright 1998). \u00a0Peter’s article is quite lengthy and well illustrated. He begins, “Kodak instant cameras are not a common sight. Born out\u00a0of a desire to secure a part of the mediocrity market of the\u00a0instant picture, they appeared on the scene in 1976.<\/p>\n

“Kodak had long been aware that Polaroid was doing well with its sales of instant cameras and instant film. The instant cameras were Polaroid\u2019s lifeline with\u00a0some 90% of its annual gross revenues deriving from it.<\/p>\n

“During the period that Kodak was in the instant camera\u00a0market (entering in 1976 and being forced to withdraw\u00a0early in 1986), Kodak produced over 16 million instant\u00a0cameras but its annual revenues from the instant cameras barely made a ripple in its finances. It never represented more than 2% of the company\u2019s annual income.<\/p>\n

“Polaroid produced its first instant camera in 1948\u00a0and despite rumours that the process was offered for\u00a0sale to Kodak, nothing came of it. In the 1950s and 60s\u00a0Kodak continued to do well with its line of films while\u00a0Polaroid gained a steady increase in its niche market.<\/p>\n

“Several events influenced Kodak to alter its decision and jump into the production\u00a0of instant cameras. By the mid\u00a01960s Polaroid had a stable market\u00a0in which the sales of its films were\u00a0higher than the sales of the cameras. This was a good indication of\u00a0success so it did not go unnoticed\u00a0in Rochester. As well, market\u00a0research indicated that an instant\u00a0camera bearing the Kodak name\u00a0would be well received by the consumer.<\/p>\n

“However, any Kodak\u00a0instant camera project that might\u00a0have been in the planning stage at\u00a0that time fell victim to Kodak\u2019s\u00a0own success. In 1963 Kodak introduced the Instamatic camera with\u00a0its 126 film format. Its run-away success shoved the\u00a0concept of a Kodak instant camera onto the backburner for almost a decade.” …<\/p>\n

Members eagerly read all of Peter’s article in the issue 24-4 pdf file on the free member’s only DVD\/thumb drive. You can join or renew by following ‘MEMBERSHIP’ above or ‘Membership’ at right. Email any questions to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. \u00a0Have you ever heard of a Kodak Instant camera? No? Not surprising, since Kodak was sued by Polaroid and lost the toss. The Kodak Instants (in any condition) were bought back by Kodak for a small sum after the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[398,4650,21],"class_list":["post-31904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-camera","tag-instant","tag-kodak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31908,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31904\/revisions\/31908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}