The polaroid is truly timeless considering it’s still manufactured to this day since the founding of the instant film camera dating back to 1937. The Polaroid Corporation was founded by Edwin H. Land and the first Polaroid camera Model 95 was released in 1948 that would become the prototype for the following generations the come over the next 15 years.
In 1963 another camera model, Polacolor/Model 100, was released with much success producing the first instant color film camera. Polaroid celebrated two successes that year releasing the Model 100 featuring the first fully automatic pack film and exposure control.
Polaroid was on a roll releasing another camera model known as the Swinger in 1965 that caught the eye of the younger generation. The success of the Polaroid Swinger caught onto music with “Meet the Swinger” by Barry Manilow starring a Polaroid household character, Ali McGraw.
As the era of the 60s passed the Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera was launched in 1972 that featured a new fully automatic, motorized, and folding capabilities with instant color prints. This camera was one of Polaroid’s biggest success stories, within a year of releasing Polaroid was producing 5,000 cameras per day.
A few years later in 1977 the Polaroid OneStep Land Camera was an inexpensive fixed focus camera and became the best-selling camera beating out the competition of conventional and instant cameras in the United States. The next Polaroid development came along in 1981 with the Polaroid Sun 600 System (named for the Type 600 film) with a massive promotion campaign with The Muppets for print ads and commercials to help promote the camera.
By 1986, the instant film camera company released the Polaroid Spectra System and was introduced 38 years after the first Land camera was announced. In 1992, Polaroid released one of their most modern cameras the Polaroid Captiva that even inspired the design of digital cameras with a picture panel that would pop out photos with a compact design.
In 1997, the Polaroid OneStep featured a rounded body style with various style colors and this camera was also used for licensing deals with other big names such as the pop girl group The Spice Girls and the timeless American doll Barbie. Before the 90s were finished, the camera company offered the unique Polaroid Zone in 1999 with a variety of colors that was pocket size with prints the size of thumbnails and was a hit among the team market.
Polaroid entered the new millennium with more digital options including the Polaroid PoGo released in 2008 that was a digital camera that also featured a printer thanks to a partnership with ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology. The next camera incorporated the design of the original Polaroid camera with a new digital camera in 2011 for the Polaroid Z340/GL10 that served as a full functioning digital camera with a built-in printer so you can instantly print 3×4 photos.
Polaroid started making products during the surge of cellphones creating the GL10 Instant Mobile Printer in 2011 that allowed users to print photos from their mobile devices. The following year in 2012, they introduced the Polaroid Z2300 for an instant digital camera partnered once again with ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology with 2×3 photos that have a sticky back to be used as a sticker.
By 2014, Polaroid was thinking bigger by going smaller with one of their smallest camera models, the Polaroid Cube. The look was inspired by the smaller action/adventure cameras like GoPro.
The latest innovation by Polaroid was the release of the Polaroid Snap Touch in 2016 combining a digital camera and the traditional instant-film Polaroid camera. The Polaroid Snap Touch allows users to snap, print, and share photos instantly that is app-driven with Bluetooth connectivity. Though the Polaroid camera is over 84 years old it will remain a timeless piece of technology and doesn’t plan on stopping their innovation anytime soon.
