Land cameras are the polaroid cameras made between 1947 and 1983[1] The first model was invented by Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. On February 21, 1947 in New York City, Land demonstrated his camera to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.[2] The first commercially available model was the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95,[3] which produced prints in about 1 minute,[4][5] and was first sold to the public in November, 1948.[6]
The Film
editLand's new approach was to use diffusion transfer to record the image directly onto a photosensitive surface, which functioned as both film and photograph.[2] A negative material was exposed inside the camera and then pulled out via a tab, being squeezed against a layer of reagent and a positive material. After a minute, the layers could be separated and the negative sheet discarded.[5]
In 1963, Land improved his invention, with Polacolor film, which made instant color photographs possible.[2] With Polacolor, light passing through the lens makes a series of latent images on a number of dye layers of the film sheet. As with the earlier technology, processing reagent activates the image in these lower layers, giving the finished print after several minutes, which is protected by a hard plastic film.[5]
In 1972, the wet, peel-apart development process was replaced with dry films that developed in light, the SX70 being the first model to use this.[2]
Rollfilm
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The original cameras folded into the body and had bellows to protect the light path. The film was put on two spools, one with the negative roll, and one with the positive paper and reagent pods. the film developed inside the camera as the film sandwich was not light proof, and would fog. The exeption to this is the Swinger, a hardbody rollfilm camera whose film was pulled out of the camera body to develop in the light. The film for rollfilm cameras was discontinued in the 1980's and 1990's.
Colorpack
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These cameras came after the rollfilm models, and were more compact. Like with the Swinger the film sandwich was pulled out of the camera to develop in light, but instead of two separate rolls the film was built into a compact easy loading cartridge. In addition to the folding models there were also hard body plastic models. There are 4 generations of folding colorpack cameras the 100, the 200, the 300, and 400 series. Film is still sold in this format and used actively worldwide[7]
SX-70 and 600
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References
edit- ^ http://www.rwhirled.com/landlist/landhome.htm
- ^ a b c d http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/land.html
- ^ http://www.newmediastudies.com/art/polaroid.htm
- ^ Hutchinson Encyclopedia article on "Polaroid Camera"
- ^ a b c The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
- ^ http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpolaroid.htm
- ^ www.polanoid.net
See also
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editCategory:Industrial design examples Category:cameras Category:history of photography