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Here’s a tangentially related followup to the article on Polaroid photographer Jamie Livingston earlier this week. Some commenters asked about the quality of the photos — many images seem to be better than what we think of as Polaroid snapshots. How did Livingston achieve advanced effects like changes in depth of field, double exposure, fixed-point focusing, and closeup photography with a Polaroid camera?
The answer (in addition to Livingston’s skill as a photographer) is his Polaroid SX-70 camera. It was an extremely complex SLR camera developed by Edwin Land’s team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, released in 1972. The SX-70 folded into a pocket-sized form factor — assuming your pockets were huge. Employing a number of amazing technologies (it was the first Land camera to use the now-famous Polaroid film packs), later models included a sonar autofocus system — the first autofocus capability available in a mass market camera. The camera also supported clip-on wide angle and telephoto lenses.
The SX-70 was a remarkable camera, so much so that Charles and Ray Eames produced an eleven-minute advertisement/explainer film for it in 1972. The film starts with a discussion of Polaroid’s history and goes into a surprisingly technical description of the camera’s operation and even its manufacturing process. Have a look:
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As a former Polaroid engineer that helped develop the SX-70 camera system, I found this post most interesting. I had forgotten about the promotional film. It represents a valuable example of how innovation, incorporating multiple disciplines (optics, chemistry, semiconductors, materials and manufacturing engineering, etc.) can be combined to address a real human need. Many have forgotten or never knew that “instant gratification” of seeing a permanent record of a scene was possible even before the digital revolution and the Internet. If you plan any follow-on pieces on this subject, I have a wealth of memories and events that led up to the production of the SX-70, including the sonar auto-focus version released in 1978.
posted by Mike on 5-25-2008 at 9:33 am
It was very nostalgic to see this film, especially when I remember my fist 8 years of life being recorded by a Polaroid camera. When I think of how far we have come with digital cameras, it still doesn’t have the instant satisfaction of seeing the picture as it was taken and now part of the permanent record. We can instantly delete digital pictures if they are unsatisfactory but a Polaroid picture is kept around for years.
posted by Sarah on 5-25-2008 at 11:47 pm
We didn’t officially have a SX-70 (with sonar autofocus), but my mom was keeper of her company’s camera so I got to play with it. When she retired she made sure to take it back to the office, It was useless anyhow, we couldn’t get the filmpacks for it anymore.
We were gifted a Kodak instant camera. You turned a crank to get the instant photo out of the camera. Polaroid sued Kodak over patent infringement. Owners of the Kodak were told to pry the nameplate off of the camera, and send it in to get a reimbursement. We still have the useless, never used, Kodak instant camera (sans nameplate).
posted by Tdave on 5-26-2008 at 12:55 am
Polaroids were, and are, awesome feats of engineering and wonderful cameras. I once read somewhere that the pictures never stop developing. Our family photo albums are chock full of Polaroids from the early days with tabs and ruffled edges to the modern version. I hope they stage a comeback as people get nostalgic, like they are for Holgas cameras. We still have the Kodak instant camera, too! It has sat, unused, in a cabinet for as long as I can remember. I would pull it out every few years as a kid and play with it and my mom would tell me we were supposed to send it back, but never did (not out of a sense of collectibility, we were just eternal procrastinators). I wonder if it will ever be collectible…
My great-uncles’ lives as farmers in Illinois were captured on Polaroids throughout the years that they would send to my grandparents. Maybe I will put them together in a collection…
posted by Nicole on 5-26-2008 at 1:50 am
It’s amazing how they could do so much with so little electronic technology. Our generation has lost a lot of that level of creativity. The ability to make something truly unique and advanced in so many different ways. When I was a teen, I really wanted an SX/70, my first boss had one. It’s achilles heel was the price of the film.
posted by sysmg on 5-26-2008 at 7:37 am
I still have my mom’s old Polaroid in a box somewhere. It’s the old(er)-school one that required the user to pull the pictures out by a tab and coat them with some noxious-smelling chemical to protect them. She used to carry it around in a big leather camera bag (about the size of a six-pack cooler) and take pictures for the local newspaper at my elementary school.
One day at the school (this was around 1978 or so), she had sat her camera bag down in the hallway and walked off somewhere (probably to the smoking room). Meanwhile, the fire alarms sounded, and the teachers began evacuating the school. As I was passing through the hallways to the door, I noticed a knot of fire-fighters near the library, but I didn’t give it a second thought.
When they brought us all back in a little while later, I assumed that it had been a drill. Turns out, someone had spotted my mom’s Polaroid camera bag and called the fire department, thinking that it could be a bomb. When she headed back to get it before evacuating, she was surprised to find the firefighters huddled around it, trying to figure out what to do.
Good times. :)
posted by David on 5-27-2008 at 2:21 pm
What an amazing and inspiring little film. So glad that it was saved and archived somewhere. We’re fortunate to have them.
posted by Rob Hart on 5-28-2008 at 12:01 pm
I just purchased an SX-70 from a local photo shop, the beauty of the camera is what caught my eye. I didn’t realize how revolutionary it was. If anyone has any good links for finding parts I’d be oblidged. The sad part is they no longer make SX-70 film and in order to prevent over exposure I was told to pop off one of the pieces. I don’t want to destroy the camera if anyone has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.
posted by Tezeta on 1-2-2009 at 5:28 pm
This made me think of my grandfather. He owned every major generation of Polaroid Camera.
I look at this film and see the same kind of passion that I see today in Apple Inc.
I also see a lot of myself in my grampa, now owning several ipods, iphone, canon camera etc…
One thing none of us should miss are the terrible, terrible heavy metals and chemicals this and all silver base photo systems have released into the environment. No resurrections – let’s just let this one slide into the past gracefully.
posted by dijonaise on 1-4-2009 at 12:34 pm
My familiy had a camera dept in our jewelry store for nearly 50 years.
We were known as having the newest products first.It was a rather large operation.We sold Nikon,Minota,Olympus,Zeiss and all the cutting edge products of that era.
Up to the late 70’s we sold more Kodak film then the Target in our town.
When Poloroid first introduced the SX-70 it was test marketed in Florida.
We has a family member who lived in Florida at the time who would purchase 10 of the camera’s at a time for retail and ship them to us where we would sell to all the camera freaks in Minnesota.
I remember it as a very sturdy metal camera with leather.
It had a great feel.
As time went by Poloroid started making them in plastic and really dumbing down the product.
posted by jay on 1-4-2009 at 4:05 pm