Polaroids - what kind of glasses are they and what do they eat them with. How the first Polaroid was made Elegant, fashionable and durable Italian frames

The Polaroid brand stories are entertaining but not overly funny business stories from those who have experienced both ups and downs in their business. To date, this topic is no longer being discussed as actively as it was done before, but still the brand and products of this type have not lost their popularity.

History

Now everyone knows that Polaroid is an American company that manufactures photographic equipment, sunglasses, and consumer electronics. But not everyone knows the history of this brand, although for product lovers this information is important.

The founder of the company was an American named Edwin Land, who was born in 1909 in the city of Bridgeport. His parents originally lived in the Russian Empire (on the territory of modern Ukraine), but due to unknown circumstances, they were forced to emigrate to America.

Edwin Land did not know what poverty was, since his parents always had enough money to support a child and have a decent education. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that a boy who is fond of optics had his first thoughts about creating things that would surprise the whole world as early as childhood.

At the age of 17, the young man came up with the idea of ​​​​creating new polarizing lenses designed for car headlights. In his opinion, this could improve road illumination at night without blinding oncoming cars at the same time. Dropping out of university and moving to New York State, Land devoted himself entirely to creating

Edwin Land is the first person in the world to use the principles of polarization, which are now actively used in the creation of table lamps, 3D reality glasses and so on.

Startup

It was not until 1937 that Edwin's work found commercial application. It was in this year that the well-known Polaroid company was created. This production at the first time of its existence was not engaged in the creation and release of cameras, and the very first products were sunglasses, as well as polarizing glasses, which have various purposes for military equipment and other devices.

The creator did not think about how much Polaroid costs as a brand, since he had more important tasks. The site of the production says that this company was directly related to the release of a lot of x-ray film and so on. It is not at all difficult to believe in this statement, because in his entire life Land managed to patent a considerable number of inventions (more than 500). Modern historians argue that more innovations were created only by Thomas Edison.

Scientific achievements and an iron business acumen contributed to the incredible success. Edwin ran the company for 43 years.

Photo per minute

According to legend, the creation is the idea of ​​the daughter of the founder of the company, which pushed him to such an accomplishment, being practically in infancy. The little girl just asked her father a question about why people cannot receive ready-made photographs immediately after taking the picture. At the same moment, Land seriously thought about this issue, and then his employees had to think too.

In 1948, the industry introduced the first camera that takes snapshots. Each photo cost $1, which at that time was quite a large amount, because the Polaroid cartridges were made using a more complex technology, significantly different from today.

Even despite the high cost, the products of this brand were in great demand. Already in 1963, Land was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rise of an empire

In 1972, a new model of the Polaroid camera appeared. The camera was the first fully "motorized" model that took color photographs and absolutely did not require precise aiming.

Since that time, there have been more and more models, and their cost has become less and less. Already closer to the 80s, Polaroid cameras (the old version and new modifications) became a popular means for creating photographs. This production, even to this day, is remembered with nostalgia not only by all of America, but also by most of other countries.

Towards the end of the 70s, clouds began to gather, as the production of Kodak was able to surpass the Polaroid (camera). The new firm announced its camera, also designed for snapshots. But Land was not stupid, so he managed to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in time. The lawsuit lasted for about ten years, and as a result, Kodak was obliged to pay the victim more than $ 600 million.

Soon the Kodak production itself fell, and the glory returned to the Polaroid company. The snapshot was once again popular, but this time it failed to make a huge leap.

Decline of an empire

As you know, even great people can make mistakes, and in this case, Edwin Land was no exception. His main mistake was that in the 80s he already had prototypes of digital cameras in his production, but he decided that the company would not deal with electronics.

Already in 1996, the company released its first digital camera, but it was too late. Young firms from different countries managed to seize the initiative much earlier and outstripped American production.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Polaroid could not adequately compete with other manufacturers of photographic equipment, so in 2001 a period of bankruptcy began.

How much does a Polaroid cost today

To date, the price of modern snapshot cameras reaches 3000-5000 rubles. Cartridges for Polaroid, although they are created using a simpler technology, still have a considerable cost - 1000-2000 rubles.

Anyone can buy a camera, as many online stores have this product.

Modern Polaroid Snap

The most popular model today is the Polaroid Snap, which costs up to $100. It is a 10-megapixel camera with a built-in popular Zink printer, which issues a photo card with dimensions of 7.6 x 5 centimeters immediately after the picture is taken. In addition to the fact that the device gives out the finished photo, it also saves the image in electronic form.

Construction and design

The camera itself is enclosed in a rectangular plastic case. The device measures 122 x 76 x 28 and weighs 400 grams. The camera is quite comfortable to hold even in a small hand when shooting. But still, to prevent the device from falling, it is best to use a special strap that comes with the kit.

Initially, the camera was created taking into account all the convenience and maximum ease of use, so there are quite a few controls in it.

On the left side there is a slot for a memory card, as well as a port for the charger. It is worth noting that the built-in memory is only enough to shoot and print one image, so you still need to purchase an additional memory card.

On the back is a tray that holds 10 sheets of photo paper. Prints come out on their own from a slot specially designed for this, located on the right side of the camera. And above the door itself there are three indicator lights showing the status of the battery, memory card and paper. Thanks to these qualities, modern users can have no doubts about the quality and convenience of the camera.

Polaroid is a famous American company founded in 1937. The company specializes in the production of photo and optical equipment. It became most widely known as a manufacturer of instant cameras that print a picture immediately after exposure. In addition to photographic equipment, Polaroid Corporation also produces consumer electronics (LCD TVs, portable DVD players, digital photo frames, and much more).

era camera

Instant cameras from Polaroid are still a cult gadget. The first instant camera was released in 1948, but the pictures were in black and white; the camera acquired its familiar look with one-time square prints of pictures already in the 70s, the peak of popularity of these cameras fell on the 80s. The cartridge of such a camera contains photographic material or a combination of photographic materials and reagents resulting in a positive paper-based photograph.

invention factory

Another popular product of the company is sunglasses with polarized lenses, but the products thanks to which the company received the title of "factory of inventions" are x-ray film, night vision device and so on. From 1977 to 1979, the company also produced Super 8 (Polavision) reversible film, and since 1983 - a similar 35 mm Polachrome reversible film.

triumphant return

In the 2000s, the company went bankrupt due to a surge in the popularity of digital cameras, which Polaroid was not ready for. However, in 2011, the new digital Polaroid Z340 was released, it took into account all the shortcomings of the bulky classic camera and applied the latest digital technologies; With the release of this model, Polaroid triumphantly returned to the world markets of photographic equipment.

Polaroid produces a wide range of different photo accessories: filters, 3in1 and 4in1 filter kits, LED flashes, wide-angle and telephoto lens attachments, LCD battery packs, lens hoods, lens caps, LED video light in a hot shoe , and much more.

It is said that during the 50 years of Polaroid's existence, about five billion snapshots were taken with these cameras. Each of them displays small stories from the life of ordinary people from different parts of the world. Including - from Russia. The Polaroid, which appeared in our country in the late 80s and early 90s, seemed like a real miracle of engineering. How did this unusual device work? Why are Polaroids so popular? About this and many other things from the history of the famous camera - in the material "RG".

The miracle of American technology

The first thing that undoubtedly attracted me to the camera was the design. First-class specialists were involved in its development. At that time, such an appearance was perceived as something from a science fiction book, something akin to the technology of the future. And although Polaroid looks bulky and clumsy compared to modern devices, retro lovers still have warm feelings for it.

Ease of use is the main advantage of Polaroid. At the bottom of the camera body was a hinged cover for loading a cassette. After the lid was closed, the electric drive was automatically turned on, and the cassette protection against illumination was removed through a slot in the lid. The algorithm is as follows: you take the cassette, open the protective cover of the camera (it is also called the "muzzle"), insert the cassette with the protective cardboard up, snap the lid on, press the button and that's it - the camera is ready to go. No fuss with film loading. In addition, you do not need to adjust and select parameters for illumination.

Polaroid has a single-stage photography system using the diffuse transfer principle to directly reproduce the image recorded on the camera lens on the photosensitive surface. In other words, the photosensitive surface simultaneously acts as both a film and a photograph.

The cassette is designed to receive 8-10 color photographs with a frame size of 78 by 79 millimeters. Pictures do not need laboratory processing: development began immediately after exposure in the camera and ended in the light, a few minutes after the picture was taken out of the camera. A Polaroid photo looked like a color positive image between thin, flexible plastic sheets and framed with thin cardboard.

The founder of Polaroid and the inventor of the miracle of instant photography, Dr. Edwin Land of Connecticut originally equipped his device with black and white film. In the following years, he worked on improving the camera, and in 1963 color film appeared.

It was these cameras that were distributed in the USSR. It was a color photo against the backdrop of the dominance of black-and-white photographs and the notorious sepia from photo salons that helped Polaroid gain popularity among Soviet and Russian citizens.

How Edwin Land Invented the Polaroid

Polaroid Corporation was born in the pre-war 1937. Edwin Land's team developed military optics: night vision devices, periscopes, binoculars. In addition, Land received a multi-million dollar government order to develop a control system for infrared homing projectiles.

According to legend, Edwin Land was forced to develop a unique camera by chance and ... his own daughter. Once, the inventor, while on vacation, took a picture of his daughter, after which he was subjected to "interrogation with predilection": the girl asked why she could not immediately get a picture. All attempts by the father-inventor to explain the complexity of the process of obtaining a photo, the child rejected as unconvincing. The idea fell on fertile ground, and Land thought about how to make the child's dream come true. It took the scientist no more than an hour to develop the concept of instant printing, and three years to create the actual camera.

Initially, 60 cameras were produced. They hit the shelves of a Boston supermarket before Christmas 1949. Polaroid marketers expected that cameras and film could be stale in warehouses: the product was new to buyers, it was difficult to analyze how high demand for it would be. However, already on the first day of sales, both cameras and all film were swept off the shelves. Land sold $9 million worth of Polaroids in 1949.

Cartridge is a delicate matter

Photo material for "Polaroid" consists of several layers: a protective layer, a sensitive layer, a developer layer - more than ten in all. When the photographer presses the shutter button, the card is exposed, pulled through a roller mechanism, where an alkaline solution enters it, which starts the development process. The development ends already in the light. The whole process takes no more than one and a half minutes.

The inventor came to this decision by trial and error and wrote in his memoirs: “When inventing something, it is important not to be afraid to fail. Scientists make great discoveries only because they put forward hypotheses and conduct experiments. Failure follows failure, but they do not retreat until they get the results they want."

Fans of retro technology need to remember that a Polaroid photo is unique and cannot be remade. There are a few features that come with the cassette technology itself that need to be considered.

If the photo came out yellow, it means that the frame was blown out, and there are several possible reasons for this. The picture was not removed in the dark: it is important not to forget that photographs are very sensitive to light when they first come out of the camera. You need to immediately put them in the dark for 2-3 minutes (at least in your pocket or bag). Before the final state, the photo can be additionally developed for about a day. Yellowness can appear if you shoot in very bright light: a blinding sun on snow, for example.

If the photo came out dark, then there is not enough natural light to get a bright picture. Since the first Polaroids were not equipped with a flash, there was only one way out: to shoot in a well-lit room. In this case, you should not come close to the subject, as the frame may turn out blurry.

A very common mistake is the blur effect on part of the picture, similar to smudges. Retro-shooters say that the problem of "leaky" film is more common with modern cassettes. "There can be from 2 to 5 blurry frames in a cassette. Or maybe everything. This is normal. That's the whole point of Polaroid. Blurring can be both from above and below. Try to place faces, objects that you want to photograph closer to the center frame," amateur photographers advise.

By the way, when the picture comes out of the camera, you should not touch it until it appears completely: otherwise, you can affect the distribution of the emulsion and increase the blur effect.

It happens that stripes appear on the photo. As a rule, they partially or even completely disappear in a day, after the film is fully developed.

A couple more tips for those who dare to take out their Polaroid from the mezzanine to make fantastic retro-style instant photos. Experts strongly recommend cleaning the rollers through which the frame passes after each cassette. Cartridges are advised to store in the refrigerator, and in no case be exposed to direct sunlight.

Popularity and decline

Amateur photographers in the Soviet Union have always been a special caste. To comprehend the tricky science of photography, it was first necessary to get scarce materials - the apparatus itself, film, developer and fixer. The complexity of the technique was such that a random person could not engage in photography - they studied it, certain conditions were required to obtain high-quality images, the ability to handle capricious film, the ability to cut photographic paper, choose the right proportions and dilute chemicals. A whole mystery! If an amateur photographer lived in the yard, happy children, and even adults, acquired a couple of pictures, which were then stored in family archives for years. Photo studios also worked in the cities, where smart families came to capture their faces for posterity. Even this was not the case in the outback... And now, against the background of the elitism of photography, Polaroid appeared, affordable for many (partly because it was produced at local factories under the license of an American company) and did not require special handling skills. Click the shutter - and the picture is ready! It seemed like a miracle.

Unfortunately, at a very democratic price of the camera itself, the price of cassettes was biting. Two dozen of them were comparable to the cost of the Polaroid itself. The cassettes were disposable. The quality of the pictures left much to be desired. With the seeming advantage - the ability to instantly get a ready-made photograph - the size of the image negated the chances of taking, say, a group picture in which one could see faces without a magnifying glass. The snapshot could not be corrected, re-shot or edited, which not everyone liked either.

The dimensions of the device itself were rather big, which created additional convenience for users. While other brands went down the path of reducing technology, the Polaroid remained a bulky box due to the fact that it contained a cassette immediately with a developer.

Another shortcoming of Polaroid cards came to light over time: it turned out that the pictures were short-lived and after a few years they began to become cloudy and fade in the sun.

Lady Gaga to help you

However, Polaroid does not give up. Despite the declared bankruptcy, the company has seriously taken up the work of reviving interest in instant photography. In 2010, the company took the unexpected step of hiring controversial singer Lady Gaga as creative director. In January 2011, the first brainchild of this strange alliance was presented to the public - a new Polaroid lineup.

This so-called hello from the past looks almost like a classic Polaroid, except that the body has become much more compact, in fact, a new product on its network is a digital camera with a built-in printer. "Under the Polaroid brand, in addition to the Z340E camera, the Polaroid GL10 mobile printer is currently being produced, which connects to any smartphone, camera or computer via USB or Bluetooth. And two more cameras: a small compact Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Digital Camera (the shape is the same as like ordinary digital soap dishes) and Polaroid 300 Classic Instant Camera (the most inexpensive of this line, in a plastic color case),” Zoom.cnews reports.

Any smartphone can now take an instant photo. A couple of touches and somewhere in another city, mom knows what you ate. But, despite this, hands are drawn to the good old Polaroids, which with a pleasant rattle give out a real analog photo.

Interest in retro touched all areas. This is largely due to the fact that people who were born in the eighties and nineties have now reached the age “the grass used to be greener” and they want to return to things that once left memories for a lifetime. These people are solvent today, and marketing sharks cannot miss such a chance. Well, as for those born in the 2000s and nostalgic for the times in which they never lived ... Well, psychologists say that this is normal.

But there is something else here. Many of the changes imposed by technology companies have unfairly supplanted their forefathers. Just as the candy bar killed the folding phones, so the digital replaced the analog photo into the fetish caste. But there are prerequisites for the return of fashion for instant photography, especially in the general flow of retro fashion.

On such a favorable wave, the revival of Polaroid Originals was announced, which stopped its activities in 2008. Entrepreneurs who believe in the possibility of returning Polaroid to some of its former glory say that in today's digital world there is an increasing demand for real things that exist beyond the narrow confines of a smartphone. Austin Kleon, in his book Steal Like an Artist, described ten lessons in creativity, one of which concerned precisely the opposition of analog and digital.
Austin says, "work with your hands."

It is important for the human brain to get the result of its work. When an artist creates in an intangible space, the creative charge can quickly dry up. This problem has yet to be solved by virtual and augmented reality evangelists.

History

Polaroid was founded by Edwin Land, the grandson of Russian immigrants and a Harvard graduate, in 1937. Basically, the company produced products with a polarized coating: sunglasses, table lamps and others. During World War II, the company produced a range of items for the US Army, including infrared night vision goggles, gun sights, and vectorgraphs. But cameras for instant photos began to be produced only 11 years later in 1948.

One day in 1943, while vacationing in Santa Fe, Land's three-year-old daughter Jennifer asked why the photograph could not be viewed immediately after the photo was taken. It was this naive childish question that became the starting point in Land's work on a new type of film. Land later recalled that he laid out in his head all the conditions and components necessary for the implementation of the technology within an hour. It was then that he decided to take up the development of instant photography. Obtaining a patent and implementing the idea took five years.

From 1943 to 1946, the development of the Polaroid instant camera was a closely guarded secret. One of the main problems was the strength of the cassette: to get to the end customer, she had to make her way from the conveyor, through warehouses, trucks, shops, bags and numerous crooked hands, while not cracking or spoiling from impact or pressure. Not to mention temperature fluctuations and other factors.

But a solution was found, and on February 21, 1947, the first camera for instant photography was introduced. And already in the 48th year, the first commercial model “Model 95” arrived at the central Boston department store, which was capable of taking pictures only in gray shades and had an important limitation: it was necessary to wait exactly 60 seconds before peeling off the negative layer from the photograph. Despite the fact that the quality of the camera did not exceed the existing systems, and required extreme care from the photographer, the buyers were satisfied. The first batch was sold out in minutes.

True high-contrast black-and-white (rather than gray-and-gray) Polaroid film came out two years later in 1950. The transition to black and white required additional manual soaking of the developed image using a polymer coating to prevent darkening of the photograph. And already in 1957, the New York Times called instant photography equal in quality to the best works that came out of ordinary darkrooms.

Despite the popularity of the instant camera, Land did not believe in marketing. He said that marketing is needed for obviously bad products. His approach was this: you need to show people something new and unnecessary up to this point so that by the end of the demonstration they irresistibly want to get this product. So he turned the annual meetings at Polaroid into a show of sorts. Land went up to the stage, showed a new camera, talked about its capabilities. And by the end of the meeting, the audience simply dreamed of getting such a camera.

You may have noticed some similarities here with Apple's product presentations. Steve Jobs followed the development of Polaroid in his youth, and once even confirmed that Apple was based on the same business model. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he made several visits to Polaroid headquarters to chat with Land.

Production of Polaroid in the USSR

Polaroid cameras were assembled in the USSR, and then in Russia. In the 80s, during one of his business trips to the United States, the Soviet nuclear physicist, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Yevgeny Velikhov, at one of the meetings met with the then president of the Polaroid company Macalister Boof, and he suggested that he establish joint production in the USSR.

So, in 1989, at the initiative of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the joint venture Svetozor was organized, which over the next ten years produced the Supercolor 635CL and 636 Closeup models. These models did not differ functionally and had differences only in the shape of the hull. Production began with just a dozen pieces and two master assemblers, the equipment was put on the conveyor, but at first there was no one to work. The two people alternated between assembly and testing operations.

It was originally planned to produce 350,000 cameras within six years, but five years later the company reported that production volumes had reached two hundred thousand cameras a year. But even this was not enough, because sales of Polaroids assembled in the West in the territory of the former USSR reached one million pieces a year, not counting the batches produced by Svetozor.

By the way, not all components for assembly were delivered from abroad. For example, the electronic flash control unit was produced at the Signal plant in Obninsk, which was the only one besides factories in Malaysia and Scotland where Polaroid electronics were produced.

Our days, Impossible Project

Polaroid filed for bankruptcy twice in 2001 and was resold three times. The Polaroid era seemed to be over. But still there were enthusiasts who showed interest in outdated photographs. And in 2009, the last factory for the production of Polaroids was bought by three entrepreneurs and received the name Impossible Project (The Impossible Project). It can still be called experimental, but the project already has many supporters and admirers. And here it is worth remembering another phrase of Edwin Land: “You don’t need to do what everyone can do”
Thanks to the Impossible Project, in 2017, for the first time in a long time, a new camera with the well-known Polaroid inscription was released. It's called OneStep 2. The camera takes instant photos, it has a timer, a flash, and a USB charging port. OneStep 2 is not yet on sale, but is available for pre-order. The camera uses i-type film, which was originally created for the original Impossible Project I-1 camera.

Since 2008, various companies have been able to obtain a license to use the Polaroid technology patent. But in 2017, parent company Impossible Project bought out all of Polaroid's patents, as well as all intellectual property rights. What does all of this mean? This means that it will soon be possible to buy a new Polaroid camera for only $99.

Technology

The desire of Land's daughter required not only the creation of a new type of film, but also a camera with a different mechanism for producing photographs. The main element of the system was a film cassette containing both the negative and the receiving layer of the positive, connected by a reservoir with reagents (including sodium hydroxide) for development. This reservoir was called a cocoon. When leaving the chamber, a pair of rollers at the base of the chamber compressed the film, destroying the tank wall, after which the reagent spread over the image area. As the reagents spread, the chemicals removed the unexposed silver halide from the negative, brought it out onto the positive layer in a smaller amount, creating the final image. And to this day, the process has not changed significantly.

Outside, the picture is protected by a transparent film.
Below is the fixer.
Even lower is the buffer layer. It delays the penetration of the fixer substances while the reaction with the reagent takes place below.
The next is the receiving layer of paper, where the final positive image is formed from the dyes from the lower layers.
Under it is a reagent.
The next six layers are alternating emulsion layers and developing ink layers.
The three emulsion layers are sensitive to red, green and blue. They work like negatives for cyan, magenta, and yellow (or, in more familiar terms, cyan, magenta, and yellow) layers, rendering them unable to transfer onto paper. For example, a photograph of a blue sky will affect the blue emulsion, which will block out all the yellow paint underneath, allowing the magenta and cyan layers to pass to the surface of the positive, forming blue.

Video clip

In the format of an article, I prepared this Polaroid story for Giktimes, but initially we made a video, which I left below. It features voice-over with historical and technical illustrations, as well as a slightly more extended script.

Let's start, perhaps, with the yellowed newspaper pages :-) Here is what in May 1989 the magazine of the Kommersant publishing house Vlast wrote in an article entitled "Polaroid" for rubles "

"On May 16, the Svetozor store was opened in Moscow, where Polaroid Supercalor 635L cameras and Polaroid 600 plus photographic plates will be retailed. On the same day, a presentation of a joint Soviet-American enterprise was held at the World Trade Center on Krasnaya Presnya" Svetozor ", which will assemble cameras in our country. The partner from the American side is Polaroid Europa BW (a branch of the American Polaroid Corporation). From the Soviet side - the enterprises of the USSR Ministry of Atomic Energy: Narva Production Association "Baltiets", Obninsk enterprise "Signal" and the Moscow Research Institute of Radiation Technology.

Where do the legs of the history of our "Polaroid" grow from? F5 found out all the details!

In the late 80s, the famous Soviet nuclear physicist, academician Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov, while in the United States, talked with the then president of the Polaroid company, and he suggested that he establish a joint production. Velikhov brought the idea to the USSR and tossed it to the Minister of Mechanical Engineering Lev Ryabev (by the way, an engineer-physicist in the past). Tom liked the idea, he gave the go-ahead to the instrument-making main office, and as a result, the notorious joint venture with an old Russian nickname appeared - the wholesale creation of joint ventures with recent ideological enemies in those years was the most fashionable trend! :-)

As already mentioned, in the USSR the production of "Polaroids" became the collective work of three enterprises with a nuclear focus. In the few references to those events, it is said that inside Svetozor their roles were distributed as follows: the Obninsk plant "Signal" - the assembly of electronic circuit boards, the Narva plant "Baltiets" - the manufacture of plastic parts, the Moscow All-Russian Research Institute of Radiation (!) Technology - the final assembly cameras.

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then, but F5 tracked down those who in the 90s were engaged in the production of famous cameras!

We started the investigation from the Estonian factory "Baltiets", in the city of Narva. Some retro photography websites say he made plastic camera cases. This fact caused us great doubt - the Soviet industry of those years was completely unable to make high-quality plastic parts! It turned out a terrible ugliness with burrs and burrs, which, without fish, was suitable for consumer goods, but in no way corresponded to the standards of the world-famous Polaroid.

And a small F5 investigation confirmed these doubts - in the list of Soviet polaroid builders, "Baltiets" occupies a very conditional place, because it never made any cases!

An enterprise from the city of Narva really participated in the process, but for a very short time and had no direct relation to cameras at all! The thing is that the Svetozor company needed currency. The American Polaroid gave the green light to the assembly of its cameras in the USSR, agreed to sell components for them, but he did not need Soviet wooden ones. And of course, Svetozor did not have dollars (like most commercial structures in 1989). Therefore, we had to build a multi-passage plant - to launch a line at the Baltiets plant for the production of ... plastic boxes for video cassettes, which, in turn, were sold abroad and brought in the currency needed for the first time to purchase parts for assembling cameras! The process was tricky, but did not last long - after a couple of years, Estonia became an independent state, and a year later, the plant itself ordered a long life ...

The next point of the journey in the footsteps of the Russian "Polaroid" was the instrument plant "Signal", which still exists in the city of Obninsk, Kaluga province and is engaged in the manufacture of electronic control and monitoring systems for the operation of nuclear power plant reactors. Here is what Vyacheslav Anisimov, who was the chief engineer of the enterprise in those years, told F5:

— In 1989, we started producing electronics for Polaroid cameras as part of a joint venture with the Americans. We were one of only three companies in the world that made components for Polaroid instant cameras, in addition to factories in Malaysia and Scotland. In Obninsk, one small unit was assembled - an electronic flash control unit.

The release of electronics for cameras lasted for almost ten years, after which it stopped - as you know, instant cameras could not compete with digital devices ... During all this time we have made electronic boards for approximately 1.2 million cameras. More than half of them went abroad, to local assembly plants, and some were used in cameras assembled in the USSR and subsequently in Russia.

It is difficult to say why production was established in our country. It was hardly better and cheaper than the same Malaysian one. Perhaps this was necessary in order to show in deed, and not in words, the rapprochement between the USSR and the USA - as a symbol of perestroyki i novogo mishleniya ...

The final stop of our digging in the Russian-American history of instant photography is the Moscow All-Russian Research Institute of Radiation Technology. (Now it is called the Research Institute of Technical Physics and Automation.) At the radioactive enterprise, under the leadership of Anatoly Alekseevich Trusov, the final assembly of cameras was carried out.

“We started production with dozens of pieces and only two assemblers,” says Anatoly Alekseevich. - The equipment was put on the conveyor, but at first there was no one to work, two people alternately changed operations - from assembly to testing. But in 1995, we already celebrated the release of the half-millionth device made in Russia!

All components came from Scotland, with the exception of what was made in Obninsk, and the build quality was very high - some batches even went for sale abroad.

In 1994 "Polaroid" sank and actually got out at the expense of Russian sales - then we had a boom in these devices. Despite the fact that cameras were actually sold at a loss, below cost, based on profit from the sale of film for them.

In our country, two models of Polaroid instant cameras were produced - 635 and 636. It was planned to add a third model, but they did not have time - the company rapidly "fell into a tailspin" ... In 1997, Russian production was also closed - over these nine years we made more than 600,000 cameras...

P.S. Polaroid is, without a doubt, an era with a capital letter in the history of photography. And by a bizarre coincidence, the dawn and dusk of this era are closely connected with our country - the founder of the company, Edwin Herbert Land, was born in a family of immigrants from Russia, and Russia turned out to be the last serious market for the famous instant cameras ...