Where can I buy an oldschool instant camera (polaroid) with high quality prints.
@peterpancomplex (438)
Philippines
October 24, 2010 5:06am CST
As the topic was brought up from the other discussion i put up, i realized that its worthy of its own discussion board. I want the designs of old school polaroid and the papers they have where the pictures doesn't cover everything in the paper and has good space for white borders still left. But of course I want to have the best quality of the pictures taken when it prints.
Can anyone help and suggest a good one i could buy?
1 person likes this
1 response
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
24 Oct 10
I think that it's still not clear exactly why you want this (I did have a look at your other discussion to see if it helped).
If it is the format that is important (large white borders), then you can easily do that with digital printing technology. You simply have to specify the image size and the paper size and the printer will print the image exactly where you want it and on the paper size you specify.
If it is the "instantness" ... the fact that Polaroid pictures are printed within two minutes of taking the shot, then there are digital cameras coming out which can do that (I think that Polaroid themselves have recognised the need).
There is a lot to be said for 'retro-technology' and you can still get the older kind of Polaroid camera, though you may find the materials all but impossible to come by because manufacturers (naturally) must live by what is actually wanted by the masses.
Polaroid, for all of its technology, was not capable of producing very high quality pictures by today's standards but it was (for some people) that very lack of quality which was a very large part of the charm of them.
If you want to experiment with 'old school technology', I suggest that you investigate pinhole photography. The equipment can be made by any fairly handy person. It just requires a light tight box (which may be anything from a custom-made box to a Coke can), a way of holding the light-sensitive medium (which can range from modern colour-sensitive reversal papers to anything which you, yourself, coat with silver chloride or silver bromide and place in the camera) and a pinhole, which is literally a hole made in a thin, lightproof material, such as aluminium or copper foil, with a needle.
How instant is "instant"? Modern cameras open the shutter for 1/1000 of a second or less and even that is too long to freeze some movements! A pinhole camera may require exposures of hours because the amount of light you can admit through a hole 1/10 mm in diameter is very, very small. Many people find this kind of photography magical, however, because, in a camera set up in a busy mall, the people crossing the field of view for a second or so do not register on film at all (or only as shadows) while things which are static, unchanging and immutable are more clearly and sharply defined than in many other photos you have seen.
These days, people want things NOW ... instantly ... as soon as possible! If you are interested in stepping back in time, do consider the times before "instant" photography was possible. 'Polaroid' was just one example of the "Now, Now, Now!" mentality and it didn't last simply because it really didn't satisfy. Like 'fast food', it fills an immediate 'want' but doesn't satisfy a basic 'need'.
It seems to me that you need to clearly think through the reasons WHY you like Polaroid photography (and there are many reasons for doing so) and you may have already done that, of course. Some things - and I refer to associations with the username you have here - like pirates and swashbuckling, are attractive but never really existed, others, like the quiet, humdrum, day-to-day existence of mediaeval peasants, have some truth in them but can never be recreated. Then there are the true values, the real gems of existence, which we are liable to lose if we are not careful. Many of them are being swamped and drowned by the modern "Have it NOW" ethos. It is certainly worth recording the evolution of such ideas and, perhaps of giving reverence (and museum space) to certain parts of that evolution which produced something good by accident - Polaroid photos are quite a good example of that - but we should always be looking for threads which might have a genuine benefit to us but which, somehow, got lost in the rush to the next new thing. Don't ask Tinkerbell! She doesn't know how to sew on shadows (and doesn't care). Wendy is your man!
@peterpancomplex (438)
• Philippines
25 Oct 10
Thats a very interesting reply post, I really really appreciate its content...actually, i dont know but maybe your right because somehow i feel like they are romantic, what i mean is the quality of a picture from an instant camera looks so romantic and artistic in its own way, I have a DSLR given to be by my brother and i love how clear it is, but sometimes, its so straightforward too. and polaroid somehow blurs the rest and only shows whats important like a smile on peoples face, (e.g real smile) and it blurs the rest, so after a few years when you see the picture you'll say, wow, you are so happy in here. look at those smiles.
ah heck, i don't know. i just felt like i want one.


