Polaroid and Large Format

[Fintan]

I'm getting closer and closer to getting my first Large Format camera.

I'm mostly going LF for shooting Polaroid and doing manipulations [MF Polaroids are just a little small for me]

My question in Product Availability is how confident would you be that Polaroid will continue with LF films for a few years anyway.

Are there any Polaroid experts here that can give some opinions please.

Fintan

 

[rbarker]

No individual's opinion of Polaroid's future is likely to be any more valid than another. But, the more people who buy Polaroid products, the rosier their future is likely to be.

Although a bit expensive, 8x10 Polaroids are wonderful.

 

[smieglitz]

Just an opinion but I'm surprised they are still in business. Digital has to impact their sales greatly due to its instant aspect, plus the colors and tonalities of their pack films really don't match any current film emulsions, the cost is high, and their latest attempts at consumer formats have been appalling. The R&D and manufacturing costs probably are more than conventional silver halide materials and to top it all off, the longevity of the images has always been suspect IMO.

The 809 and 669 emulsions for transfers are nice and types 55 & 665 positive/negative films are wonderful, but with so many commercial studios going digital, there can't be much more than a niche market for those films now. Sadly, I don't think it is sustainable given current trends in the amateur and studio markets.

Joe

 

[Dave Parker]

I don't think in my opinion that Polaroid is going to be a long time offereing, we were having difficulty is obtaining some of the materials a couple of years ago when they were in Banko courts, and the declining use in the studio market has not bolstered their standing amoung the photographers who used their materials, with the change in the digital markets in studio work, I think your going to see a declining availability of the polaroid emulsions over the next few years, pershaps some other manufacture will start to take up any slack, but I seriously doubt it.

Dave

 

[Nick Zentena]

When they went into Chapter 11 they basically wrote off the pension holders and anybody else they could. The people who took over the various parts got the business for almost nothing. I think they'll keep running it if the cash produced exceeds cash costs.