Which company created the first instant camera?
Quick answer
Polaroid created the first commercially successful instant camera. Its founder, American scientist Edwin Land, was inspired in 1943 when his young daughter asked why she couldn’t see a photo right after it was taken. The first Polaroid Land Camera, the Model 95, went on sale in November 1948 in Boston and sold out on its first day.
Key facts
- Company
- Polaroid Corporation
- Inventor
- Edwin H. Land (1909–1991)
- First camera
- Model 95, November 26, 1948
- First sold at
- Jordan Marsh department store, Boston
How instant film works
Polaroid film contained the developing chemicals inside the photo itself. After a picture was taken, rollers squeezed a pod of chemicals across the film, developing the image in about 60 seconds for early models. Early prints were sepia-toned; black-and-white came later, and color instant film arrived in 1963.
Polaroid milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1937 | Edwin Land founds Polaroid, first making polarizing filters for sunglasses |
| 1948 | Model 95, the first instant camera |
| 1963 | Polacolor color instant film |
| 1972 | SX-70, a folding camera whose photos developed in your hand |
| 2001 and 2008 | Polaroid goes bankrupt as digital cameras take over |
Shake it?
People often shake Polaroid photos to help them develop. Polaroid has said this isn’t necessary, and with some film types it could even cause blotches.
The comeback
When Polaroid stopped making film in 2008, a group called The Impossible Project bought one of its last factories in the Netherlands and reinvented the film. It later took over the Polaroid brand. Today, instant photography is popular again, especially Fujifilm’s Instax cameras.
Artists and Polaroids
Artists such as Andy Warhol and Ansel Adams used Polaroid cameras. The square white-bordered print became an icon of photography.
Edwin Land
Land held more than 500 patents, second only to Thomas Edison among Americans at the time. He dropped out of Harvard and was famous for working long hours on experiments. For another great American inventor, see who invented the light bulb.
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