My First Try on Polaroid

What you see here is a Polaroid image which is my very first test shot. A week ago a long time friend of mine gave me a Polaroid 636 Talking Camera. Well I have never took photos with a Polaroid camera before. Neither do I fancy. Well I thought it would be fun to try out some shots with it since I got one now. However I wouldn't know if it still works. So I went down to a local camera store and bought the new Impossible (brand label actually) PX600 Polaroid film with ISO 600 and grey frame, as seen here in the image shown above. Yes the film is in monochrome with sepia tone.

I do not know much about Polaroid history but here's what I've found on the internet for your reference. Make the jump to read more.

On February 8th 2008, in an interview with the Boston Globe, Polaroid “announces” all instant film production will cease in 2008/2009.

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to re-design the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a re-launch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009. Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family for what he had named The Impossible Project.

On March 22, 2010, The Impossible Project announced the release of two monochromatic films, PX100 and PX600, compatible with SX-70 and 600 type cameras, respectively. Color films were initially released in 2010 for SX-70 type cameras, followed in 2011 with the release of much improved color films for Polaroid 600, SX-70 and Spectra Cameras.

Polaroid had originally announced a new camera, styled after older models to coincide with the new films, but this was due before Christmas 2010—a deadline which has long since passed with no new information on this new camera.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to share with you readers the Polaroid photos I took with a Polaroid 636 Talking Camera.

This camera has a unique gimmick. Along with a couple of pre-recorded messages, the camera can also be used to record speech (or music) which is played via a loudspeaker just before firing of the shutter. It works in a similar way to a digital answering machine. The sound effects can be switched off completely if desired. The pre-recorded messages apparently vary according to the territory the camera was marketed in, and include American and Spanish versions. The UK version has "Smile, you're on Polaroid!" and "Don't say Cheddar, say CHEESE!" said in a comedy accent.

When the loudspeaker is turned off, this camera functions in much the same way as a standard OneStep 600, with fixed focus and automatic flash. A sliding close-up lens is included, but it tends to make images even softer than usual. Although marketed as a fun camera for taking close-up snapshots at parties and family reunions, picture quality is better when focussing over longer distances out of doors in bright conditions.

So here are few of my Polaroid photos.

As the local retail price for one Polaroid cartridge film (8 frames per cartridge) is very expensive, on average one Polaroid photo cost about S$4.50. I'm not too sure if I would ever want to buy more and shoot. We'll see.