Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's subject for July is the Instant Camera
Today, thanks to digital cameras, people can instantaneously see pictures that they take. They can erase those pictures from their camera with the simple push of a button, or they can download those pictures to a computer and edit and enhance them. Thanks to the advent of digital cameras, photography has become much easier for the average person.
Before digital cameras, most people would have to wait several days to see their pictures. They would have to send them to be developed at photo-developing labs. The exceptions to this were people who used instant cameras. While many families now have digital cameras, historically, significantly smaller numbers of people owned instant cameras. Instant cameras are ones that use self-developing film. Within a few minutes, the instant camera would eject the picture, allowing users to see the picture relatively quickly but not nearly as quickly as a modern digital camera.
Edward Land invented the first, commercially available instant camera in 1947. Land was the founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Supposedly, Land's daughter inspired him to develop the camera. She asked her father why she could not see the pictures immediately after they were taken. Land decided to develop a camera that would allow users to quickly see the picture that they had taken.
Unfortunately for instant camera owners, over the past twenty years, the popularity of instant cameras has declined dramatically. This is primarily due to the ease of use and the convenience of digital cameras. In February 2008, the Polaroid Corporation announced that it would cease manufacturing instant camera film. While you or your parents might still have one of these cameras, soon they will be obsolete. Now you see it; soon you probably will not.
