Polaroid SX-70 is set to be discontinued

[Chip NoVaMac]

This may not send major shock waves through the photographic community; but a number of fine art photographers that have created stunning images by rubbing the SX-70 emulsion during the development stage will be upset.

Example of this technique can be found here: http://www.goinggallery.com/

 

[jamdr]

Those altered images are pretty cool but you could achieve similiar effects rather easily with photoshop. I guess it's not the same, but still...you gotta keep with the times

 

[bousozoku]

Long live instant photography!

I was thinking about the SX-70 camera a week or so ago. It was the first camera I'd seen to have auto focus. The battery and film in one pack was brilliant. Of course, $179.00 was also insane for an instant camera.

It's been about 50 years since the original instant cameras, right? My dad bought one with the bellows and all that. It probably weighs 10 pounds and requires a ritual to get the low constrast images to work. I had a plastic Polaroid camera in the 1970s and it was much easier to use but having the batteries in the same compartment with the film meant some bad moments with dead batteries killing off the very expensive film packs. That thing did have exposure metering and was able to use flash cubes.

Most won't have known what they missed by not having instant cameras because most digital cameras don't give you the same experience.