Steemians and DTubers,
I hope you are well and living your best life. In this video I talk about the unfortunate case of a beautifully made camera that was rendered useless by the law.
This is the Kodamatic 950
Kodak made a range of these instant cameras between 1976 and 1985. The problem was, it was based on Polaroid's technology. When Kodak came out with its own products that were deemed superior to Polaroid's, they were hit with an Intellectual Property law suit.
The case dragged on for a decade before finally going against Kodak. In the mean time, they'd manufactured a whole range of instant cameras, one of which was this Instamatic 950 I'm showing in this video.
Business idea
Fast forward to 2019, we have Fujifilm who as been making a killing from Instant photography. So much so, that Polaroid is now also going back to instant too. In fact, the Instax film has been outselling everything else Fujifilm makes - film or digital.
Now, Polaroid is really not Polaroid anymore. The company went bust a while back. The name was bought by Impossible Project - another company who tried to bring back instant film from obsolete Polaroid technology.
Now, I can imagine, Impossible Project or "Polaroid" may or may not still hold the patents. If they do, there is potential to make millions of dollars if they allow Kodak or even Lomography to start making film for the Kodamatic cameras again.
The reason is, since most people that bought them couldn't buy film anymore because they were discontinued after the lawsuit, there are a lot of Kodamatic cameras in excellent shape! They were mostly stored away by their owners.
So what we have is the potential to unleash a whole load of vintage, but perfectly functional cameras back into the market. The companies wouldn't have to worry about making new cameras. They only need to focus on making the consumables - like Lomography makes film for Fujifilm Instax camears.
There is a lot of money to be made, if we can get past our egos.
#filmPhotography #kodak #polaroid #lomography
Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé
All copy and photos are original content by me.
© adetorrent.com
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Is there no way to get cartriges for it anymore?:)
Posted using Partiko Android
And i believe patents last only as long as 7 years and then the technology is for public access, i might be wrong though
Posted using Partiko Android
They had to stop making them in 1985. They would have to make fresh new ones.
I guess they don’t think it’s financially viable since the world has moved on now.
Posted using Partiko iOS
I think you can still speacial order them. I old three old polaroids. So old but its impractical. You can still find Polaroid 600 film. After market I believe but still out there. About ten buck a cartridge when you buy like a 10 pack. This was for a different style but just as old. I'm sure there are aftermarket cartridges for all these old nostalgic pieces
They were proprietary cartridges so they don’t accept the standard Polaroid film. Typical of companies that don’t want you to buy 3rd party stuff. You can actually find them listed on eBay, but they’re so old and won’t work 🤷🏾♂️
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Your level lowered and you are now a Dolphin!@adetorrent, sorry to see you have less Steem Power.
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!