Route 66 Polaroid Project Aims To Capture The Mother Road The Old-Fashioned Way

There have been a lot of cool Kickstarter Projects in recent months, but this one will warm the heart of anyone who likes a good old-fashioned road trip. The Route 66 Polaroid Project is just what it says on the tin: a plan to drive the length of the famous highway taking Polaroid snapshots all the way.

Eric and Sarah are getting married in June and they’re heading down The Mother Road for their honeymoon. They’re going to be bringing along several Polaroid cameras to document their journey.

As they explain on their Kickstarter page, “Over the past year, we’ve set aside our digital cameras in favor of vintage Polaroid cameras. These gadgets hearken back to a simpler time when you’d cock the camera, take the shot, yank the picture out of the camera, wait a couple of minutes, peel it, let it dry and then *presto* you’d have your photo! OK, maybe it wasn’t simpler, but there was a certain almost instant gratification to it.”

It turns out Fuji still makes film for the ColorPack Polaroid cameras, and Eric and Sarah want to share their photos with you. If you back them for $10, you get a unique Polaroid shot sent directly to you from a town along the road with a description of the place written on the back. Higher-level sponsors get more photos.

Eric also runs the Civil War Daily Gazette blog, an addictive site giving a day-by-day account of the war 150 years later. Route 66 passes by several Civil War battlefields and you can bet he’ll be taking snapshots of them.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Instant photography is not dead (yet)

Several days ago, I wrote about the death of the Polaroid instant camera, and the attempts to bring the iconic instant camera back from the dead.

Turns out that may not be necessary for everyone, as Fujifilm jumped into the void left behind by Polaroid with their new Instax 200 instant camera.

The concept is very much like the Land cameras sold by Polaroid; you insert a film cartridge, make a photo, and a minute later you have a colorful print of whatever you snapped.

The camera itself is a pleasantly low $49.95, but film cartridges will run you $21.95 for a twin pack of 10 prints. For comparison – Polaroid cartridges cost about 50 cents more for the same number of sheets.

The camera itself has received a favorable review from the folks at B&H Photo, which is where you’ll also find it in stock, if you want to continue your tradition of instant prints. Of course, real Polaroid lovers will probably never settle for anything other than the real thing!

Naturally, technology will eventually replace the chemical process used in these instant cameras, and one the first cameras using a new digital instant print system dubbed “Zink” recently appeared on Japenese store shelves.

That same technology also powers a pocket digital printer made by Polaroid as well as their own version of a digital camera with an integrated printer.

Bringing Polaroid back from the dead

February 18th 2008 was a sad day for photography fans all around the world.

It is the day the Polaroid corporation announced the closure of their three instant film production lines. By December, all production came to a halt, and 450 people were without a job.

Polaroid produced just enough instant film cartridges to supply fans with their favorite product until Q1 of 2009 and some fanatics stocked up on as many packs as they could.

Initiatives started all around the world to help keep the product alive, and one group of people in The Netherlands has actually managed to purchase all the manufacturing equipment that made up the Dutch Polaroid plant. The group has even signed a 10 year lease for the original buildings.

Their plan is to use the production line to develop new integral film for the Polaroid camera lineup, and once again allow photographers all around the world to get instant photos from their camera with that familiar clickbzzzztclick noise.

(Via: Engadget.com)