A Polaroid camera is a type of instant picture camera designed and manufactured specifically to use Polaroid instant film materials, producing a finished, self-developing photographic print within seconds or minutes of the shutter being pressed without the need for a separate darkroom, chemical processing laboratory, or any external development procedure. The term Polaroid camera refers both to cameras manufactured by the Polaroid Corporation itself and, more broadly in common usage, to any instant camera using the self-developing film technology that Polaroid pioneered and for which the company's name became a generic descriptor in popular language.
The concept of instant photography was conceived and developed by Edwin Land, the founder of the Polaroid Corporation, following an observation made in 1943 when his young daughter asked why she could not immediately see a photograph he had just taken of her. Land's response to this question was to devise, within a remarkably short period, a complete system of instant photography that did not require a separate darkroom or processing laboratory, patenting the fundamental concepts in 1947 and demonstrating the first Polaroid Land camera - the Model 95 - to the public in 1948. The camera and its associated peel-apart film represented a genuine revolution in photography, delivering a finished sepia toned print in approximately sixty seconds and making the immediate gratification of instant photography available to the general public for the first time.
Over the subsequent decades, Polaroid developed and refined its camera and film technology through numerous generations of products, progressively improving image quality, reducing development time, introducing colour instant film, and simplifying the camera design to make instant photography increasingly accessible and convenient. The peel-apart film system used in early Polaroid cameras required the photographer to pull the exposed film packet through the camera after each exposure to initiate development, wait for the specified development time, and then manually peel apart the print layer from the negative layer to reveal the finished image. This peel-apart process was refined and improved through successive film generations but required some degree of care and manual dexterity on the part of the user.
The introduction of the SX-70 camera in 1972 represented a transformative advance in instant camera design, launching the integral film format in which the entire development process takes place automatically within a sealed film unit that ejects from the camera immediately after exposure and develops in full daylight without any manual intervention or peeling apart. The iconic square format SX-70 print, with its white border and gradually emerging image, became one of the most recognisable symbols of 1970s popular culture and established the template for the integral instant film format that Polaroid continued to develop and refine through its 600 series cameras, the Spectra system, and ultimately the i-Zone and other products of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Polaroid cameras were used not only by consumers seeking the novelty and immediacy of instant prints but also extensively by professional photographers as a practical preview tool, as described in the entry for Polaroid back. The ability to make an instant test exposure and evaluate the result on the spot before committing to the final image on conventional film was an invaluable capability in commercial, advertising, and fashion photography, where lighting setups were complex and the cost of reshooting prohibitive.
The Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and ceased production of its instant cameras and films in 2008, dealing what appeared to be a fatal blow to the instant photography format. However, the Impossible Project - later renamed Polaroid Originals and subsequently rebranded simply as Polaroid - was established in 2008 specifically to continue the manufacture of integral instant film compatible with classic Polaroid cameras, successfully reviving the format and sustaining its devoted following. Fujifilm's Instax range of instant cameras and films has simultaneously established itself as the dominant force in the contemporary instant photography market, offering a range of cameras and film formats that have introduced instant photography to a new generation of enthusiasts and made the format more popular than it has been since its commercial peak in the 1970s and 1980s.