Bye, bye, Polaroid

Polaroid fans ponder a filmless future

* Story Highlights
* Polaroid announced last week it will stop making film for its
instant cameras
* Company has already stopped making the cameras, which debuted in
1948
* Polaroids still popular in industrial and medical photography,
and with camera buffs
* Fans stockpiling Polaroid film; company hopes to find someone to
keep making it

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- When Jerry Conlogue heard Polaroid will
soon stop producing its instant film, he worried about his mummies.

Conlogue uses Polaroid film when he travels deep into the Peruvian
jungle to take X-ray photographs of ancient mummies, so he doesn't
have to lug cumbersome developing chemicals. Now he and other
enthusiasts who use the film for art or specialized industrial
photography are left wondering where they'll go to stay stocked.

"We're incredibly despondent," said Conlogue, co-director of the
Bioanthropology Research Institute at Quinnipiac University in Hamden,
Connecticut, where researchers frequently visit remote sites to
capture X-ray images of mummies. "I don't really feel that there is
going to be a replacement for it, which is a real problem."

Concord, Massachusetts-based Polaroid Corp. announced last week that
it plans to close factories in Massachusetts as well as Mexico and the
Netherlands that make film formats for industrial and consumer uses.

Polaroid instant film will be available in stores into next year, the
company said. Meanwhile, Polaroid -- which stopped making instant
cameras over the past couple years -- is seeking a partner to acquire
licensing rights, in hopes that another firm will continue making the
instant film and keep limited supplies available.

Polaroid introduced its first instant camera in 1948, just as the baby
boom got started and parents were looking for new ways to take photos
of their kids. Film packs contained the chemicals for developing
images inside the camera, and photos emerged from the camera in less
than a minute.

Now, some camera buffs who still use Polaroids for fun are trying to
buy as much as they can.

Joe Howansky, a 23-year-old professional photo technician from Queens
who has shown Polaroid shots at art galleries in New York City, said
he bought $800 worth of Polaroid film at a discount warehouse club
after he learned Friday that Polaroid planned to stop producing its
film.

"I expected it was inevitable," Howansky said. "But I went right out
to stock up."

Howansky now has enough to snap 800 Polaroid shots. While he also uses
digital cameras that can yield an image within a second after snapping
a photo, Howansky likes Polaroid film because he finds its nostalgic
quirkiness gets his creative juices flowing.

"It has an intangible quality that fits with walking down the street,
and I see something cool, and snap a photo of it," he said.

Although Polaroid instant film may seem an anachronism in an age of
digital photography, it's still widely used for industrial
applications.

For example, in medicine, dermatologists use Polaroid film printed
with grid patterns to help measure shrinkage in scars over time, said
Michael Phelan, a sales manager at Calumet Photographic in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, who works with industrial photography customers.

"There is no substitute for it, and there is no other product out
there that is a viable alternative," said Phelan, who said his store
has received several calls in recent days from customers worried about
Polaroid film supplies.

In medicine, he said, people resisted going digital in some fields,
because it is so much more convenient to just snap a Polaroid. "It's
easier than having to worry about files, and downloading ... Anyone
can pick it up and use it, and walk away with an image in a minute,"
he said.

Steve Rosenthal, a retired architectural photographer, used Polaroids
throughout his career to take test photos and check on lighting and
composition before taking a final shot using standard film. He's also
spent four decades as a hobbyist using Polaroids to snap photos of
churches across New England.

The 67-year-old has enough film for 60 Polaroid shots, stored in a
refrigerator at his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.
"I've got a few boxes now, and I've got to be pretty careful about how
I use it now," said Rosenthal, who plans to order more film soon.

At EP Levine, a photography store in Boston, business from both
instant film and regular film has shrunk with the advent of digital
photography. But there's still demand for instant film, especially
among photography teachers who require large-format film, said Jay
Callum, the store's president.

"We will keep the inventory until the bitter end, because there are
people who want it," he said. "But it's hard to imagine the photo
business without Polaroid being a part of it."

Rich wrote:
> Polaroid fans ponder a filmless future
>
> * Story Highlights
> * Polaroid announced last week it will stop making film for its
> instant cameras
> * Company has already stopped making the cameras, which debuted in
> 1948
> * Polaroids still popular in industrial and medical photography,
> and with camera buffs
> * Fans stockpiling Polaroid film; company hopes to find someone to
> keep making it

Time to add some more Type 55 to the stockpile in the fridge.