The 20x24 Polaroid instant camera | Hacker News Reader

The 20x24 Polaroid instant camera

20x24studio.com

103 pointsazalemeth17 comments

This is my uncle’s studio! He started it after Polaroid killed the 20x24 program, but there was still a strong demand for the format. It is a unique camera, shame that it’s lifespan is basically over at this point.

These incredibly innovative industrial processes of the mid-20th Century never cease to amaze me!

I was lucky enough to sneak through the fence and explore the abandoned Polaroid plant in Waltham along 128 before it was torn down. So many miles of metal piping, so many valves, so many Giant Red Buttons!

Elsa Dorfman was my landlady in Cambridge. She was a hoot and a half. Sadly passed away a couple years ago.

There's a charming documentary about her directed by Errol Morris of all people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-Side:_Elsa_Dorfman%27s_P...

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20b-side&jbv=80145699

Based on the current price of the revived Polaroid film from the Impossible Project, you'd be looking at around US$70/shot for this. If you could get new film for it.

Photography (especially on this scale) used to demand a lot of forethought and commitment. While do I enjoy taking pictures without having a meter running, I sometimes wonder what's been lost along the way.

Agreed. It's wrong to think though that the way that digital photos are taken would imply very large costs for film. From experience, you take shots in a different way, and are forced to be more contemplative with large format, and it's basically impossible to shoot more film than you've got with you in film holders!

I'd typically head out with my 5*4 with 4 holders, so that's 8 sheets of film. There might be a mix of ISO 100 and 400, and it might be that I am not in a situation that suites one of the films, so i'm suddenly down to a max of 4 images.

On a related note, I've been a fan of Dr. Land since reading an article about him in Popular Science in the 70's. Still hoping to find a decent SX-70 for a reasonable price some day.

I thought about buying one when you could still get one for half-nothing, but then the new film came out and the price zoomed.

I wish I could read that

How about. "Insisting On the Impossible : The Life of Edwin Land Paperback" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738201901/

I found this Popular Science article on the unveiling of the yet to be named SX-70 in which Edwin Land seems to have inspired a certain Steve Jobs.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=WZ6okH8FCs4C&lpg=PA65&ots=k...

We could never afford one but I used to go to the local camera stores and scavenge the empty film cartridges from their trash. They would demo the camera, and of course throw out the cartridge. But it still had a perfectly good battery in it.

And the specs on those batteries are absolutely insane for the size. A couple of them and you can start a vehicle.

Mods, please fix "smart" quotes

Ah. Submitted title was 'The 20“x24” polaroid instant camera', which I assumed somehow meant it wasn't really x24.

Fixed now - thanks!

Nope -- that was me trying to denote inches. Sorry!

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