Silly Little Country

Creative Destruction Strikes Again

The Amateur Economist links to news that Polaroid is leaving the instant photography business, now closing the plants that made film packets (and even better, he includes a nice picture of James Garner and, particularly, Mariette Hartley).

I am old enough to recall what a miracle it was to have photographs almost immediately available. And to recall some of the amazingly complicated initial cameras that did this job. I owned several such cameras in my life.

I confess to feeling sentimental about this, and sad, but it does not make a lot of sense; I certainly don't plan ever to buy Polaroid film packs ever again, and regard the current digital situation as an enormous improvement over what we had. In the end, I can only hope that the people behind the great advance that was Polaroid technology managed to get a significant reward from all of us who benefited so much from what they did.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:22 AM