It’s the kind of story that can form the foundation of a company’s identity and, if they’re lucky, the plot for their eventual fictionalized biopic: A brand dominating one kind of technology takes a bold, risky step into the great unknown so that it can lead its industry into the future.
It’s a great story…when it’s successful.
When it’s not, well, that courageous grab for the brass ring of new technology can hamstring a company for years. Which is why you’ve probably forgotten about the Polaroid Polavision camera. And why your likely reference points for Polaroid are their recent licensing deals that brought their instant cameras back in an ironic, kitschy zombie existence that only seems to rub salt in the wound of its attempt to redefine home movies in the late ‘70s.
The Polavision was touted as Polaroid’s biggest and most important innovation yet, having been in development for over a decade. Just as the company had pioneered the instant camera, it was going to head into the ‘80s as the leader in instant video. That was the plan, anyway. The Polavision was a unique film production system, consisting of a handheld camera, film cartridge, and a proprietary viewer that would both process the film (using a new type of color additive process which allowed for instant developing) and then display what had been captured. Polaroid co-founder Edwin Land saw the Polavision as something of a personal crusade. Despite some internal resistance (primarily from Polaroid president Bill McCune), Land introduced the camera at Polaroid’s annual shareholders meeting in 1977, and it hit store shelves the same year, buoyed by ads featuring a lot of poorly played tennis and aging Hollywood legends like Danny Kaye.
From the start, however, the issues were evident. Each film cartridge could only shoot roughly two-and-a-half minutes of footage. It also couldn’t capture any sound. Because of its slow film speed, each “movie”…
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