American inventor Edwin Land first got the inspiration for the Polaroid instant camera while on vacation in 1943. His 3-year-old daughter asked why she could not see the photo he had just taken of her.
The question lingered in Land’s mind and he set about finding a solution. By 1947, he had developed a one-step dry process for producing photographs just one minute after taking the image. Before this invention, negatives had to be developed in a wet chemical bath in a special dark room.
A year later Land’s new invention was available for sale. The first Model 95 Land camera sold for $89.95 US dollars at a Boston, Massachusetts department store. Adjusted for inflation, that camera would have cost about $1,311 New Zealand dollars in 2017. At such a high price the camera would have been a luxury item in the post-war United States.
Interestingly, the 1970s version pictured, the Polaroid 1000 Land camera, still has its sales receipt. The buyer paid $80 for the camera and $24 for the flash bar accessory on 31 October 1978. Adjusted for inflation, the retail price comes out to about $630 New Zealand dollars in 2017. Polaroid cameras were certainly more affordable by the 1970s but still quite expensive.
