“Polaroid will be discontinuing the manufacture of its SX-70/Time-Zero film within the first 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.” (details) I’m a bit torn between thinking that this is indeed a loss and just shrugging my shoulders. I am glad that Polaroid managed to stay in business - it’s amazing to see how their technical ingenuity has been inversely proportional to their capability of doing business, and it’s no real surprise they’re getting rid of those product lines that don’t sell enough. I for one, was much sadder to see the instant slide film go.

In any case, is the film such a loss? It’s true, it’s a unique film and all that, but then the “unique” here means that the photo might or might not bear some resemblance to the actual scene, with typically the latter being the case. As for those manipulations that you can do, that’s certainly nice. But still, I can’t escape the feeling that once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.

I’m sure “toy camera” fans will disagree with me but if you really want bad unusual colours with smudges start up Photoshop. Yeah, I know (please don’t send email because of this) digital is not the same, bla bla bla. Maybe it’s really time people got over this whole silly debate about whether or not digital or film is better. It’s such a waste of everybody’s time!