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Devotees snap up Polaroid stocks
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Four months after Polaroid announced it was halting production, = Polaroid=20 lovers are feeling the pain. Their film supply is running out fast.
The decline in film stocks at retail outlets has been accelerated by=20 thousands of young people who in the past year pushed sales of the = camera to new=20 highs.
John Rule, national sales and marketing manager of Hagemeyer = Photographics,=20 which represents Polaroid in Australia, said the company was surprised = by the=20 camera's sudden popularity with the young.
"To you and me it's old technology but to teenagers in a nightclub = it's new=20 technology; most of them have never experienced a Polaroid camera = before.=20 They're interested in it, they like it, it's unique. It's instant = gratification=20 and it's driven kids into retail stores all around the country at a rate = of=20 three-and-a-half times the original forecast," he said.
But only artists and photographers will properly mourn the death of = the=20 classic Polaroid. They love the unexpected quality of its prints - a = soft,=20 almost out-of-focus, three-dimensional quality that serves up instant=20 nostalgia.
Photographic artist Drew Pettifer is already grieving. About a = quarter of his=20 work is with Polaroid instant film and though he is buying and hoarding = as much=20 film as he can find and afford, he is devastated by Polaroid's decision. = "My DIY=20 aesthetic is under threat," he said.
For Pettifer, whose latest exhibition finished yesterday at = Melbourne's=20 Blindside Gallery, digital photography is no substitute. "Polaroids have = nice=20 washed-out tones and you get interesting and varied colour saturation," = he=20 said.
Even the cost of Polaroid film, about $2.50 a snap, isn't enough to = make him=20 embrace the new technology. "Digital is too flat, too polished," he = said.
Photographer Arsineh Houspian has been using instant cameras for more = than a=20 decade.
"Polaroids make a complete snapshot; it can make great photographs = look less=20 formal and happy snaps look edgy," she said.
"You have that two minutes of waiting and you can watch it develop, = so even=20 though it is instant, it's got the sense of the darkroom as well." She = has only=20 one question: "Why are they stopping it?" And there's only one answer: = digital=20 cameras.
In the next couple of years Polaroid, whose first camera went on the = market=20 in 1947, is "transitioning" instant film users to Polaroid digital = products.
The US and British markets are gearing up for PoGo ("Polaroid on the = Go"), a=20 wireless, inkless printer for mobile phones and digital cameras that = produces=20 borderless prints of business-card size. And a digital version of = Polaroid's=20 classic camera, with instant, inkless prints, is thought to be in the=20 pipeline.
Meanwhile Mr Rule said there is plenty of Polaroid instant film in = Australian=20 warehouses. He estimates that, depending on global demand, stocks won't = run out=20 until towards the end of next year, or perhaps some time in 2010.
While teenagers, intrigued by Polaroid's beautiful old instant = technology,=20 will move seamlessly to new products, photographers such as Pettifer = reckon=20 there's only one problem - the prints "won't be anything like a real=20 Polaroid".
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