Polaroid film

The History of Polaroid

Polaroid was founded by Edwin Land in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1937, and changed photography forever in 1948 with the launch of the world's first instant camera and film. For decades, Polaroid was synonymous with instant photography, but the rise of digital cameras hit the company hard, and the original Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2001, closing its instant film factory in Enschede, Netherlands, in 2008.

The story could have ended there, but Austrian entrepreneur Florian Kaps and a small team launched The Impossible Project to keep the Enschede factory running and reinvent instant film from scratch. In 2017, the Impossible Project was acquired by its largest shareholder and rebranded first as Polaroid Originals, then simply Polaroid from 2020. Today's Polaroid is a genuine manufacturer, still coating instant film at the very same Dutch factory that made it decades ago.

Polaroid's Camera Film Ranges

Polaroid's current film range is built entirely around instant photography. Colour and black and white i-Type film is designed for the brand's modern instant cameras, while 600 film and SX-70 film support classic vintage Polaroid cameras from the 1970s onwards.

Go film is a smaller, more affordable instant format for Polaroid's compact Go camera, and Polaroid also produces large 8x10 instant sheet film for specialist large-format instant photography. Polaroid does not currently sell 35mm film; the brand's occasional past 35mm products were separate, now-discontinued lines.

Choosing the Right Polaroid Film

If you're shooting a modern Polaroid camera such as the Now or I-2, choose i-Type film. Vintage 600-series camera owners should pick up 600 film, while SX-70 owners need the specifically formulated SX-70 film. Whichever format you shoot, Polaroid remains the only place to get genuine, factory-made chemical instant film with that unmistakable look. Compare Polaroid film prices on Filmproof.