Polaroid introduced the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948.
The camera was developed by Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid, after he demonstrated an early instant-photography process in 1947. The first commercially available model, the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, went on sale on November 26, 1948. It produced a sepia-toned print in roughly one minute.
Land’s system combined exposure and development in a compact package. Rollers inside the camera spread chemical reagents across layers of film, allowing a negative and positive print to develop without a conventional darkroom. The user initially had to pull a tab and peel away the negative after development.
A common mix-up is crediting Kodak or Fujifilm, both of which later made instant-photo products. Polaroid’s landmark achievement was making self-developing photography practical for consumers. Color instant photography arrived later: Polaroid introduced Polacolor pack film in 1963, while the fully automatic SX-70 appeared in 1972.