Nearly 50 years ago, the Polavision camera blended Polaroid’s revolutionary instant film with on-demand home video – and the result was a landmark advance in analog technology that would become a mystery of science and a winding international journey into vintage tech.
Because now, generations after Edwin Land bet his half-century legacy of innovation and the company he founded on the success of the Polavision, I need to figure out how to get the thing to work… and only one man in the world could help me.
I traveled to Vienna, Austria to meet Florian “Doc” Kaps – the man behind ‘The Impossible Project’ that saved Polaroid from the dustbin of history. With his guidance and his private store of old Polaroid video tapes, perhaps I would be able to record a modern YouTube video with my vintage Polavision camera.
Through it all, Doc immersed me into his world of analog technology and the philosophy behind his mission to re-integrate analog into our daily lives. We cut lacquer records, we felt the fires of an analog restaurant, and we spent too much time trying to resurrect a relic of the past – because technology, vintage and modern, is all about people.
#polaroid #analog #vintagetech #history #cameras #documentary
@popularscience
October 24, 2024 at 12:49 pm
Please hit LIKE to support this documentary and thank you so much for watching. This was the biggest project I’ve ever done in my over 13 years full-time on YouTube and I’m thrilled with how it came together. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to this channel if you haven’t already. Your support will help more of these videos get made. Thank you! -Kevin
@Eurobeat_fan
October 24, 2024 at 5:58 pm
Great job! This is great!
@russianbear0027
October 24, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Are you popular science the magazine?
@ThatGuyThatCommentedOn_A_Video
October 25, 2024 at 1:36 am
Does the dislike button help?
@tylerphuoc2653
October 25, 2024 at 11:41 am
@@russianbear0027He primarily does Vsauce2, but has been so fascinated with the magazine that he collaborated with them to revive their youtube channel
@BPantherPink
October 25, 2024 at 4:38 pm
Too emotional…had tears in my eyes 😢 Liked n Subbd. BTW, I have a square roll of Poloroid instant slide film and the associated developing processor. They are from the early 1980s but the film has mostly been refrigerated, if you are interested 🙏🏼
@alexanderjohnson2309
October 24, 2024 at 5:35 pm
This was a beautiful journey. What a fantastic video. Thank you.
@Conrad500
October 24, 2024 at 5:36 pm
So where’s the weiner ranking?
@MakeSomething
October 24, 2024 at 5:40 pm
As a Polaroid collector and junkie I’m so happy you made this an hour long full of history and amazing visuals. What a great story. ❤
@kronesP
October 24, 2024 at 5:52 pm
Thank you Popular Science folks for letting Kevin work his magic. This is the best video yet
@FuS3D86
October 24, 2024 at 6:03 pm
We kinda do download burgers though, we download when the delivery guy is going to arrive
@shaider1982
October 24, 2024 at 6:13 pm
I think Gille Messi had a video on it a few days ago.
@TommyCrosby
October 24, 2024 at 6:49 pm
I think this channel just peaked out.
I mean, can you do something better than this guy interview? He his the GOAT of analog technology.
@remarstered
October 24, 2024 at 6:51 pm
This was very inspiring. Thank you!
@Waxxumus
October 24, 2024 at 7:00 pm
I have an extra one of these Cameras if you need one.
@89simba57
October 24, 2024 at 7:14 pm
This video will explode
@TommyCrosby
October 24, 2024 at 7:16 pm
Hey, lets not be sad by the broken camera and blank tape, just like Doc said, failure and unpredictable event are important. You just made a big video really showing thay we definitely loss this technology.
@PETEYBOY954
October 24, 2024 at 7:16 pm
The product will market its self. That’s pure 🙂↕️.
@DavidHyman031
October 24, 2024 at 7:17 pm
Wonderful video! More like this please!
@NoosaHeads
October 24, 2024 at 7:17 pm
I have a new, sealed box of polavision film that’s been in my ‘fridge since 1992.
@TheMelonCompanyIntern
October 24, 2024 at 7:34 pm
The passion is palpable Kevin. This is art
@Namjiook
October 24, 2024 at 7:39 pm
This is awesome! Thank you for making this. I myself am a fan of analog, I take pictures on an old 1947 Goldy Objectif Mystique camera, it makes beautiful pictures on 120 film. I have some 620 cameras I want to use as well, as well as get into videography with an old analog camera, but that’s farther out.
@ZimaCyberia
October 24, 2024 at 7:41 pm
Aren’t a lot of super 8 films actual snuff films? I’d be careful if you ever find super 8 film in like an old home or whatever.
@huntergeerts7040
October 24, 2024 at 8:27 pm
No offense, but your title and thumbnail sucks for this one. I almost didn’t click, and only did because of who you are.
@arandomguywitharandomname4187
October 24, 2024 at 8:38 pm
Discourse on what the world misses by everything being digital is a thing I dont spend time to think about
Definitely an experience
@alexblank91
October 24, 2024 at 8:38 pm
0:17 Proof that Danny DeVito is a time traveller
@pootcargo
October 24, 2024 at 8:41 pm
It’s called Twitter, not X
@danielvest9602
October 24, 2024 at 8:58 pm
This is the 3rd video I’ve seen on this device in the last month
@erok268
October 24, 2024 at 9:09 pm
I’m glad he has a linotype when he said he asked what is analog. The linotype came to mind. Like one of the most crazy inventions man has ever made
@lastnamefirstname8655
October 24, 2024 at 9:27 pm
amazing video, thanks kevin!
@qirex3093
October 25, 2024 at 7:13 am
1:02:14 Dude. I was so sad for you😢
@CompComp
October 25, 2024 at 8:15 am
Could you refill the cassette with reagent? Or rebuild it with 8mm film?
It was mentioned that these tapes can be played in a 8mm projector. So likely it’ll work in reverse.
@tylerphuoc2653
October 25, 2024 at 11:43 am
They would not fit in an 8mm by themselves, but you could cannibalize their tape, destroying the antique packaging and put it into another generic cassette
@johannes914
October 25, 2024 at 8:41 am
Nope! Super 8 hadn’t to be scanned. Just processed.
@smartereveryday
October 25, 2024 at 8:53 am
“Teach me how to dance this” is an epic way to sign an email.
@TripHaze
October 25, 2024 at 9:18 am
This video is a blast ! What a journey! Congrats to everyone involved in the making of it !
@tayenbezaire
October 25, 2024 at 9:30 am
This made me tear up, I’m so passionate about polaroid and analog mediums. Seeing doc share that passion so strongly and hearing the way he speaks about mistakes being what makes the medium special… it was a lot. Thanks for this amazing video
@lalababayaga
October 25, 2024 at 9:55 am
I have Polavision when I go to my family reunion but I’m just looking at Poles. 🤦♀️
@MatroxMillennium
October 25, 2024 at 10:29 am
This is weird, I watched separate videos earlier this week on both the Polavision and spider eyes
@Joeyzoom
October 25, 2024 at 10:40 am
Ngl those hotdogs looked 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Incredible production, incredible story. I appreciate all you do, Kevin & PopSci team 👏
@ChristopherBonis
October 25, 2024 at 11:17 am
23:22 That’s one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever heard.
@thumbtak123
October 25, 2024 at 11:30 am
Hopefully archive still has a copy of this, for those that need it. Also, nice video, thanks.
@jarrettnelson2936
October 25, 2024 at 12:11 pm
This is one of the best documentary style films I’ve seen in a long time. Thanks Kevin. I genuinely feel like I appreciate analog technology more now.
I’m so glad to see people use the things they collect as they were intended to be used and not just kept for the sake of preserving. You both strike a perfect balance
@Stickers2Go
October 25, 2024 at 12:38 pm
Is this vsauce 2 now?
@fartzinwind
October 25, 2024 at 12:54 pm
I have one of the rca disk players and many disks. Though they’ve been in an attic for decades, and not tested in a long time. I grew up watching them. Time Bandits was my favorite.
@iga2litremilk
October 25, 2024 at 1:01 pm
I’ve never been anything but impressed with every video you’ve put out, so incredibly good
@daddybigas1265
October 25, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Beautiful and amazing documentary. Awesome job!!!
@chaoticsystem2211
October 25, 2024 at 1:41 pm
The question is: did you taste it?
@Fernando-ek8jp
October 25, 2024 at 2:36 pm
You can totally get a high level of “craftsmanship” with digital methods.
The issue is that since it’s very easy to get any results, few people ever feel the need to dive in.
With analog methods, you need to dive in for even the most basic stuff, so you both filter out those who were never going to dive deep to begin with, and the ones that start already need to develop skill to use it.
@gavinguy148
October 25, 2024 at 3:08 pm
Amazing video absolutely loved it
@amysourbutts8421
October 25, 2024 at 3:53 pm
I wish I’d known about Doc when I visited Vienna in August. He’s so cool!
@SteveNathn
October 25, 2024 at 4:13 pm
Extremely well done. Sad that it didn’t work. But I honestly think that enhances the story
@CC4real
October 25, 2024 at 4:38 pm
I totally forgot what I initially wanted to comment, but this guy is fascinating and amazing!! Thank you so much for highlighting him and all of his positive, hard-work!!
@GreenAppelPie
October 25, 2024 at 5:55 pm
I gotta say, Polaroid pictures hold up after decades that still look brand new, where Kodak pictures fade
@dragonheadthing
October 25, 2024 at 7:12 pm
What an amazing documentary!
@xboxsteven
October 26, 2024 at 3:15 am
This is a fucking awesome awesome project Kevin. Top 10 videos on yt.
@theouterz5898
October 26, 2024 at 3:27 am
The prophecy has been fulfilled
@nebcat808
October 26, 2024 at 4:08 am
Bravo on your journey! The experience alone is priceless!
@exploderingwithkrishnashuk937
October 26, 2024 at 4:21 am
Bro complaining about a defective product he received from his latest online shopping. Nothin more😂
@NeeChee100
October 26, 2024 at 7:58 am
I loved Doc’s take on the printing press, and how digital is just sometimes too perfect. Don’t get me started on AI images!😠
@60gregma
October 26, 2024 at 9:52 am
It kind of bugs me that the words “tape” and “video” are used in terms of Polavision. It’s not tape and it’s not video, it’s film. I know that Polaroid sold these as “Phototape” cartridges, but I am thinking they did this deliberately to make this analog tech sound more high tech. In 1977 consumer videotape recorders were beginning to take hold. If Polavision were released 10 years prior, it might have had a chance of success.
@davidroddini1512
October 26, 2024 at 9:55 am
I had to watch the first 57:00 to get to the important part – the hotdog 🤣
@Zvyru.
October 26, 2024 at 10:12 am
This was so beautiful, Great job Kevin.
@plotterman
October 26, 2024 at 10:35 am
the negatives needed to be developed, but for sure not scanned in 1977!!!!
@lotterwinner6474
October 26, 2024 at 11:34 am
This video hit me emotionally. Very unexpected. I was always fascinated with my Uncles polaroid as a kid and wondered why he was the only one I knew that had one. Great tech.
@doogie812
October 26, 2024 at 11:56 am
Now that is a rabbit hole. Well done.
@JunnoStromboli
October 26, 2024 at 12:13 pm
Video starts at 9:47
@Ice_Karma
October 26, 2024 at 1:44 pm
0:07 Uh oh, this is awfully early into a hour-long video to be stopping to leave a coment with a correction. Back in the day, 16 mm, Super8, etc. film only had to be developed, not scanned, because people who had such a camera would also have had a projector, or know someone who did. Nowadays, projectors are as rare as hen’s teeth, so if you want to see what’s on your film, you have to get it scanned as well. (That said, I actually do know someone who recently bought a projector and is trying to repair it, but he’s in Norway, and I’m not…)
@SuicV
October 26, 2024 at 2:43 pm
Fenomenal work there! What a beautiful way to see the way we interact with the world
@axelthefoxytechworld8024
October 26, 2024 at 2:54 pm
This video would be great it if wasn’t filmed vertical
@arricammarques1955
October 26, 2024 at 3:27 pm
Kodak developed digital camera in 1975. Ignored the market and went bankrupt. Nobel effort in playing back the last Polavision tape, mate.
@putridabomination
October 26, 2024 at 4:11 pm
“TikTok in 1977”
I hate everything about the title and the premise of that enough to just select the “don’t recommend channel” option.
@ActuallyHoudini
October 26, 2024 at 4:34 pm
oh, i got one of those for a fiver about six months ago.
@bikeforever2016
October 26, 2024 at 5:21 pm
What a journey.
@fricki1997
October 26, 2024 at 5:47 pm
52:02 “Incredible lenses”? Maybe for 1860. Most of them have triplets, either glass or plastic, even the highest end ones “only” have Tessar types, a design which dates back to the turn of the 20th century.
They work fine when stopped way down like most non-single-plastic-meniscus optical systems can, but there’s nothing special about them except for coverage, and even then you can find cheap medium format cameras with triplets or Tessars that perform similarly. Also plenty of 9×12 large format ones available with Tessars or the slow but alright Rapid Aplanat lenses.
@grigoriymaltsev
October 26, 2024 at 6:32 pm
I’m not crying It’s just tears of how AWESOME THAT IS.
@TheRoosterLIVE
October 26, 2024 at 6:47 pm
Great Video! A very human touch! Great work guys!
@Capturing-Memories
October 26, 2024 at 7:54 pm
What you have proven is, if you want to preserve our memories, digital is your savior not analog, Sure you can use the analog media to document something but if you don’t save it into a digital form, the time will take it away as it was never existed, If it wasn’t for digital I or you would never have heard of this technology and you would never been able to share it with the world.
@herzogsbuick
October 26, 2024 at 8:43 pm
that made me feel things. analog things. fantastic work, thank you <3
@RetroJack
October 26, 2024 at 9:44 pm
I love how this guy keeps saying “tape” and “video” when he’s reviewing a literal film product! 🤣
@WINTERMUTE_AI
October 26, 2024 at 11:29 pm
Aww
@toseltreps1101
October 27, 2024 at 2:14 am
i love how this was colour graded to resemble Polaroid photos 🙂
@74wrighty
October 27, 2024 at 3:32 am
So lucky to have people like you and doc around. Thank you. Love it.
@MBUncle
October 27, 2024 at 5:46 am
Doc is awesome and so inspirational. I highly respect people who have such passions and knowledge. And he sounds like Arnold as a bonus! Kevin this s a unique and incredible video, Thank you.
@davep5698
October 27, 2024 at 7:12 am
Thank you for just letting Florian “Doc” Kaps talk. I mean this is the best way, but you barely said a sentence while he was talking and he was the focus of the camera almost entirely.
It is great to see people recognise a wealth of information and just let them go and get that out into the world. Thank you.
@orionandersen9333
October 27, 2024 at 9:47 am
Doc’s company is called supersense, in case anyone else was looking
@aL3891_
October 27, 2024 at 10:23 am
It’s funny, it feels like this was targeting casual filming, like when you’re out with your friends. Kind of like how social media is today. This was like Instagram of the seventies
@roystonlodge
October 27, 2024 at 10:24 am
It drives me nuts that he keeps calling it video.
@K.Simmons-f3m
October 27, 2024 at 11:29 am
Thank you Kevin for introducing me to Doc, what a guy, what a story,. Nxt time I in Vienna I must go to Supersense and pay homage.
@johnkean6852
October 27, 2024 at 11:45 am
This is like opening a box of Cadbury’s chocolates and getting Belgian chocolates inside.
Thx.
I have to put this or my comments get cut by the YT AI Robocop:
For educational/entertainment purposes only!
@johnkean6852
October 27, 2024 at 11:46 am
His whole building of treasures is a Museum waiting to happen.
I have to put this or my comments get cut by the YT AI Robocop:
For educational/entertainment purposes only!
@davids8449
October 27, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Extremely interesting item as our family were still using 8 mm standard eight many years ago.when we made a film we had to get it right first time possibly drawing a diagram of how we were to shoot the film . Todays life is very dull with people constantly looking down at their mobile phones or asking their wife ( partner ) if they should buy some sprouts when in the supermarket …..The chap presenting the video is american and sounds as if he is bout to lay an egg , apart from this it is interesting
@davids8449
October 27, 2024 at 2:19 pm
Yes very true…..when you Google a subject , I always think to myself…who is giving your answer on the other end and what information is being collected , and to who
@DaveEtchells
October 27, 2024 at 6:34 pm
Fascinating and extremely well-done video!
I was involved in the photo business at the time, and digital is what ultimately killed Polaroid. Scientific and engineering users burned through huge volumes of black and white Polaroid pack film for recording microscope and oscilloscope images. Even more massive though, was the fact that commercial photographers routinely shot _several_ Polaroids for each conventional film frame they captured, to check framing, focus and exposure.
Back in the day (~1992), I ran a digital imaging VAR and consultancy and did a study for a commercial client that shot thousands (and thousands) of product photos every year. Even with the $50,000 digital studio cameras in that era, we determined that each one would pay for itself in about 9 months, just from the savings in Polaroid film :-0
Polaroid made good use of their advanced color science in the early days of digital, but their corporate and R&D overhead was based on the enormous profits from their film business, and there was no way to transform the company quickly enough to overcome that. It was sad, the amount of deep knowledge lost was tragic.
(Huge props for the beyond-amazing honor of being the next to last person to ever have their photo taken on a 20×24 Polaroid!)
@josedearimateiayjesus2178
October 27, 2024 at 9:29 pm
All this work is remarkable, I was fascinated by the amount of information and the technical and poetic refinement of all the information brought to light here in this documentary.
@EthanDoezYT
October 27, 2024 at 10:01 pm
I was a 2000’s kid. I didn’t experience this stuff the same way everyone else did. I was given “leftovers” if you will. I grew up watching VHS and playing Super nintendo or Sega genesis. We couldn’t afford new things so I got to play with all of that. I loved it. It never occured to me how different all the new stuff was. I just knew that What I was viewing, and experiencing was awesome.
We would go to garage sales and find VHS tapes, Old board games, Clothes, Furniture, Books from way before my time like goosebumps, etc. I never cared about having the new stuff, It was always about the experience. I got my first polaroid when I was 10. I loved that thing. We got used film for it at first, then new film when it was back in re-production. I collected polaroids of every sort. I eventually was gifted on my 14th birthday, some 70 sonic the hedgehog books that where compounded from an inmate at the jail my uncle worked at, and a 8mm Polaroid handheld film camera. That shit was amazing to me. I sold it all when I was 17 thinking I was to old for it and needed to move on in my life. i regret that. I dont regret giving my Polaroid Camera’s to a friend tho. I tried starting up my collection again but it became to expensive. This was a great video. It was anostalgia trip.
Oh btw Yes I listened to cassette tapes in my moms car as a kid and I do listen to Vynil.
@JohnDlugosz
October 27, 2024 at 10:25 pm
Developed and *scanned* at the lab?
Back in the day, there was no scanning. It was _printed_ , but I think the consumer stuff was positive film so just developing was enough. People used the film itself to view it, using a projector.
Computers at the time would be severely overloaded by a single frame! I remember seeing a demo at SIGGRAPH 1989 where a computer had like 4 meg of video memory and the display was high-resolution and could be zoomed in on a photograph.
In 1977, home computers also hit the market: Apple II, Commodore PET, and the original TRS-80. The display capability of these were way, way, lower than photo quality.
There were no scanners, as we know them today. Drum scanners existed, but they were high-end professional for the publishing industry. RAM cost $10/kilobyte (in 1977 dollars! Figure $50 to $55 in today’s dollars). That means a crude 3 megapixel scan, taking 9 megabytes or 9000 kilobytes would cost $90,000 ($450,000 today).
@JohnDlugosz
October 27, 2024 at 10:29 pm
Why are you calling it a “tape”? I think that word is reserved for magnetic (and more exotic) recording techniques that don’t leave a visible image on the media. What you have is a reel of *film* .
@ehosack.rocketlad
October 28, 2024 at 12:02 am
11:10 bro was simultaneously fearing and hoping for that very question
@MyPersonalPlayground
October 28, 2024 at 12:39 am
How many times will I watch this? MANY MANY MANY more times. What a beautiful, exciting, heart breaking, inspiring and magical experience had and shared. Truly thankful to all involved!
@mrdrprof8402
October 28, 2024 at 2:54 am
I absolutely adored this video. I’m not super about analog tech but seeing the love behind this video is really touching. The kindred spirits meeting across the world over this tech is truly something great. I love videos like this, thank you dearly for making it
@timstamps5281
October 28, 2024 at 7:49 am
Here is some additional trivia about self-developing motion picture film:
In the early 1960s, the writer Walter Tevis was interested in this idea and wrote it into his science fiction novel “The Man Who Fell to Earth”. As a man from outer space, Thomas Newton brought self-developing motion picture film to earth, and became a millionaire from this invention through his “World Enterprises Corporation.” This would have been a more advanced version of Polavision (though only fiction). This part of the story did not make it into the film with David Bowie.
@memeslich
October 28, 2024 at 9:33 am
This video is magical!
@casualSeth
October 28, 2024 at 9:55 am
Amazing episode.
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:08 am
Did it say fragile on the box? Handle with care? Let’s hope the TSA doesn’t follow the UPS protocol for following box instructions.
@andrewdunbar828
October 28, 2024 at 10:19 am
Did you guys drink a Dos Equis?
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:19 am
The photography is rousing. Word choice as a second language can be hard
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:25 am
Great timing for Web Archive to be hacked
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:32 am
Why not just do all the takes on the same hot dogs, rather than getting more, just repeating the shots. You can even use “hollywood tricks” to pretend to eat it if you want, but you can just spread the bites out more evenly.
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:35 am
You can upload youtube videos in 24fps.
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:35 am
Did your tape get X-rayed by TSA???
@tutacat
October 28, 2024 at 10:38 am
Thank you, Tim Berners-Lee, SGML, HTTP, and E-mail for making this video possible.
@Rocketryman
October 28, 2024 at 11:05 am
Interesting VIDEO, sadly your research is limited. I had a Polavision camera. A couple of things… With all due respect. 🙂 It is such a misinformed stretch to say it was the “TikTok” of 1977. Polavision was FILM, not tape. It captures 2 minutes and 35 seconds of FILM, not VIDEO. 🙂 You keep referring to it as TAPE, it’s film. Going back and forth between calling it film and tape is misinformed and hurts the educational value of this video. Again, with all due respect. There is no Film and tape, it is just film. Again, it’s a FILM, not a tape. It’s a Polavision reel, calling it tape is confusing it with Videotape which in 1977 was a cumbersome and expensive technology. Finally, you made a futile attempt to shoot VIDEO because it is a FILM Camera, NOT a VIDEO Camera. But all in all, fun to watch. Respect to you. 🙂
@lookitskazzy
October 28, 2024 at 11:45 am
I audibly groaned when this man said he ran the tapes through x-ray machines.
Unbelievable.
@DyenamicFilms
October 28, 2024 at 4:12 pm
I remember dreaming about this camera when I was a kid.
@wattehel
October 28, 2024 at 11:14 pm
It is super 8 film not tape, not video. You film with it not record that is more a video term.
@williamevans9426
October 29, 2024 at 1:21 am
A wonderful and exciting adventure! I received a Polavision system for Christmas in 1977 or ’78. Sadly, as you note, the developed film was unstable so, when trying to re-view my mini-masterpieces some ten years later, all that remained was a set of films with a broad opaque stripe obliterating most of every image. A shame the film technology wasn’t better as, if I remember rightly, the engineering of the camera and player was very robust.
@molochi
October 29, 2024 at 7:31 am
I always thought that what killed Polaroid was Kodak stealing the patented instant film/ camera technology. I don’t think they got paid for the lawsuit until they were dead. I can’t say I even ever heard of an instant movie camera, so that’s weird.
@eriksnel6461
October 29, 2024 at 2:18 pm
Incredible documentary! this is a fantastic story. i am a collector of analog myself and the polavision story is part of my collection because my main specialization is Eumig. Therefore I must correct that they were a small company. Eumig was the biggest producer of cameras and projectors in Europe of that time. they went bust for several reasons and one of those reasons was the flop that was polavision. I also have both polavision cameras (black and silver lens house) and the player. all non working units unfortunately.
@Chrispy_tV
October 29, 2024 at 2:25 pm
Surveillance Satellite and missile guidance in WWII? Might be combining a few eras there accidentally lololol.
@lads.7715
October 29, 2024 at 3:17 pm
It’s funny how most people still refer to making a video as “filming” whereas here he refers to a Polaroid Film Movie as a “video.” 😊
@tlhIngan
October 29, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Right when @CanadianMacGyver (Our Own Devices) did something about it as well…
@jayrtfm
October 29, 2024 at 9:36 pm
ARGHHHHH!!!!!! calling it “tape” and “shooting video” is so infuriating especially to those of use who used them as teenagers. IT IS FILM, FILM, how hard is it to remember it is an analog chemical process, it’s FILM!!!!! omg you lose all credibility confusing things by using electronic terms. I’m only 2.5 minutes in, not sure how much longer I can listen… (edit, ok, it says phototape on the box so I’ll give him that)
@AmiVider
October 29, 2024 at 10:28 pm
The quote “marketing is what you do when your product is no good” is what we learned he understood when this product was finally produced. The original Polaroid cameras were amazing!
@Lieca_Lover2
October 29, 2024 at 10:44 pm
Funny story, that exact Polavision set was on my watch list on EBay and I was going to buy it
@takeohtyme
October 30, 2024 at 1:38 am
Try casting bar shot, thats how it was made. Trying to use a bolt and whatever those weights are is causing them to fail.
Bar shot was cast iron, normally. Sometimes cast lead, but only when you couldnt afford iron.
@KarldorisLambley
October 30, 2024 at 4:09 am
“camera that killed polaroid” eh? you clearly said in the vid that polavision didn’t end polaroid, and they went bust 20 years after the polarvision. so where is the polaroid killing camera?
@KarldorisLambley
October 30, 2024 at 4:18 am
TBH this vid was much longer than it needed to be. did we need so long of that Wiener’s personal philosophy? waffling on about tangential things?
@jamesprivet
October 30, 2024 at 4:19 am
Very good documentary. I will gave to visit the museum in Vienna.
@Nooticus
October 30, 2024 at 7:28 am
This is an exceptional video. It has it all and hasnt got nearly enough views. Both Doc, and the creator of Polaroid are genius who are both way ahead of their time.
Though I MUST tell you Kevin, THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH YOUR VSAUCE2 COMMUNITY POSTS!! Me and several other people HAVE NOT been getting any of the recent community posts on our youtube feeds from the past year/6 months or so. I had no idea you were promoting all your popularscience videos there because the posts were NOT showing up. I care about your livelihood man so please look into this!!
@battlestarnomore
October 30, 2024 at 9:41 am
Kevin is a treasure!
@z11111
October 30, 2024 at 10:07 am
Love this channel. Give this guy a raise!
@sissyzk
October 30, 2024 at 11:22 am
The fact he let doc spoke like 20min in the videos without interrupting was so interesting and fascinating. I was really into it
@photooooooo
October 30, 2024 at 1:32 pm
do a story on the billionaires son who fired doc
@Lichtviech
October 30, 2024 at 1:35 pm
why where the polavison tapes called “video” thats the wrong term for a chemical analouge process on film. And Eumig was not a “small company” it has a similar size to Bell and Howell and the polavision deal was the beginning to its end: instead of get into electronic image storage (or called “video”) they do it in polavision – great mistake
But amongst all the negative…. i love the way this documentary was made, the passion, the details – that was great, thank you for it!
@AnonymousFreakYT
October 30, 2024 at 1:37 pm
So what you’re telling me is that tech companies designing new technologies in the late ’70s and naming them vision was the death knell for the company?
@AnonymousFreakYT
October 30, 2024 at 1:52 pm
44:29 – I enjoy that when the voiceover is talking about “digital photography”, you’re showing an analog film camera. 😀
@AnonymousFreakYT
October 30, 2024 at 2:09 pm
55:33 – I enjoy the symmetry of preserving digitally for everyone to access a thing given to you by someone who is working to preserve analog media for in-person use.
I believe both methods are absolutely vital and equally important.
Keeping physical relics, and keeping them fully functional, with new innovations necessary (the hand creation of new peel-apart instant film, for example,) is necessary so people can actually *experience* these bits of history.
But preserving things digitally so they can be accessible to *EVERYONE*, even if not in their original form, is also vital, so people can *LEARN* about these bits of history.
And Kevin, you are doing vital work in this. This feature-documentary-length video, accessible to all for free, is preserving this knowledge and history for generations to come.
@WafflesOWNz
October 30, 2024 at 2:21 pm
I’ll never forgive the TSA! 😡
@AnonymousFreakYT
October 30, 2024 at 2:23 pm
I clicked the video expecting a fun short exploration of an obsolete format.
I came away over an hour later, touched at this love letter to Edwin Land and Florian “Doc” Kaps.
@sidecarcn
October 30, 2024 at 2:41 pm
It was not TikTok. What are yiu taking about?
That isn’t a tape. There is no tape inside. It’s Super 8 film. When. Removed from the cartridge can run through and super 8 projector.
Also when you check in your bags. Did you pack the film in an X-ray bag for film. X-Ray scanners damage exposed film.
@CybegeekTV
October 30, 2024 at 3:14 pm
I absolutely loved this… my dad was used to develop black and white and I learned developing and enlarging from him when I was 8 years old, and this video was so fascinating and nostalgic for me personally… thank you.
@BobDiaz123
October 30, 2024 at 10:22 pm
One of the coolest products that Polaroid created was a 4×5 film back for 4×5 cameras. I could take a photo with a 4×5 camera, have a black and white photo, AND have a 4×5 negative to use for other prints. I worked at a small camera store at the time and could check out equipment to use. However all supplies came out of my own pocket. The result was so much fun, I ended up purchasing several film packages to do more shooting.
@jeeptrail08
October 30, 2024 at 11:59 pm
Great video and I’m so glad everything came full circle for DOC and very thankful to have Polaroid instant film back and to be able to hold a real photograph
@thej3799
October 31, 2024 at 2:32 am
Being rich and autistic sounds like heaven. I am poor and autistic, so I can only watch this in awe and jealousy.
@kc0lif
October 31, 2024 at 8:59 am
i thank mr Polaroid for my still photo camara.
@DapSchaf
October 31, 2024 at 11:03 am
So fucked up that TSA can just break your stuff.
@DapSchaf
October 31, 2024 at 2:52 pm
I was scared that Doc would be just another startup entrepreneur. But he seems so genuinely in love with all his work
@dbk78
October 31, 2024 at 5:55 pm
This was a fascinating story thanks
@pro-storm4951
October 31, 2024 at 6:29 pm
life is un faiiirr
@pro-storm4951
October 31, 2024 at 7:02 pm
awesome video, i love polaroid
@jaredwirth3990
November 1, 2024 at 6:58 am
A disaster because of the timing, in 1976 JVC would release VHS cameras, so pretty dumb of Poaroid actually.
@SalvadorButtersworth
November 2, 2024 at 10:51 am
There was never any possibility of this becoming a successful product. People already had VHS tapes, and soon they’d have camcorders. VHS tapes worked on regular televisions, and they could play Hollywood movies in addition to home movies. But the main use was to record television shows, at a time when shows were only broadcast once and then maybe never seen again.
VHS allowed you to go to bed early and still see The Tonight Show. VHS allowed you to buy or rent movies, and watch them at home instead of a movie theater whenever you wanted, for the first time in history. VHS allowed you to watch an hour-long video of your wedding or any other event. And all of this was on the TV you already owned.
What did PolaVision allow you to do?
Who would buy a dedicated monitor that only plays 3-minute films? Who would buy a camera that only records 3-minute films? The only possible market was people who used home movie projectors and wanted to save a little time in getting the film developed.
But people generally didn’t watch home movies right after they filmed them. The point was to watch them later. So maybe you could figure out a purpose for it if you needed an instant replay. Maybe during an argument with your wife.
But, as this video shows, the technology was not good for preserving memories. People’s normal home movies from the 1970s still work, while these Polavision tapes do not.
@bingsterc7621
November 2, 2024 at 7:51 pm
Seriously?!…🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻
🤬🤬🤬 TicTok! It’s POS, COMMIE CCP/PRC Social Media Company. STOP SUPPORTING THEM & STOP SUPPORTING COMMUNISM.
@Montgomerygolfgator
November 2, 2024 at 11:05 pm
So… Futurefuels in Batesville, AR used to be Eastman Chemical. It’s pretty much a splinter of Eastman Chemical, including employees. There are still Eastman branded binders and documentation around the site.
I know its not the right company, but I wonder if they might have the right reagent recipe. They do make small production runs of chemicals other than biodiesel, so it might be worth a shot to contact them. Who knows, the chemical reagent recipe might be sitting on some dusty shelf waiting to revive some polavision tapes.
@patrickhale424
November 3, 2024 at 12:24 am
New subscriber !!! Amazing video!!! I grew up on Polaroid. My Dad was a film nut and when we were growing up we shot a lot of pictures on Polaroid cameras. We have so many family, vacation, pets and more subjects all on Polaroid film. Thanks for sharing your amazing journey and opening up a door for me to reconnect with the film of my youth.
@kwokallsafe5642
November 3, 2024 at 12:30 am
You have a camera man, filming another camera man 59:45 – Thanks for making this doco
@pgtmr2713
November 3, 2024 at 4:15 am
People dreamed of tech in our hands that did everything long before “Iphones.” AND Ipods. They were late to the party and charged you more for the privilege of owning their junk. I had PDAs that actually could play games on a color screen AND play MP3s at the same time, had a camera too. Granted, that junk was sold separately.
@Deneteus
November 4, 2024 at 12:54 am
Why didn’t you just moisten the reagent? It would have dried out but it should have been salvageable.
@lllllREDACTEDlllll
November 4, 2024 at 4:24 am
All of that analog goodness and he’s using digital night vision… Intensifier tubes are one of the greatest pieces of analog space magic ever invented.
@Derpy1969
November 4, 2024 at 4:55 am
Well, you tried. And the morale of the story is… never try.
@420HBKHHHDX8
November 4, 2024 at 1:09 pm
You and Doc have probably no idea how much this video matters. I got a GDR analogue camera for my birthday this year. It worked, the lenses had no scratches, it had a leather case with straps. I went on a journey to just take photos whenever I could. I switch between b/w and coloured film. Every film holds 35 photos right? Exactly 2 photos out of 105 photos were sharp. Everything else had double exposure, was not sharp or too long exposed. I was so freaking sad. But I was also so happy. Because sharp photos are not the goal here and I forgot that. The goal was to take a camera I have no idea to use correctly most of the times and just find stupid stuff to take photos of. And I did. I love my wonky photos. And you made me remind myself of that feeling. I gave up on that camera sind I the last set developed. I bought an adapter for a tripod. But that truly isn’t why I love analogue so much!
Now I got my analogue camera from my parents. Got it as a teenager and had too much fun. Sadly I don’t own any cables anymore and it seems the battery is dead. But if I can get it working again…there is a tiny hope that I can shoot some super analogue looking videos. You know, like your Polaroid killer 💚
@Garedot
November 4, 2024 at 8:57 pm
Polaroid land pack film to come back? Thats great news
@maxpower7150
November 4, 2024 at 8:59 pm
Godamnit, now I want to pay thousand of dollars to go to Frankfurt to eat Hot dog!!!
@JaredReabow
November 4, 2024 at 10:26 pm
48:38 he said not only for …”erotic photography” the subtitles just say photography???
@carlossantiago4845
November 4, 2024 at 11:26 pm
Excellent video, great stories. I love it.
@bigfrankfraser1391
November 5, 2024 at 2:30 am
as my grandmother always told me “perfection is in imperfection”
@leon-lh737flyer5
November 5, 2024 at 3:13 am
Isn’t supersense permanently closed?
@GoldenBlaisdale
November 5, 2024 at 3:29 am
i was a teenager in the late 1970’s and i saw this advertised in the U.K.
I think they must’ve been selling them off. I remember saving to buy it.
I had great fun with it. It did work and seemed very high-tech.
I think I made about nine ‘movies’ with it.
Looking back, the quality was not great and sometimes you could see processing residue on the film when it was playing back.
But at times like Christmas, it would be brought out to Great fanfare and a little movie event ensued.
@TimChuma
November 5, 2024 at 4:13 am
18:29 TRUST YOUR SENSES USE YOUR F-ING BRAIN. I had to pause that to see if it said “F-ING BARN” 😂😂😂😂😂
@ScottGrammer
November 5, 2024 at 8:33 am
What was it Billy Joel’s father said? “Vienna waits for you.”
@kcc2337
November 5, 2024 at 11:27 pm
That left me speechless. Fantastic job producing it. I’m sure you feel honored to have been welcomed and received by Doc the way you were. Too cool!
@zaprodk
November 6, 2024 at 7:03 am
0:08 Scanned? No one scanned film back them. You played it on a projector 🙂
@Otokichi786
November 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm
Aanalog Resurgence looked at Polavision a while back, and actually found a couple of undeveloped Polaroid cassettes and gave it try. The results were as mediocre as they were at the time. Nothing of value was lost, in my opinion, but then, I grew up with Double 8mm Kodachrome movies.;)
@sideburn
November 8, 2024 at 4:12 am
I was buying impossible film years ago for my sx 70. I think they sold the company or tech to the new revised poloroid company.
@danh5637
November 8, 2024 at 5:04 am
lol typical German guy. Very formal and a bit cold until you get on their nerd topic and then they will info dump all over you! He’s fantastic! We must protect him!
@AbdiPianoChannel
November 8, 2024 at 9:44 am
They should of marketed it as a homemade porn production device
@cristibanciu6705
November 9, 2024 at 2:12 am
Wow! This is soo amazing! Thank you very much for that episode!
@Epinardscaramel
November 9, 2024 at 8:39 am
The font cabinet is gorgeous! 😍
@esclomi7
November 9, 2024 at 11:25 am
Excellent video! However, I found it quite unfair to consider the iPhone as the first phone to incorporate a camera and make it portable. Especially coming from a channel that makes a point of showing technologies ahead of their time. The iPhone did not bring any disruptive technology, it just brought a new way of using resources that already existed.
@nndorconnetnz
November 9, 2024 at 4:39 pm
What is analogue from a tech perspective like audio and visual reproduction?
Infinitely variable. Like the sun rise. Digital for example increases things in steps if increasing a volume control via a stepped volume control (a very crude example). Resolution determines how many steps.
A sun rise with analogue shows the sun slowly rising. Digital shows the sun rising in steps like a quarts clock ticking. However the higher the resolution the more steps per second.
Digital can never meet analogue. Like can never meet the speed to light.
@whereiswill81
November 9, 2024 at 6:14 pm
After watching this video in it’s entirety, the final minute is the most fulfilling conclusion, and exactly what your journey deserves. Thank you
@Couvrs
November 10, 2024 at 4:13 am
this is one of the craziest video i have ever seen. It deserve 20M views
@whtiequillBj
November 10, 2024 at 5:43 am
Analog is physicality
@Saavik256
November 11, 2024 at 4:38 am
I had no idea about this place in Vienna! Now I have another place to visit the next time I go there! 🙂
@Lethgar_Smith
November 11, 2024 at 7:24 am
Use of the word “video” to describe motion picture film is annoying.
It’s like calling a book a movie.
@TinovanderZwan-t5f
November 11, 2024 at 12:19 pm
Try to find a 9 inch Recordon paper magnetic disc that actually works on the Recordon magnetic disc player… 10 years later still no luck.
It does however work with 8-inch floppy discs if you remove the disc from the cassette and tape it on the center groove tracker disc but it isn’t the same as the real deal…
@reggiep75
November 11, 2024 at 8:55 pm
Film photography and cassettes are back on the rise. People want old concepts to witness and interact with them as digital is too clinical.
@justlikeswimming5988
November 11, 2024 at 9:04 pm
Love, love, love this! So sorry the polavision didn’t work – long live polaroid!
@southbendkid
November 12, 2024 at 12:23 am
I never understood Polaroid. Instant, sure but every “advancement” and new product came with a reduction in image quality.
@noahmead4652
November 12, 2024 at 3:21 am
What a beautiful video
@MrPaultheguitar
November 12, 2024 at 10:04 am
Love Super 8 it would be great to get instant develop Super 8 film perhaps the time is rightnow
@MasticinaAkicta
November 12, 2024 at 6:49 pm
Shame that you failed, still a great story and yes, analogue fotography with chemicals is something else. Even if the results are EASILY overtaken by digital.
But yeah there is something about chemically created images. It isn’t easy…. and the work makes it more interresting.
@culturebreath369
November 13, 2024 at 12:48 am
This was absolutely amazing. 😮❤
@Absbor
November 13, 2024 at 6:00 am
this video is fire
@magicphred
November 13, 2024 at 2:43 pm
I was wit you until he got to the selling ocean garbage part. Lame
@rodneykingston6420
November 13, 2024 at 7:59 pm
Wow! Back in the early ’90s, I saw one of these players in a thrift shop in Brighton, MA. It had a film cassette inside it and it worked! Some family’s vacation film. And I knew what it was because I remembered when they were introduced. When I was a kid, my best friend’s family was the family on the block to be FIRST to get everything: first microwave oven (I’m that old!), and the first VCR – that was a big thing! and almost as soon as the VCR was introduced, there were video cams that connected to a VCR by wire, – cameras that could hold a tape, or a mini-tape didn’t come until the ’80s, I think, and I was at my friend’s house and a commercial for this polavision system came on TV and I remarked “that thing is going to flop. It has none of the advantages of videotape.” and my friend’s dad said “You’re absolutely right Rodney!” – and I was only about 12 at the time, so If a 12 y.o. could see the writing on the wall…
@martifingers
November 14, 2024 at 6:11 pm
Fine video. Once again the message is “only connect”.
The Polavision product was indeed pretty daft. Not only was cine a niche area (and Polavision’s cost wasn’t going to change that) but even in principle it was fatally flawed. “Instantly” accessible still images have some application but film is made up of different takes. There was never any access to those takes as the film as made (unlike with video) – you had to wait for the whole film to be shot. The lack of editing or sound, the low sensitivity and resolution etc. would have been obvious red flags for any rational product developer. It seems that Land just allowed hubris to take over.
@raccoon874
November 14, 2024 at 11:19 pm
*”teach me how to dance this” Zorba-vibed me*
@Malkovith2
November 15, 2024 at 10:53 am
I came here to see some cool camera, not to fall in love with the story of Florian Kaps
@Malkovith2
November 15, 2024 at 11:38 am
What a great documentary
@briannielsen727
November 15, 2024 at 1:41 pm
Absolutely brilliant video. In my head I at one point heard “My name is Florian Kaps, but everybody calls me Doc”…
@risenone7189
November 15, 2024 at 9:48 pm
its sucks
@u2b83
November 16, 2024 at 11:48 am
I never realized you can play master cuts, that’s pretty cool!
From liner notes and vintage ebay auctions I also noticed that a lot of masters were done on real-to-real at the time.
@lorenzo42p
November 17, 2024 at 2:22 pm
forgot the lens cap
@themeantuber
November 19, 2024 at 7:37 am
…and we love Alf 😊
@itsnotfunanymore
November 19, 2024 at 5:56 pm
I remember the smell. There was a wiper in a tube that you had to wipe over the Polaroid picture to “cure?” it.
@randomaztec2208
November 20, 2024 at 2:56 pm
That was epic ..
@MrGamemaker8
November 20, 2024 at 9:44 pm
That was the worst opening three seconds I’ve ever seen for a video and I hope your channel goes to zero.
@thi7259
November 22, 2024 at 9:33 pm
Il faut absolument sauver nos souvenirs photos, film et vidéo magnétique. Si rien n’est fait notre passé, notre présent et notre futur disparaîtront comme la photo de Marty dans “retour faire le futur”. Et chaque fois recommencer à sauver en fonction des nouvelles technologies des supports et de diffusion. J’espère que les videos de cette chaine YouTube le resteront aussi.
@HarderJoe
November 24, 2024 at 12:56 pm
What a cool gift at the end!
@Dan_KM8DAD
November 24, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Polavision in 1967? Buy some Polaroid stock.
Polavision in 1977? Sell your Polaroid stock.
Sometimes the difference between boom or bust is one decade.
@I_am_a_cat_
November 26, 2024 at 9:43 am
Ill be honest, I’ve never really liked the way you talk for some reason, but these videos are great. I see and appreciate the work you’ve done. Thanks for the knowledge.
Also its Twitter, not x. X is beyond dumb
@prowlermadmax2
November 27, 2024 at 2:42 am
Awesome, great documentary on the analog revolution
@michealwestfall8544
November 27, 2024 at 9:18 am
Libraries should keep old tech to rent out for the curious ones.
@nickbrown9895
November 28, 2024 at 5:05 am
Fucking Awesome Dude!
Loved that video, loving your work!😊
@nickinportland
November 28, 2024 at 10:57 am
29:36 if you got old weird film I usually have them hand inspect it anyways. They say unless it’s high ISO the machine won’t hurt it but I’ve had expired film go funky before.
@WellBeSerious12
November 28, 2024 at 1:13 pm
Fuck TSA. I still won’t forgive them for taking my supply of rare drinks.
@DeLorean4
November 28, 2024 at 9:46 pm
Popular Science, you don’t need to snap zoom every 1.5 seconds when the narrator is on screen. It’s so irritating.
@anatolbaskak
November 30, 2024 at 5:17 am
13:34 i just hope unitra mf-105 is not regarded high end…
@anatolbaskak
November 30, 2024 at 6:24 am
19:56 or this kind of cassettes…
@coffeezombie6032
November 30, 2024 at 1:18 pm
Wonderful video
@hed1fsu
December 2, 2024 at 7:03 pm
Hahahaha thats not what killed polaroid. My grandma singlehandedly kept them in business at least until ’93. Cheap, easy print developing everywhere and the ability to print clear, borderless 4×6, 5×7, etc.. won out. If anything it was the rise of faster developers. Weird way to put it tho. Guess sensationalism really can be anywhere. But a sci channel? 😐
@RaquelFoster
December 3, 2024 at 8:40 am
If this guy would take a xanax I would really enjoy the technical stuff in these videos.
@deucedeuce1572
December 4, 2024 at 1:11 pm
Man, what a great guy for saving that factory. I hope he knows he is appreciated.
@MsNIKITA
December 4, 2024 at 7:04 pm
What an absolutely awesome video. Thank you for making this and sharing it with us.. I’m truly fascinated with this retro tech about photography and videography.
@loficutoff
December 5, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Such a good film and massive effort👏👏👏👏 loved watching it.
I was wondering if you could shoot the tape then soak it in fresh chemicals to make it work ?
@dylanwillyams
December 5, 2024 at 5:00 pm
digital is the germs of today. some people believe since you cant see it, it cant exist physically.
@ethanstoltzman8421
December 6, 2024 at 12:30 am
Michael sent me
@FrerF
December 7, 2024 at 2:22 am
clean ya sensor
@tomgalt1182
December 7, 2024 at 7:09 am
This guy repeatedly calls the roll of Polavision film “a tape”!! It’s Super 8 film, which is not a tape!
It’s film, and it doesn’t create a “video “! I can’t watch it anymore.
@donkeypoo99
December 8, 2024 at 8:40 am
I don’t think Super 8 was developed AND scanned back in the day. It was just developed, and the film was played on a projector
@austinbaker17
December 8, 2024 at 10:35 pm
After all of your time and hard work, when the only exposed tape came up blank, I had tears. To have such passion and dedication end without satisfaction of a successful Polavision video, I would have been devastated. I knew nothing about this tech when I sat down to watch, and by the end of it I had a version of me, 20 years before I existed, wanting to use this tech to capture my childhood. Thanks for your continued hard work educating us on old tech that is all but forgotten.
@edryba4867
December 12, 2024 at 12:06 am
Tom Scholz of “Boston” fame was fired by Polaroid when they couldn’t get sound to work on the Polavision system. So Scholz decided to make a rock album instead. You may have heard of it. It’s called “Boston”
@AlfredsVisions
December 12, 2024 at 7:04 pm
ANALOG RULES! Super 8 is what I used until the end of the 1990s. I was reluctant to move into video. I didn’t like the look at the time. I’m so glad. I recently bought a Super 8 transfer system and the images look great. In the 2000s I was teaching and we used Super 8 black and white film and wind-up cameras – Kinoflex. Students loved it. I love this video and the importance and beauty of analog. Recently I will use Ai for photos and then print them up on paper and then distress them with scratches and bent creases and other markings to give them more of an analog look.
@2drx4
December 13, 2024 at 12:58 pm
This whole story was amazing. Hopefully some day there is a part two, where you manage to get some working film.
@DrennonKeller
December 14, 2024 at 2:45 pm
Someone like myself who appreciates vintage products of all kinds, I really appreciate your mind, heart and soul into allowing us to see true experience and love of preservation
@Dsschuh
December 15, 2024 at 6:45 pm
I teared up at the end when they took that large format Polaroid picture of you.