Thread: Vintage Camera Unboxing 1967

Trying to send a message out that sometimes the good things which stand the test of time are from the distant past. Difficult message to send to those addicted to the throw away digital life we now lead.



Have I delivered a message to the young folk of today?
Do you remember the times when you saw "Made in the United Kingdom" on a camera, or anything!

When I started to watch this I thought you were going to blow it up BUT by the end I found you made a nice video with some very if not salient but pertinent points especially about upgrading technology not always being better. I'm not saying that this Polaroid camera is better than my modern Nikon but there are examples of this. The original Sony Walkman portable audio cassette player was brilliant but as I remember everything that came out after it was somehow just not as good. OR the Zoom H4 is not as good as the H2, luckily they brought out the H4n which is fab.

I remember as a kid we had the colour version of this camera when it came out, happy days.

Nice film, Leo. It started at a real rocketting pace and kept that up - to the extent that I have to admit I found myself rather breathless after a while.

I can see your reasons for reading te descriptive blurb about the camera, but I found my attention wandering at that point. I't might (and only might) work better if you split the text up into smaller chunks and distributed it across the video, like mini ads, but then again this would lose the "unboxing" quality of the video.

But that's relatively minor - I thought it was very well put together, with exactly the right shots for the commentary, held for exactly the right amount of time with the right amount of variety. It kept my interest throughout (with the exception noted above) by having something new to say in each sentence.

The film shows that with a bit of planning and a bit of thought it is possibleto make a watchable unboxing video.

I liked everything except the opening statement "I always wanted to make an unboxing video" which made me want to tear my hair out!

Is there anybody who grew up in the 60s whose family didn't have a Polaroid? Does anybody remember what kind of film those things took? I believe it was the next step up from 110 but I may be wrong. The worst thing about them was trying to use them in cold weather or at night. The photos barely developed at all under those conditions and took forever to do so. We used to snap a photo in the winter and then, after it came out of the camera, put in it a shirt pocket to keep it warm so it would develope faster (and better). I guess everyone did this, no?

You know, I'm from a family of cops, and police still use Polaroids all the time at crime scenes to get an instant snapshot that can be passed around and viewed by witnesses of crimes and so forth.

Before I made the video i did a bit of research into the history of the camera, and the very clever person named Edwin H. Land who was the brain behind the technology. This person had done some pretty serious military work related to optics and like any design classic there is always a master behind the scenes. I also read Kodak landed in some serious trouble by mimicking the technology.

Thanks Tim. I almost put the passage as a throw away right at the end after the last title, I always felt it was a huge slice to have in what is a fast paced video. For me it was too good to dump as I feel that passage tells us far more about the time than the old photos and camera.

Tricky to pull off interest in something which is just a old camera, there are so many about but few videos about them.

Hello Swoopie.

The start to the video was my anti-unboxing line, I can't stand them and don't understand the popularity of the modern unboxing videos which flood the tube! Dare say the sarcasm did not work, those who know me from these boards will know this is not the sort of video I usually produce.

Sure this camera was in just about every house, and they barely fetch $1 on e-bay. But very few people have pulled a video about the camera, dare say it's the start of the throw away society we now all swim in.

As I work in the film industry Polaroids were extensively used by many departments ( makeup, wardrobe, continuity and even the DOP) until a time when the film became too difficult to find. The digital camera now does this job but the Polaroid was perfect for this job.

I remember at school you could do a trick with the photos as they developed by pushing a wooden stick around the developing photo, adding swirls and blurs. Tricky to pull off as you were basically working on a blank grey canvas.

The attraction to unboxing videos for me is, if I'm thinking of buying the product, it's another viewpoint from marketing speak from the manufacture and on line reviews. They are only useful if the person makes a real effort with the video and not just "Wow look what I got".

Midnight Blue, sadly and i know this for a youtube fact many of the unboxing videos around are basically ( free item ) or paid placement. This is the dark side of the online video environment. I am always suspicions when I see a product review or unboxing review which is just all sugar coated.

How can you give a review of something as soon as it jumps out of a box?

I know a very large US company handed out their version of a smart phone to highly connected video producers, deal was to put up review videos and keep the phone as a gift. From the few I saw on the item only one video producer decided to take the video into the negative aspects of the device. Funny thing was then that video literally sunk on the networks and to this day remains dead. The positive reviews all went semi viral.

I had to laugh, basically trust no one as we swim in an environment which is literally powered by advertising. Thats the sad fact about the so called popular stuff these days.

Now I feel all used and empty inside.