Instant Battle: Kodak v. Polaroid

After years of doing battle in separate though similar technological arenas, the two titans of the U.S. photography market finally meet in the same ring this week. Eastman Kodak Co., which fathered the snapshot almost a century ago, will show off to the press its new line of instant-picture cameras, thus offering Polaroid Corp. its first serious competition* since Edwin Land brought out the Polaroid Land Camera nearly three decades ago and ushered in the instant-photography era.

The contest between giant Kodak (1975 sales: $5 billion) and smaller, but well-entrenched Polaroid ('75 sales: $812.7 million), both with large marketing organizations and big ad budgets, promises to turn into one of the flashiest tussles ever. Polaroid chose Oscar night last month to introduce its Pronto instant-picture camera before a television audience of millions; it backed up that campaign with an advertising blitz in national magazines. Kodak has the same eye for glamour. Capitalizing on the Bicentennial, it will begin national marketing of its new cameras on July 4, although some cameras will be sold before that.

Hidden Children. As is usually the case when it is on the verge of unveiling a new product, Kodak is supersecretive about its cameras. The company's 1975 annual report has two photos of playing children taken by the new process, but the pictures are half-hidden and show only good color reproduction and a rectangular shape (Polaroid's SX-70 system produces square images).

From sources inside and outside the company, this description emerges: Kodak will introduce at least two cameras, one priced at about $40, the other possibly ranging up to $180, v. Polaroid's range on its SX-70-type models of from $66 to $179. Both cameras will, like the SX-70, eject a card that in a few minutes turns into a color photo before the viewer's eyes.

Kodak's is a dry-to-the-touch, litter-free process, unlike earlier "wet" Polaroid systems that produced sticky prints after sensitized paper was peeled off and discarded. The cheaper Kodak model will probably use a thumb-operated lever to set the camera for each new picture. A battery will power the more costly version, but it will be installed in the camera, not in the film pack, as is the case with the SX-70 system. This will increase film shelf life and avoid all the problems Polaroid had with its early SX-70 film packs, whose batteries were sometimes dead when they were sold to customers.

Easily Duplicated. Perhaps the most important difference is that Kodak's process will probably produce high-quality prints that can be easily duplicated through most corner drugstores. Copies of SX-70 prints can be made, but originals must be mailed to the company for reproduction, a process that takes about a week or longer.

Almost from the moment Land came out with his camera in 1947, there has been speculation that Kodak would sooner or later follow through. Many analysts were convinced the time had come in 1963. Instead, Kodak then brought out its Instamatic line, in the belief that a sizable market still existed for simple, cheap, easily loaded cameras. It was right; film usage by the average amateur more than doubled.

Kodak at first regarded Land's invention as a toy whose high price ($88 initially) and complexity would deter the average snapshooter. But the camera sold well. In the 1960s, when Polaroid's prices dropped dramatically (as little as $20 for a Swinger), Kodak began cracking on its own process. Says David Eisendrath, a photo consultant for TIME and Modern Photography: "Kodak finally realized what Polaroid knew from the start--that there are people who want to take good pictures, and other people who want to see them as fast as possible. The latter group is much larger than the former." If that is so, Kodak v. Polaroid may well turn into a battle that both companies win as both share in an expanding market.

* At least one other company, the Keystone division of New York's Berkey Photo, Inc., markets an instant-picture camera that it manufactures under license from Polaroid.

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