Polaroid Presto1989

History

By 1989, Polaroid's 600-series had been the backbone of its consumer instant business for nearly a decade. The 600 film platform, introduced in 1981 with the OneStep Express, offered higher ISO emulsion than the earlier SX-70 format, allowing the fixed small-aperture lenses typical of affordable plastic cameras to render usable exposures in a wider range of lighting conditions. Through the 1980s, Polaroid populated the 600 system with a large family of cameras differentiated primarily by body shape, colour options, and minor feature variations rather than optical or mechanical differences.

The Presto entered this crowded space as a value-positioned model alongside contemporary cameras like the Impulse and Cool Cam. Its design reflected the era's consumer electronics aesthetic - smooth plastic curves, integrated flash housing, bold name typography on the body. There was no rangefinder, no sonar autofocus, and no provision for a close-up lens; the Presto was designed for the typical household use case of group photos at social events and outdoor snapshots.

Production appears to have run into the early 1990s before the model was replaced by successors in the 600 line-up. The Polaroid brand changed ownership multiple times after the company's 2001 bankruptcy, and the 600-series camera line was eventually carried forward by The Impossible Project (later rebranded Polaroid Originals, then Polaroid) with new camera designs. The original Presto is a product of the last years of the original Polaroid Corporation's active consumer camera development.

Why It Matters

The Presto is not historically significant in isolation; it is significant as one of dozens of interchangeable 600-series cameras that collectively defined consumer instant photography through the 1980s. The 600 platform's dominance in that decade - and the sheer volume of cameras produced - created the large installed base that allowed The Impossible Project to revive instant film in 2010 using the 600 format as its primary target.

For contemporary users, the Presto represents the accessible floor of 600-format shooting. Working specimens are common and cheap; current Polaroid 600-type film is readily available from the revived Polaroid brand. The camera's limitations are real - zone focus at close range produces noticeably soft results, and the simple lens lacks the rendering character of the SX-70's glass - but for casual social photography, the Presto performs its intended function adequately.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• The Presto and its 600-series contemporaries were mass-market products; documented use by named photographers is scarce. They appear in the background of countless home photographs of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• The broad 600 platform sustained the work of photographers like Chuck Close, who used Polaroid's large-format instant systems but worked within an institution whose consumer line included cameras like the Presto. The consumer and professional Polaroid ecosystems coexisted through the same period.
• Contemporary instant film communities on platforms such as Flickr and Instagram have used 600-series cameras including the Presto as accessible entry points, creating a secondary body of photographic work with the format since 2010.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Polaroid 600 series - 600 platform overview and camera identification.
• Wikipedia: Polaroid 600 - film format history and 600-series context.
• Christopher Bonanos, Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012) - company history through the 1980s consumer expansion and eventual bankruptcy.