PHOTOGRAPHY: Say Bug

Camera dealers in Florida have been getting orders for the past few weeks from customers as far away as Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and New York City. Orders are pouring in because Florida is the only state where Polaroid’s new, breastpocket-sized SX-70 models (TIME Cover, June 26) will be sold until next year, and camera buffs are rushing to buy it. Indeed, Polaroid itself has thousands of unsolicited orders from photographers around the U.S. Though the buyers are willing to make the $180 camera one of the hottestChristmas items in years, Polaroid and its dealers will not earn much on it. Reason: there are not yet many SX-70s to sell.

Edwin Land’s invention has developed a few production bugs. Unperturbed, Land insists that “none of the revolutionary components in the camera is failing in any way,” and company officials explain the troubles as delays in receiving some parts from vendors and other fairly minor problems. Polaroid men have engaged no less a light than British Actor Laurence Olivier to promote the SX-70 in ads. Still, Polaroid has delayed nationwide introduction of the SX-70 for several months, and high-capacity production might not be achieved until Easter or later. As a result Polaroid’s always-bouncy stock has been particularly erratic. In June, when an early marketing of the SX-70 was still expected, it rose as high as 140, only to sink to 107¼ in September, when the delay was announced. Last week it closed at 121¼, up 8⅛.

Polaroid’s big boost came from, of all sources, Eastman Kodak. The giant of Rochester announced that it no longer intends to cut into Polaroid’s highly profitable film sales by bringing out its own instant film for old-style Polaroid cameras—presumably because Kodak officials are convinced that the new SX-70 will quickly take over the instant market. Instead Kodak will concentrate on producing an entire camera-and-film system comparable to Polaroid’s new product, a project likely to take at least a couple of years. As for its own new cameras, the pocket Instamatics, Kodak is also having production delays. In an unusual series of ads, the company warned buyers that the camera has proved so successful (an estimated two million sold since March) that it will be in short supply at Christmas.