Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)

The SX-70 was a thing of beauty. Just point, shoot, and watch the image develop before your eyes. When you're done, fold up the 7-by-4-inch unit and stick it in your bag. It was the first Polaroid to automatically eject the snapshot and produce images, without making you wait 60 seconds and peel off the outer wrapper of the film. The SX-70 combined simplicity with immediacy, making it the direct forebear of today's low-end digital cameras. More than 30 years later, its design still turns heads, and some fans still use it. PCW photo by Rick Rizner; camera courtesy of Adolph Gasser Photography, San Francisco.