Kodak Instant Handle 2 (E22), 1979 - 1981

"From 9th January 1986 all Kodak instant cameras and films were withdrawn from the market, users being offered various forms of compensation...the withdrawn cameras were destroyed..."

Kodak manufactured Polaroid's instant film products from 1963 to 1969. Polaroid decided to manufacture its own. Since Kodak has a lot of experience manufacturing Polaroid's film the original plan was to create packfilm type instant products. There were many prototypes and test runs of the film with many private demonstrations to their board. Plans changed when Polaroid in 1972 released the integral type film with the introduction of the SX-70 system. Kodak decided to scrap the plans for packfilm release and focus on an integral type process. Kodak continued to use highly modified versions of Polaroid packfilm cameras as prototypes to test their integral products.

A few years later Kodak introduced its own instant film products in 1976, which was different from Polaroid's in several ways. Kodak instant film was exposed from the back without a mirror, the opposite of Polaroid's film which was exposed from the front with a mirror to reverse the image. This has several advantages; first the instant film is much less complicated compared to Polaroids which has the front layer that has to be transparent during exposure, opaque after the chemical spread and transparent after a development time. Kodak's method uses the chemical reagent as a light shield during development. The instant film in this process is capable of higher resolution compared to Polaroid's system since light does not have to travel as many layers to reach the negative. Other advantages include being able to use a matte finish on the face of the photo. The release of the higher ISO Trimprint series of instant products in the early 1980 also made it easy to remove the instant photo from the development pod. Without a mirror the camera are not as complex and less expensive to produce. The film path being much simpler also allow the use of a simple mechanical crank to spread and eject the film print instead of a electronic motorized unit in Polaroids.

On the other side of the pacific, Fujifilm also wanted an instant photo system. Though not identical, it was primary based on Kodak's instant film technology. For more see Fujifilm instant photography.

Unlike Polaroids integral film packs, Kodak's did not contain a battery, along with conventional batteries, the use of a flat J sized 4LR61 batteries were also common in the cameras. This decision was made because it would cost less per pack and because Polaroid had a long history of technical problems with batteries in film packs which led to them manufacturing their own.

Upon introduction of Kodak instant products, Polaroid filed suit against Kodak in 1976 for patent infringement. The case dragged on for years. Kodak lost the dispute, after the ruling in 1985, Kodak announced the discontinuation of their instant photo products.