Polaroid Type I - 2010 - US
Normal - EQ: 120μs
Polaroid's Type II 70μs 2010 and 2013 choices are suspected of having used BASF Super Chrome tape, probably from some of the NAC inventory, much like Audio Pro Line of tapes NAC produced. These Polaroid Type I cassettes have very smooth, shiny and dark tape, denoting Polaroid's choice of having applied very decent or even high quality tape on them. Is it also a BASF Type I tape formulation? It's very hard to say, but "the truth is out there". If you happen to know more about these Polaroid tapes, please let us know and we will share your information here for everyone's benefit. Thank you.
Collector's Note: These tapes came "unsealed" from Polaroid, but we have sealed them using a 75mm professional grade PVC heat-shrink clear film to keep dust and other elements from reaching the cassette, as well as protecting the case from unnecessary scratches.
Note 1: 90 Minutes: There are only a few of these available. they have been extremely hard to come by. It appears they are even harder to find than the Type II cassettes.
About Polaroid:
Polaroid, founded in 1937, built its global reputation on instant photography and accessible consumer tech.
Polaroid’s brief cassette experiment appears to have come during the 2010 licensing boom, when the brand name was applied to small‑batch consumer products assembled in the U.S. What makes these tapes interesting isn’t the shells or packaging — both were generic — but the tape inside. Evidence from multiple tear-down samples suggests the Type II runs were loaded with genuine BASF‑formula chrome, almost certainly drawn from the final pancake inventories held by NTR, the last American facility still coating magnetic tape then, and still going strong today.
That makes Polaroid’s chrome issues an accidental time capsule: a licensed product carrying some of the last true‑chrome stock ever sold at retail. For collectors, they’re a quirky reminder of how the end of the tape‑manufacturing era produced unexpected hybrids — brand‑name shells wrapped around legacy European chemistry.