Photography equipment: Is Polaroid’s 300 Going to Bring Back Instant Photos?

 1 May 2010 - By Omar Mariño+
 omar@myddnetwork.com


Has the attention span of the human race become so short that they’ve forgotten why they stopped buying Polaroid instant cameras and switched to digital way back in 2008?  The company is hoping so else its release of the Polaroid 300 instant camera next month (May 7th) will be a bit of a disappointment.

The camera itself isn’t even really a Polaroid, it’s a Fujifilm Instax Mini7 with a flashy new Polaroid logo and color scheme.  (you can see the similarities in the photos below.)  So what does that mean?  You get a camera that takes a picture of whatever it’s pointed at.  No flashy zoom, no digital preview, no digital viewfinder.  Essentially it’s a throwback to the seventies except the pictures you get out of it are about the size of a credit card.

Polaroid 300

The Polaroid 300 instant camera

Fujifilm Instax Mini7

Fujifilm Instax Mini7

There is a LED that indicates whether there’ enough light present to take an acceptable photo but that’s the only high-tech assist instant photographers will be getting.  Because the technology is so dated, the finished products come out looking old.  Indeed, the test shots Engadget posted from UK users of with Polaroid’s “Impossible Project” film look like something you might expect to find in an old dusty trunk in the attic.

However, for folks who want instant photography in-hand and don’t need a multi-megapixel machine or fancy bells and whistles this camera might appeal to them.  Unfortunately, the price tag on the machine itself is going to be around $90 US which is extremely high considering what you get for it (the Fujifilm camera the Polaroid 300 is modeled after only costs about $60 US) and the film for the camera is going to run $20 or better for just 10 photos.

If photographers have forgotten why they made the switch to digital, Polaroid’s newest experiment might just remind them why.




2 Responses to “Photography equipment: Is Polaroid’s 300 Going to Bring Back Instant Photos?”
polaroid instant camera says:
May 13th, 2010 at 2:39 am

polaroid instant camera send you join new world ^^

Gerald Mabika says:
September 6th, 2010 at 3:15 am

Am looking for Camera & portable printer that can do many instant photographs of various sizes. Kindly supply names, prices & availability for shipping to Zimbabwe. Urgent please



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