Hands on with the Polaroid Instant Digital Camera
Fri Jan 9, 2009 6:36PM EST
See Comments (73)
Desperate to try to replace the instant-developing film that made it famous with something for the digital age, Polaroid has finally launched a camera that snaps digital pics and gives you a printout within about a minute.The Polaroid Instant Digital Camera is as big as its name (weighing 10 oz.), a clear first-generation product that will appeal to relatively few buyers, due to the generally poor quality of the prints.
The camera itself is a five megapixel model with a fixed focus lens (digital zoom only), and quality is about what you'd expect from something with such low-end specs. The focus here, of course, is fun, on-the-fly pictures, with a feature that lets you add goofy borders to your shots before you print them out.
Once they slide out of the printer slot (paper runs $4.99 for a 10-pack), picture quality is decidedly grim. The sample shot taken of me (at right) makes me look like Casper the Ghost (hey, even I'm not that pasty), and the color reproduction is dismal. It's probably fine if you're shooting pics as souvenirs for your four-year-old's birthday party, but anyone thinking they'll replace their standard digicam with this is going to be sorely disappointed.
The good news: The camera itself is only $199.
Here's hoping for a 2nd generation product that improves the quality!
Comments on Hands on with the Polaroid Instant Digital Camera
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2 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
I guess the fact that you took the picture of the picture with the flash activated only enhanced the problem...?
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3 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
somebodys_here - it was really dark in their booth, couldn't be helped... the real pic doesn't look a lot better...
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4 Posted by doep_d on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:46PM EDT Report Abuse
good thing to see pic so soon work for me
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5 Posted by sharon_0730 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Just bring back instant film to the polaroid camera people still have.
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6 Posted by irwingood on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse
Only$199! For such poor results, that price is exorbidant!
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7 Posted by mmmorganlady on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:24PM EDT Report Abuse
Maybe the setting could be changed, just looked up the owners manual and it looks like a whole lot of changes could be made, such as manual white exposure, vivid, natural, and on and on. could probably be a good camera with a little extra research into the manual settings.
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8 Posted by whleigh8@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:45PM EDT Report Abuse
for 199.00 you should get a very good picture the old cameras did a very good job i dont see any reasone to change if they had to go digital they should hvave made sure it was as good as the old camera
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9 Posted by jedimaster_gary on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:31PM EDT Report Abuse
the idea seems kinda useless to me. I take a picture on my 100 dollar camera and without a computer my 75 dollar printer can spit it out. I use the pc as well and i can do sccrapbook pages, any size print I want, plus i can use computer memory to enable more detail. My cheap printer can only do 200 dpi but that blows that little peice of junk away. I love digital photography but if you want prints why not wait til you get home. If your friend wants it too thats what email is for.
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10 Posted by trackhub2006 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Edwin Land is probably spinning in his grave. When you think about what this once fine company could have accomplished with digital photography,,,
1 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
I guess the fact that you took the picture of the picture with the flash activated only enhanced the problem...?