Polaroid Now
Instant simplicity. Squared.
It took the best part of a decade, but what began as the Impossible Project has managed to bring Polaroid back from the brink. Previously Polaroid Originals, the brand now owns the rights to the name – and the Polaroid Now is its first new instant effort.
An evolution of the fixed-focus Onestep 2, the Now is the first camera in the range with an autofocus lens. It’s meant to take some of the guesswork out of shooting on instant, helping photographers avoid blurry images that waste expensive film.
Purpose-built for fun, spur of the moment snaps, it should appeal most to the instagram generation, anyone with a creative eye, and those looking to liven up parties or wedding receptions.
Each pack of Polaroid’s bespoke I-Type film includes eight 4.2 x 3.5-inch shots, which have a 3.1-inch square image area. Both color and black and white film packs are available, for around $32 each, although you can buy multipacks at a slight discount.
This makes them more expensive than rival Fuji’s Instax Square format film, but Polaroid’s prints are physically larger.
Everything is more streamlined, with a more ergonomic viewfinder, relocated microUSB port for easier charging, and a digital shot counter that clearly shows how many prints you have left. It’s more legible than the previous model’s vague series of
LED lights.
Framing your subject with the viewfinder can be tricky, as what you see isn’t exactly what the camera lens captures. What appears to fit within the frame may end up cut off once your print develops. This is a fairly common instant camera trait, though, and for the most part placing your subject in the centre of the frame guarantees a clear shot.
Turn the camera on and the flash activates automatically. You’ll only want to turn it off in brightly lit, outdoor scenes, as it’s needed to even out exposures everywhere else. An LED makes it clear when the flash is enabled, so there’s little chance of forgetting.
The photo gets spat out of the front of the camera almost instantly, and then takes between ten and fifteen minutes to fully develop.
Every I-Type print produces muted colours and soft details, while shadows and darker elements of any particular scene tend to dominate. Sometimes unexpected colours appear in your shots, giving parts of blue skies a soft purple hue. It’s exactly the look we’d expect from instant film, with light sometimes creeping into the edges of your shots for a truly analogue style.
A range of improvements make Polaroid’s updated instant camera even easier to use, and take a lot of the guesswork out of shooting on instant film, even if exposures can still be inconsistent. Tom Morgan
Everything is more streamlined, with a more ergonomic viewfinder, relocated microUSB port for easier charging, and a digital shot counter that clearly shows how many prints you have left.