Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/17/the-new-barbie-polaroid-camera.html
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Ever since my cat murdered my SLR-680, I’ve had a bunch of 600 film moldering on a shelf somewhere. I should get a new camera.
It’s kind of like how the cheapo plastic Joycam was the best Polaroid camera in the nineties; the technology just makes a lot more sense with the disposable esthetic.
Polaroid cameras are just such a weird, isolated island of material culture (which is why The Man Who Fell To Earth portrays them as literally from another planet). Everyone finds the idea magical, but everyone also knows it’s a completely pointless technology even compared to other film cameras, which are themselves 99.9% obsolete. A $200 polaroid camera seems kind of gross and decadent, but as a cheap toy it makes perfect sense. Plus, all the technology is in the film anyway, and the cameras have always been garbage. I mean, the SX-70 is impressive in how it solves various problems, but it also causes those problems by being a Land camera in the first place.
ETA I somehow just noticed that this is $150, which, pff, and also it uses refurbished original parts (!) which is bananas foster. Again, the camera is not the clever part.
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My problem with the rebrith of most integral instant film is the poor color quality…that washed out look is from what you find from SX70 pictures that have been sitting in the attic in a shoebox for 40 years, it wasn’t how they looked originally.
Also…and hopefully they’ve gotten the formula adjusted by now. BW pictures taken with the new SX70 film 3 years ago have now faded into ghostly shadows, They were stored at room temp and framed…it was interesting to see them go, but disappearing ink isn’t what I look for in a film.
Now the peel apart FUJI (now discontinued) was FANTASTIC.
Also, the intrigral full sized fuji "Wide’ product (Instax) also has great color and permanence.
And the camera is nice…but large, which is to be expected. Much better than those ‘funsized’ prints and cameras.
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If one really wanted they could customize it by repainting/refinishing the plastic exterior to the Barbie Polaroid camera, sounds like it’d be worth getting regardless.
Now excuse me while I try to find one of these things for less than $150.
Thanks to your post, the price has gone up.
ALL Polaroid 600-type cameras are pretty damn wonderful. Comparing instant film, whether it’s Polaroid or Instax to other methods of recording light is pointless. It’s like saying spaghetti is pointless when compared to pizza or gummy bears.
Describing the vintage Polaroid cameras as “garbage” is ridiculous. Please point to some non-garbage technology that was produced so inexpensively yet is so incredibly robust. There are few examples. I have several 600-type cameras that are 30+ years old and they work as well as the day they came out of the box.
Finally, Polaroid film (and maybe ANY kind of physical film) is the sort of thing that doesn’t require explanation. You either get it or you don’t. And if you don’t get it… your opinions are irrelevant.
Good day to you, sirs!
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