Polaroid’s new camera: Still analog, just less goof-prone

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Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: If you’re taking photographs with a Polaroid camera in the 21st century, it’s not because pristine image quality is your overarching priority. In the digital age, the dreamy imperfection of Polaroid pictures is part of their appeal. They’re never that sharp, and no two come out exactly the same. Even Fujifilm’s Instax cameras—instant photography’s current market-share giant—produce more consistent results.

Still, even people who love Polaroid’s analog soul and tactile immediacy have their limits. Each shot from an eight-photo film pack costs about $2.25, considerably more than Instax shots. That’s less than it did in instant photography’s golden age decades ago, once adjusted for inflation, and you can save by buying multipacks of film. But paying more than two bucks to take a photo is a shock to the wallet—especially given that digital ones are effectively free. So you’d probably like to get the best pictures your Polaroid camera can muster, or at least avoid outright misfires.

That’s the idea behind the company’s newest camera, the Polaroid Flip. At $200, it’s pricier than the diminutive Polaroid Go ($95), entry-level Polaroid Now ($120), and slightly above-entry-level Polaroid Now+ ($140). The additional investment buys you several features designed to improve your odds of getting pleasing shots in a variety of shooting environments. (Meanwhile, the high-end Polaroid I-2, with its fancy lens and manual settings, is aimed at the select group of photographers who crave more artistic control and are willing to spend $450 on an instant camera.)

The “Flip” in the camera’s name references its most obvious new element, a flippable bar that houses the flash and some LED indicators. Relocating the flash let Polaroid increase its size and distance from the lens, both of which can improve photo quality—just as they did back when original Polaroid models such as the Sun 600 sported a similar design. That is particularly critical given that instant photos benefit from turning the flash on in pretty much any environment except bright sunlight.

The Flip upgrades the two lenses used by Polaroid’s cheaper models to a four-lens system capable of sharper results at a wider range of distances. It also has sonar autofocusing, a technology the company first used almost 50 years ago in one of the world’s first autofocus cameras that works equally well regardless of lighting. None of these features transforms the look and feel of the photos you’ll get, but they help eke out better image quality in tough conditions.

Along with helping you take better pictures, the Flip has a new feature that prevents you from taking bad ones. If you try to take a photo of a subject that’s too close or insufficiently lit, a red light displays in the viewfinder. In extreme cases, the shutter button won’t fire at all. Stine Bauer Dahlberg, Polaroid’s chief product officer, reminded me that one of the most famous original Polaroid cameras, 1965’s Swinger, did something similar—though I like its approach even better: If its vetting confirmed you could take a good photo, you saw an affirmative YES in all caps.

Compared to Fujifilm—which offers several hybrid Instax cameras melding digital sensors and film output—Polaroid seems happy, so far, to stick to its traditional roots. The Flip does connect to Polaroid’s smartphone app via Bluetooth, opening up options such as exposure compensation and manual control of aperture and shutter speed. But even if you adjust some of the settings on your phone, the resulting photos are still analog through and through.

Functionally and aesthetically, most 21st-century gadgets bear little resemblance to gear of the 1970s and 1980s, unless they’re going out of their way to embrace a retro vibe. By contrast, a citizen of 1985 transported to 2025 would unhesitatingly identify the Flip as a Polaroid camera. Yet its striking resemblance to the models of yore doesn’t feel like an act of nostalgia. Why mess too much with something that still works? The classic Polaroid design did, and does. Pressing the red shutter button and listening to the whirring as the photo emerges from the slot in front is still a satisfying experience. Take someone’s photo, and they’ll be curious how it turned out in a way that’s less common with smartphone photos. Even a Polaroid camera that’s just sitting on your desk provokes questions and smiles.

My biggest quibbles with the current Polaroid experience are with the film, not the camera. The company still hasn’t quite gotten its quality back to where it was before the old Polaroid’s near-death experience early in this century. Nor do photos develop anywhere near as quickly as the old ones did and Fujifilm Instax ones do today. Keeping up with demand for film packs also seems to tax Polaroid’s production capacity: Earlier this week, the classic white-frame version was out of stock on the company’s website. (It’s back as I write this, and usually seems easy enough to find at retail.) Dahlberg told me Polaroid is still working on film improvements: “There are a couple of things that we’re doing right now that are going to be more visible soon.”

Now, at some point in every article about Polaroid in the 21st century, it has been obligatory to marvel at the fact that instant photography is still a thing and that the company—which went bankrupt twice and once abandoned camera and film production—remains extant. Such wonderment seems less and less essential. After all, it’s been almost two decades since a band of enthusiasts calling themselves the Impossible Project took over the only remaining Polaroid film factory. That last-moment gambit eventually led to it acquiring the Polaroid brand, launching new cameras, and securing shelf space in places such as Best Buy and Target. Fujifilm’s Instax, meanwhile, never stopped booming.

Human beings, it turns out, still like to take instant film photos—including people who weren’t even alive in Polaroid’s heyday. At this point, it’s safe to say the medium isn’t going anywhere. If you want to partake in it, the Flip is one of the best options I’ve seen, and certainly worth the $60 premium over Polaroid’s Now+. It’s available for purchase on the company’s site and will be in stores next month.

You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.

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Polaroid’s new camera: Still analog, just less goof-prone

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