Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Polaroid Camera for the Digital Age: the Polaroid Pogo

The first Polaroid Land camera came out in 1948. For the first time in photography, the photographer could see his/her photos only a minute after taking them. Color Polaroid film was introduced in the 1960s. The general public bought up Polaroid cameras like hot cakes and professional photographers used Polaroid film and film backs to take test shots before using their regular negative or slide film to capture the final image/s.

By the the late 1990s, digital photography was beginning to take off and started to cut into the Polaroid market. After Polaroid's recent announcement that they will stop making Polaroid film at the end of this year (2009), it seemed that Polaroid's run as a special player in the photography market was finally over.

But digital photography only replicated one feature of the "Polaroid experience": the instant viewing of a photo just taken. What about the instant *print* feature? Sure, you can connect a digital camera to a printer and get a print reasonably easy; but you still need another piece of equipment to make the print possible.

Apparently Polaroid finally realized the initial inspiration for the Polaroid Land Camera still had some mileage to give them. So they've come up with the new Polaroid Pogo which is a digital camera with a mini printer build into it! You can print a nifty 2"x3" print right in the camera and hand it to your friends and family to "ooh and ah" over. The camera has a 3.0" LCD on the back; so unlike the original Polaroid film camera, you can sort through the images and only print the ones you like. It'll be available this June (2009).

I don't how much it's going to cost or how good the images or prints will be, but I have to say they've done it again! They come up with a product that rekindles the original Polaroid magic and I, for one, would like to take a look at one once they become available...:-).

Michael Grace-Martin is a professional wedding, portrait, event, stock, and fine art photographer based in Upstate New York. He is also the author of this blog. All images and text are (c) Michael Grace-Martin Photography. His main website is: http://www.mgm-photography.com/.

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