It's practically impossible that you've never heard of Polaroid. It's the brand that brought us instant photography and it's finally arrived at your favourite Street Style shop!
Polaroid was created in 1937 by Edwin Land and was ahead of the market until the 80s thanks to its technological innovation. With the advent of digital photography, the brand's path was shaken and Polaroid declared bankruptcy twice. However, as a sign of resilience, here it is again, with more news than ever. Did you know that one of the brand's bets was to have Lady Gaga as artistic director for four years?
As you might expect, nowadays Polaroid is more focused on aesthetics than on functionality, because the brand sees its cameras as antidotes to digital. You could say that Polaroid has taken advantage of the growing nostalgia market to write a new page in its history. At BZR- Street Style Culture you'll find two Polaroid cameras and two Polaroid printers.
Let's start with the cameras. The Polaroid Go, which you can see in the image above, is the brand's smallest and most portable model. It's practically the size of an apple, like a little creative helper you can carry in your pocket. Despite the small size, this camera has the same features as the regular models: self-timer, double-exposure and controllable flash. Each Polaroid product comes with an instruction manual, but they are extremely easy to handle.
As we told you before, the Polaroid Go has an automatic flash, but you can deactivate it whenever you want. To do so, just press the flash button once. If you press twice, you'll end up in double exposure mode, which as the name suggests, means you'll capture two images in the same shot. You know this mode is active when the rear digital display shows you the number 1. Remember that if you don't want to do the two exposures in a row, you can turn the camera off. When you turn it back on, it will be ready to take the second image. The camera has a standby system to give you all the time you need to create your memories perfectly. As you will be exposing the film twice, try not to use too light situations in order to get the best results. It might be a good option to only use flash for one of the shots. To turn off the flash, you already know: just press the button once, even if you are in double exposure mode.
If you think a group photo or a selfie is ideal, then you have two options. You can take the typical selfie, with the help of the camera mirror, or you can use the self-timer. To do that, just press the flash button for 2 seconds. After doing so, you will see that an orange light has come on underneath the flash. This means that you have activated the timer and you have approximately 10 seconds to get ready for the photo. Important tip: position the camera in the right place before activating the timer and don't trigger the timer while standing on the front side of the Polaroid Go. This can affect the camera's light metering. This camera works exclusively with Go Film cartridges.
The second camera we have available is the Polaroid Now. With the brand's characteristic stripes on the top of the camera, this model is a simple point-and-shoot. It comes in a range of colours and also in a special Keith Haring edition. What makes the Polaroid Now different is its autofocus, which allows you to concentrate on what is happening in front of you, while it chooses the best lens to photograph. It is, therefore, an evolution of the original Polaroid OneStep from the 1970s.
Exactly like the Polaroid Go, the Polaroid Now has a double-exposure system, self-timer and auto flash. For now, the difference between the two, apart from size, is that on the Polaroid Now you can turn off the flash indefinitely. Whereas on the Polaroid Go the disable only works for one photo (meaning that after you press the shutter button, you have to disable the flash again if you don't want it to work),on the Polaroid Now you can turn off the flash for as long as you want by pressing the flash button twice. Pressing it once turns it off for just one photo, pressing it twice turns it off until you turn it back on.
Another big change is the amount of buttons. Where on the Polaroid Go you only had three buttons (on/off, shutter and flash), on the Polaroid Now you have four (on/off, shutter, flash and timer). The timer button is on the front side, under the viewfinder window. When it's on, an orange light appears above it. This only means that the timer is active. To take a photo you have to proceed as normal and press the shutter button. The timer button is also the button that activates the double-exposure function. Simply press the button twice and check that the number 1 has appeared on the digital display. Polaroid Now is compatible with I-Type and 600 Film cartridges.
When it comes to printers, we also have two options for you. The Hi-Print is a mini printer that you can take with you anywhere. It's fully digital and uses a self-adhesive photo paper. It's ideal for taking your photos from your phone and sticking them wherever you want. The printed images are 2x3 and have very vivid colours, thanks to the dye sublimation technology.
If, on the other hand, you want to print the images you have on your mobile phone, but with the original Polaroid aesthetics, we recommend the Polaroid Lab. This printer uses the chemistry of the brand's instant cameras. Just install the app, choose your photo, align it with the window at the top of the printer and press the button. Once the image comes out, release the protective slide, pull the photo out of the slot and flip it down to protect it from light. In about 15 minutes, you'll have your digital image in your hand. One of the benefits of Polaroid Lab is that you have the ability to make collages and embed a video into your prints with the augmented reality feature. As with Polaroid Now, on this printer you can use I-Type and 600 Film cartridges.
Polaroid wants to give you a way to store and relive moments and memories in a world where there seems to be no time to appreciate what's in front of us. Everything can be temporary and disposable, but it's time to stop and enjoy the moments that create our lives. Discover all the Polaroid products on our website now.
