- This is the Polaroid i-2.
It's a $600 instant camera with manual controls
from Polaroid and it took five years to develop.
It's the company's biggest bet in decades.
(calm music)
The front of the i-2 mostly looks
like a classic Polaroid camera,
but with a new larger F8 F64 lens.
The company claims
that this is the sharpest lens that has ever made
with better auto focus, using a lidar system.
On top of that lens are two dials,
one for exposure compensation and the other
for adjusting settings such as shutter speed and f-stop.
The largest change comes to the back of the camera though.
First there's a new integrated display
in the viewfinder that shows a light meter,
F-stop, aperture, battery life and the amount
of film left in the camera to name a few.
Yeah, this is obviously very helpful, but with no diopter
you're left to find the best viewing angle on your own.
And at first it kind of feels like using a microscope
or a telescope where if your eyes aren't perfectly aligned
you just kind of see strange reflections.
And the next big change is this tiny little screen.
It's the company's first time including such tech
on an instant camera.
With only one button, navigating a small screen is annoying,
but once I got to know this camera,
I almost exclusively kept it
in full manual mode, which one button was fine for
but is two buttons or I don't know a touch screen,
too much to ask for.
Outside of manual mode, there is also multiple exposure
and timer settings on the screen
along with auto, aperture priority
and shutter priority settings.
Around the back, there's a 2.5 millimeter jack for syncing
with external flashes and a USB C port for charging.
The company claims a full charge can last
about 15 packs of film and well,
let's see, one pack of i-type film if you buy in a pack
of five is about $14 for eight shots
which means that you'll burn through $210
before you'll exhaust a battery.
Which brings me to the experience of using this camera.
It took me three packs of film to understand how to expose
for Polaroid film correctly with the i-2.
And during this time I was counting the money lost,
$2 there for an overexposed rain
another $2 here because I forgot to turn on the flash.
And then the pressure of getting the right shot
kept me endlessly wandering around looking for a good frame.
Not to mention I was also trying to film B-roll
so double framing pressure, but that last part's on me.
I finally hit my stride
on pack three of black and white i-type film.
It was at the exact same time that I decided
to use my own light meter
because I was tired of the camera constantly overexposing
which explains the dedicated exposure compensation dial.
And although the built-in light meter
on the i-2 has been mostly consistent
with my light metering app,
I never knew exactly what parts
of the frame the i-2 was metering for.
And generally it took longer to meter than my app.
So I've just been sticking to my app.
But when you do get a Polaroid properly exposed
I mean the results are magic and they're best paired
with a lonely guitar and ambient sounds of summer pass.
The contrast is high, the colors look aged
and the white Polaroid frame is timeless.
And the F8 aperture allows
for just a bit more depth of field.
The problem is you will get a lot
of this to get this, and also some of this to get this.
Polaroid's native 640 ISO film
with a max shutter speed of one 250th
of a second has me totally turned around.
I had to do a hard reset
on my internal light meter to use this camera
but I guess that's the whole idea with the i-2.
You can set all your own settings
and you can get to know the film
and the camera and the blur you might get
at lower shutter speeds and you can do all of that
on a new system that you know is going to work as opposed
to buying like a Polaroid 180 that yes has manual controls
but also is 60 years old and may or may not work.
And then if it does work
well its film has been discontinued.
But back to the i-2, yes, this camera is new and yes
it does have manual controls, but the experience
of using the camera still needs to be a bit more refined
before I recommend it to others.
I've had problems with the camera
not spitting out the plastic protecting sheet
that protects the top of the film pack.
And then because of this
the camera doesn't allow me to shoot the last photo
of the film pack
because it believes it took eight shots already
but really it only took seven.
That's $2 you're losing.
And then the auto focus is hard to navigate
because although it is using a single unmovable center point
the only feedback you get is a measured distance
at the bottom corner of the viewfinder.
And if you can get around all of that, the learning curve
to getting a properly exposed photo is steep.
Like I need a YouTube video
in the style of a middle-aged dude
in his garage teaching me how to use a power tool
in order to figure out
how to get this camera to expose properly.
Even with a light meter and five packs of film
I have still not cemented the proper settings
to memory and every shot,
it still feels like an educated guess.
And lastly, the whole experience
of using this camera still feels a bit clunky
which you know, most Polaroid cameras do.
But for a device that has manual controls
and is really like tuned for, you know,
professionals to have something fun to use on the weekends
I think it requires just a bit too much luck.
All of that being said, I do want people to buy the i-2
because I want the next generation i-2.
I want the i-2 that has a few more buttons
for better navigation.
I want the i-2 I can put
on auto mode and trust to take a properly exposed photo
and I want the i-2 that can count the damn film correctly.
If we can get that for $600, it would be exactly the camera
that photographers would buy to relax with.
A camera that provides a different enough experience
from the one we get daily with the system we use for work.
And a camera that does it all on what I believe
is the most beautiful instant film, Polaroid film.
All right, who's gonna buy this camera anyway?
I know you're out there.
I know you exist 'cause you are me and I am you.
Anyway, buds, I hope you're well.
I hope you had a great summer and here comes the fall.
See you on the next one.