No thanks.
No thanks.
An ex of mine had a Polaroid, and had taken hundreds of pictures with friends and family, all cherished and passed to loved ones.
There's something special and somehow human about small, candid, imperfect photos that hits just right on memory lane and evokes nostalgia. It's more than just what it presents, it's about what it represents, and about the experience itself.
It stops being just a photo. Looking at it and going down memory lane is an experience in and of itself. You get to live that with your eyes, your fingers, your ears, and your nose even, and at the same time you can share them with others. At the same time you evoke the feelings and experiences from when you took it.
Every time you look at that picture you don't just remember what it depicts, you also experience every other time you experienced it.
That's just something no digital photo will ever be able to capture.
Aside from that - how did your ex manage to avoid fading?
Polaroids are absolutely notorious for yellow-fade. And the chemistry is weird and fragile.
It takes a month or so for the photo to fix. If you do anything to it in that time - cut off the white edges, squeeze it an album, expose it to light - the fading happens even more quickly.
https://www.thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/concept/klexos
I have a special place in my heart for the dictionary of obscure sorrows :')
I doubt with this price tag they can sell enough to offset R&D and marketing costs.
But I still had a big 8x10 field camera that I would take portraits with. DSLRs totally took over the film world...and I would NEVER go back to 35mm or even medium format. But you can't get the same thing with digital that an 8x10 platinum contact print from a large format camera can give you. That's really the only time I can see using "obsolete" tech in photography. These Polaroid things can ALL be simulated in digital. Are they instant? No. Which is good.
And for adults that want to take a few risqué photos they are great as they are easier to keep track of than their digital cousins.
I mean I just go done scanning all my predigital photos because analog photos suck. Why would anybody want this?
If you wife wants photo albums then it is pretty easy to order them with the photos you want and get any number of companies to make them. I don't have a problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is not having a single backup of my childhood if my apartment burns, not having access to my photos on the go, not being able to share my experiences with my family and so on.
By going digital first, I avoid all these problems.
By avoiding digital photography, I reduce my risk significantly.
I'll take analog every day.
Edit: I'm not the target market. I have special considerations. My wife is though. She wants pictures. I want to stay somewhat incognito. This type of thing solves the problem better for us.