Released in 1971, the Polaroid Big Shot was a funky, green plastic camera that was built for one thing: portraits. The plastic behemoth is simply designed, using a fixed focus 200mm, single-element plastic meniscus lens.
The KineCAM is an instant camera-inspired "DIY" device that allows users to capture and create "animated" photographs (of physical GIFs) in the form of a kinegram.
After nearly five years of development, Polaroid lovers in France have developed a new instant print back adapter to fit vintage Type 100-400 Polaroid Land cameras.
While visiting a friend recently, I noted that his teenage daughter’s walls were lined with Polaroids of her and her friends. I expressed some surprise and inquired about what got her interested in instant photography. She tilted her head and smirked at the question, and I soon understood why. The term “instant photography” struck her as curiously redundant.
New data released by major Japanese analysis firm BCN+R shows that Fujifilm saw massive growth in market share in December 2021 thanks to the wild success of the Instax Mini Evo. It was so popular, Fujifilm surpassed Sony in overall market share.
Not many people own a 4x5 camera let along actually use them, which makes Lomography's new LomoGraflok 4x5 Instant Back particularly interesting. It allows those with 4x5 Graflok-equipped large format cameras to shoot with Fujifilm Instax Wide film It's niche, but should appeal to a very small, but passionate, group of photographers.
Pinsta Instant Camera is a new pinhole camera that can shoot directly onto positive 4x5 inch photographic paper where it develops internally, eliminating the need for a darkroom.
Want to give your child the joy of instant photography without breaking the bank on buying expensive film packs? Check out the myFirst Camera Insta 2. It's an instant camera designed for kids that uses rolls of cheap thermal paper for its prints.
Fujifilm has just announced the Instax Mini 11 instant camera: a follow-up to the popular Instax Mini 9 that adds some much-requested features like auto exposure, an updated design, and even a Macro Mode.
Polaroid Originals has released its latest product, and it's an instant printer... with a twist. Rather than just printing digital files, this so-called "miniature table top darkroom" actually turns digital files into analog prints by projecting your phone screen onto a piece of instant film.
Fujifilm just announced the new Instax Mini LiPlay (pronounced "lee-play"), a hybrid camera that aims to take instant photography to the next level with a set of never-before-seen features.
Bulunkul is a very small and isolated town of 306 people that live deep within the High Pamirs in Central Asia. The people of the town live off of little more than yak and grain but are also some of the happiest I've ever met.
Albertino of Instax Magic created a unique camera that blends the old and the new. Half of it is made of LEGO, and half is a 90-year-old Zeiss-Ikon Trona folding plate camera.
Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the Prynt Pocket is a new device that attaches to your phone and enables you to instantly print your images on ink-free ZINK sticker paper.
We know it's coming; Fuji's told us it's coming. The Fujifilm Instax SQUARE camera and SQUARE instant film has already made its teaser debut, but today, newly leaked photos give us our fist look at the new camera and its special square film.
Snapchat is known for popularizing the idea of the self-destructing photo, but did you know that long before Snapchat existed, Polaroid had already offered its own line of self-destructing Polaroid pictures? It was called the Fade to Black line.
Instant photography is alive and well, and if you need proof, look no further than Amazon's top selling items in Camera & Photo. For the second year in a row, Fujifilm's Instax products dominated the category over the Holiday shopping season.
Photographer Josh Gladstone of PhotoChemicals made this 11-minute video showing how you can use new Instax instant film on an old Kodak instant camera.
With the proliferation of digital photography in today’s modern market, perfection has become the new normal. Photography is an art practiced through initial capture, modern shooters using their camera to anchor a moment in time with as many potential options as possible be it color, tone, exposure or even as technology marches on, focus and perspective.
Welcome Leica!
It is with a smile on our faces that we welcome another player in the instant camera world!
Leica today officially announced the Sofort, the company's very first instant camera. It's a compact snapshot camera that shoots Fujifilm Instax Mini film.
Guess what Leica has up its sleeve? It's a new instant camera called the "Sofort." Photos and details about the not-yet-announced camera have been leaked onto the Web.
Fuji's first SP-1 Instax printer made a bit of a stir when it was unveiled back in January of 2014. A portable, Wi-Fi enabled instant printer, it made printing your smartphone photos practical and fun. With the brand new SP-2, Fuji promises to make that experience even better.
In March 2015, the Hong Kong-based company MiNT shook up the world of instant photography by announcing the InstantFlex TL70, an Instax instant camera that looks and feels like a vintage Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera. Today the company just announced the new InstantFlex TL 2.0, a followup camera with noticeable improvements.
Everybody is "reinventing" things these days, but even still, we would be lying if we said we weren't at least intrigued by the all-new Impossible Project I-1. It's the company's very first camera, or, as they put it, "The Original Instant Camera. Reinvented."
Fuji's Instax instant film was the bestselling item in Amazon's Camera category in the 2015 holiday season. It wasn't a fluke: the company's instant film business has been exploding in popularity in recent years.
Launched back in 2012, the Impossible Instant Lab is a device that prints out your iPhone photos as Impossible instant photos. But what if you want to use the Instant Lab itself as an instant camera instead of an instant printer?
The Vienna-based brand SUPERSENSE has a solution. Today the analog brand announced the Lab2Cam Conversion Kit, which allows you to transform your Instant Lab into an instant camera by mounting a Polaroid SX-70 lens to it.
Film’s not dead, we know that. I love the nostalgia of instant film. The look of surprise when you can give a physical photo to your subject. The stories of photos the way they were when we were young. The way people over a certain age shake it while it develops.
I first got a Fuji Instax Neo Classic 90 camera. It’s mainly automatic and allows minor exposure adjustments. I longed for something a bit more manual. Then MiNT announced a new instant camera in March 2015 called the InstantFlex TL70. The camera is modern Twin Lens Reflex, with that retro look of older Rolleiflex.
If you’ve been waiting for the chance to convert your 4x5 large format camera into something that can produce instant results, then you are in luck. A company called CatLabs has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to introduce their Instant Pack Film Holder for 4x5 camera systems.
To celebrate 60 years in Canada, KFC created a new bucket for fried chicken that doubles as an instant photo printer.
The "Memories Bucket" is a new high-tech, limited-edition bucket that helps you print your memories on the go as you're creating them with friends.
The Polaroid ZIP is an instant photo printer designed for printing out your favorite snapshots on the run; we got a chance to play around with one, and, to be frank, we are quite reluctant to send it back - we are having too much fun. The ZIP was designed to make use of ZINK zero ink paper and works with both iOS and Android smartphones via Bluetooth or NFC technology to create 2" x 3” full-color prints.
How's this for an unlikely couple: what you see here is a heavily modified Fuji Instax Mini 10 instant camera that has a vintage 4x5 lens mounted to the front.
Here's a wonderful little gift idea (stocking stuffer perhaps?) that’s sure to impress one of the photography lovers on your list this holiday season. It’s the Poladarium 2015, and it's a peel-away calendar where each day presents a new Polaroid photograph for you to admire.
Photographer Stefan Litster created this “photo adventure” video showing how he shoots portraits …
Supersense, a company striving to keep analogue photography alive and well, has announced the launch of the devilishly-named 66/6 camera, a limited-run pinhole instant camera that uses Polaroid’s instant film.
Competition in the smartphone instant film printer industry is heating up. Companies like LifePrint and Fuji are tackling wireless mobile photo printers, and The Impossible Project has its analog Instant Lab.
Next month, a company called SnapJet is entering the ring. It's the "world's first slim, portable, open-source instant film printer" that helps you print your smartphone photos instantly on the go.
To pay homage to the return of beloved instant film, Mercedes-Benz has created a four and a half minute mini-documentary that takes an inside look at the inspiration behind bringing it back, the machinery used to make it, and even a look at how the analogue sorcery works.
Larger format instant photography is certainly nothing new, but a whole new generation of hipsters and film enthusiasts will now get to know it thanks to Fuji's new Instax Wide 300: a large format Insta camera that uses 86mm x 108mm instant film.
The latter years of the first decade of the 20th century were by no means glorious ones for The Polaroid Corporation. Filing for bankruptcy multiple times, the company ultimately decided to kill off its instant camera business in 2007, with the death of their instant film coming not long after in 2008. And while the demise of Polaroid’s instant film era is a sad one, it went out strong.
Thankfully, first-time filmmaker Grant Hamilton was there to capture the last year of Polaroid’s existence as we will almost always know it. Broken up into three acts, Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film tells the story of Polaroid’s last year through the eyes of the artists who shot the film, the dying days of instant film production and the idea and start of what was rightly deemed The Impossible Project.
If you feel like the pseudo-studio in your spare room is too small for quality results, Siste Skanse may change your perspective a bit. Located in Tromsø, Norway, this small building's claim to fame is that it's the “World's Smallest Instant Photo Studio.”