Remember the Socialmatic concept camera? It was an Instagram icon made flesh, and it worked just like a Polaroid, spitting out a printed version of your filtered and light-leaked image.
Now, after extensive boardroom wrangling no doubt, the camera will actually become a real shipping product, and it’ll carry the Polaroid brand.
The original concept contained “16GB of SD storage, a 4:3 touchscreen, WiFi, and Bluetooth,” along with a built-in printer to make the photos physical. The photos would carry a QR code so people could scan your pictures to follow you on Instagram, and there was a lot more conceptual chit-chat packed into the “specs.”
Don’t get too excited about the Polaroid Socialmatic, though. Given the execrable printers the current owners of the Polaroid name have chosen to sully their cameras, I have low hopes indeed for yet another branded gimmick box. You’re almost certainly better off using Instagram on your iPhone and using any number of online printing services to mail you high-quality prints, at around the same prices.
On the other hand, my yearning to shoot pictures with a big Instagram icon is undiminished. We’ll see…
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
