Polaroid PoGo SO Misses the Point

Back in February of 2008, Polaroid announced that it would stop making instant developing film at the beginning of the new year. Hey wait…that is NOW!! Millions of art nerds and lo-fi addicts will no longer be able to purchase auto-developing film for those Polaroid cameras that they bought for $10 at a thrift store . I myself, thinks that sucks.

But now, Polariod has released PoGo, a camera that inklessly prints a 2X3 inch photo in about 60 seconds. You better have some extra batteries on hand as you can only print about 20 photos on one charge. And the thing is only 5 megapixels.

If you ask me, I think Polaroid’s instant film popularity wasn’t due to the on-the-fly results that you got with a Polaroid camera. It was the murky quality and physical properties that you could futz with during the developing process that made them so endearing. To me, it was the ‘non-instant’ developing speed of their  ‘instant film’ that I loved. It created in me a mysterious anticipation for what may appear on that plastic sheet that I waved back and forth in my hand (which may or may not have accelerated developing time – no one knows for sure).

Is it me or is Polaroid missing the point on this one?

Here is a save Polaroid site if anyone is interested in putting up a futile fight.