Polaroid at CES

[Chris Dodkin]

Had a chance to visit CES today, so wandered over to the Polaroid booth, and was completely blown away.

These guys have got their sh!t together - just awash with exciting new digital products, mixed in with the traditional print vibe of Polaroid.

They had their new Socialmatic camera on display - the camera that looks just like the Instagram icon!

It's an ultra trendy, digital camera, running the Android OS, with a front and rear camera, and a built in Polaroid film printer!!!!

This thing wins hands down for buy-me-now appeal - I can imagine this thing will sell out when it hits the market Jan 15th - even at $299.

The prints are credit card sized, and are NOT the classic Polaroid square in a frame format - WTF!

Image quality looked similar but slightly less punchy than Fuji Instax.

More exciting still was the new Fotobar service that they demoed - either you visit an actual store, or upload online, and Polaroid print you a Polaroid format print of your image.

And they look bleepin' awesome!

Just $1 each for the normal size - they do two additional enlargement sizes as well.

Super thick card, silk matt finish - lovely to hold and view - so so so moreish!!

They had a mobile unit at the show - so I uploaded a couple of images from my Flickr and printed them.

WOW!

I will be spending a few bucks at the Fotobar

http://www.polaroidfotobar.com

 

[Chris Dodkin]

One more - B&W sample - NSFW

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Wall of Polaroid Fotobar prints

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Now I can see why they wanted to buy Blip!!!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Interesting, Chris. Thanks for that. More things to spend money on!

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Chris I sense your exitment. Love to have what you have for breakfast or perhaps it is the youth of these women that have rubbed off.
I get it though, yet having seen their Zinc printer which is a mobile printer , printing the same size as the camera, it can also link to your app on the smart phone and print those images. I guess the 14mp camera on the Social is better than my phone , but maybe not that noticeable on a 2x3in print.So I can omagine lots of people looking into this getting the printer alone to use with their phone. I cannot find the cost of the zinc print paper, is that £1 you mention it? seems expensive in this day too me anyway .

 

[Pete Askew]

Interesting stuff, Chris. Thanks.

 

[Brian Moore]

I'm always hopeful that Polaroid would start doing something film-related again. Can't imagine that will ever happen. The Zinc technology has never appealed to me. Based on your excitement Chris it seems worth looking at the Fotobar service, though. What are the white dots in the upper right corners of the images? Is that glare from overhead lights or someone's flash?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

@Brian Moore The zink prints were not something I'd get excited about, but in contrast, the fotobar prints were just beautiful to look at, and hold

There's a little glare on each shot of the prints - the lighting in the exhibition sucked!

There's a fotobar a little north of you in Culver City - 6000 Sepulveda Blvd #9008F, Culver City, CA 90230

Or you can try online ordering - definitely worth a go - minimum order is 6 of the small prints

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Also 9x11 for $10

 

[Chris Dodkin]

14x17 for $15

 

[Brian Moore]

@Brian Moore The zink prints were not something I'd get excited about, but in contrast, the fotobar prints were just beautiful to look at, and hold

There's a little glare on each shot of the prints - the lighting in the exhibition sucked!

There's a fotobar a little north of you in Culver City - 6000 Sepulveda Blvd #9008F, Culver City, CA 90230

Or you can try online ordering - definitely worth a go - minimum order is 6 of the small prints

Thanks, Chris. I'll check it out.

 

[Brian Moore]

14x17 for $15

Wow! That looks cool to me. And not too pricey either!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Wow! That looks cool to me. And not too pricey either!

Agree - very reasonable - and when you see the print and card stock quality it looks even better VFM

Not sure the resolution requirements for the large size - something pretty decent I suspect.

They do the standard Polaroid frame shape, and the landscape polaroid frame shape as well, so you're not forced to crop 1:1 if you don't want to.

I'm going to upload something and have a go I think - would make great limited edition prints I'm thinking...

 

[Brian Moore]

Not sure the resolution requirements for the large size - something pretty decent I suspect.

They show the minimum and also the preferred resolutions for each size on their site, Chris.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

They show the minimum and also the preferred resolutions for each size on their site, Chris.

Ah ha, so they do - thx

Photo Size Chart:
Product Size (Inches)Minimum Photo Size (Pixels)Best Photo Size (Pixels)

5x5 396 1650
5x7 540 2250
7x7 540 2250
8x10 756 3150
12x12 900 4350
11x14 1044 3750
16x16 1188 4950
16x20 1476 6150
20x20 1476 6150
24x30 2196 9150

 

[Pete Askew]

Some more detail on ZINK.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/zink-inkless-printing-with-colorless-color

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Some more detail on ZINK.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/zink-inkless-printing-with-colorless-color

Thanks Pete - interesting tech

I asked about the printing on the Polaroid fotobar prints, and was told that they used a proprietary inkjet for these prints.

It reminds me of the look and feel of Apple's calendar prints - very good grads, nice color gamut to match what you see on screen

In checking the fotobar website, I also see that they offer a monthly subscription package, where you pay a fixed fee a month, for a fixed number of monthly prints

https://spaces.pe/s/JmTx

So for a commitment of $10 a month, you get 20 prints a month.

For $15 a month commitment, you get 40 prints per month - mailed to your door

 

[Brian Moore]

So for a commitment of $10 a month, you get 20 prints a month.

For $15 a month commitment, you get 40 prints per month - mailed to your door

What size--small I presume?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

What size--small I presume?

Indeedy