The new Polaroid I-2 harks back to the original camera’s essential role in the creative industries. Billed as the company’s first analogue instant camera with built-in manual controls, it’s designed for swift gratification and maximum flexibility.
Under chairman Oskar Smolokowski, Polaroid was transformed from a technological has-been to a playful tool. Smolokowski, who parlayed what began as the Impossible Project, a movement to source and manufacture film for the cult cameras that began life in 1937 but were discontinued in 2008, tapped into the emerging analogue consciousness.
Along the way, we had the compact Polaroid Go, the Polaroid Now+, Polaroid Lab and the original 2016 Polaroid I-1 that re-booted the company and gave it control of the famous name.
The new Polaroid I-2 goes one step further, with built-in manual controls for the first time, paired with a new, far sharper lens, a wide aperture and with a thread mount compatible with 49mm filters. ‘To develop the I-2, we expanded our engineering team and spent more than four years designing and finessing every element,’ Smolokowski says. ‘It is the most capable camera we've ever made and a true milestone in our journey.’
There’s also autofocus, a large viewfinder with an external OLED display, and styling that is unmistakeably Polaroid, but far better finished, with a solidity missing from the mass-produced grey plastic Polaroids of the 1970s and 1980s. There’s even Bluetooth connectivity, a shoulder holster and a premium case. The company hopes that the flexibility and digital connectivity of the I-2 will lure in a new generation of instant photographers, putting this classic camera at the heart of creativity once again.
Polaroid I-2, £599.99, Polaroid.com
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