A couple of months ago, I remembered that my mother owned an old Polaroid instant film camera. I was just curious, since I hadn’t seen the film in stores for a while, if it were still available. To my shock, I could buy it on E-Bay for no less than $20 a pack (doubled in price), and that is the cheap end. $20 for 10 exposures. I sighed and kind of let go of the idea.
Upon working up ideas for an upcoming bridal shoot, I wanted to see if I could maybe, perhaps, by a lucky chance find a pack of instant film for a little less. I searched and searched and asked around and I couldn’t come up with anything. Upon my search, though, I came across the new Polaroid Pogo. It’s a small (about 4″ x 6″), light weight, instant printer that prints directly from your digital camera or even via blue-tooth from your phone.
I did some research, read a lot of reviews and to my surprise, my mother decided to gift it to me as an early Christmas gift for my upcoming shoot.
I read the reviews that the print quality was nothing spectacular, some people experienced white lines and it’s battery life wasn’t great at all. All of these things, I thought, were easy to deal with – especially for the low price of $30 (on sale at Radioshack). It doesn’t use ink but instead uses a technology called Zink (zero ink), and prints just like the old instant Polaroid photos. The paper is much cheaper (a few bucks for 10 sheets) and even has a peel-off back, so you can stick them around.
I charged my Pogo over night and did a test run today with 2 images. As soon as I plugged it into my camera (Nikon D300), the software popped up, I could select my images and they began to print. They printed much quicker than the 1 minute per print everyone else has talked about. Mine took about 30 seconds, or less. The prints are small, at 2″ x 3″ (about the size of a business card), but this is fine by me. I wanted something instant so I could print out images from a shoot to use again in the same shoot. I didn’t expect perfect color and quality and was even willing to let these slide for the price, but I have to say, I’m very happy with both. I have only made 2 prints, as I’m saving the paper for my shoot, so I can’t say much at this time about the battery life. The charger is quite large and even heavier than the small printer, but this doesn’t bother me at all.
So, my review of the Polaroid Pogo so far is that it’s everything I was looking for and a little more than I expected and will serve my purpose splendidly. I can’t wait to take it out on a shoot and show you what I get!
The backs can peel off and stick! I love this little feature.
I experienced no white lines…the little big of “noise” that shows up in this print is from the original image.
The prints are glossy. (Also, I obviously haven’t done my nails lately and didn’t intend on modeling a small photo – so please forgive my horrible nail polish).
