A lot has changed in the last decade-ish of instant photography, yet all the while the boxy build of instant cameras has stayed more or less intact. Modern instant shooters have slimmed down and put on a variety of calming pastel tones, but they’re not exactly slender.
But lo, Polaroid — the new Polaroid, not the old Polaroid — has done a thing. The company says its latest camera, the Polaroid Go, is the world’s smallest analog instant camera. And you know, yeah, it looks really quite small.
How small is small? It’s 4.1 inches long, 2.4 inches tall and a little over 3 inches wide. The Go is undeniably tiny but boasts a handful of useful features, including a selfie timer, selfie mirror and the ability to take dreamy double exposures.
In the promo photos, Polaroid’s models hold it like a delicate canapé or casually wield it with a few dainty fingers as it dangles from various stylish-looking accessories (camera straps? necklaces?). The company really wants people to wear this thing, it seems, and I for one am not above it.
With the Go, Polaroid continues the sort of annoying but I guess necessary instant photography trend of making a new film format, which in this case is basically a miniaturized version of its iconic old-school square film. And while the camera is teeny, TechCrunch’s own tiny camera-haver and forthcoming review writer Devin Coldewey says you don’t actually lose much size in the shots compared to something like the Instax Mini.
Polaroid claims that the Go marks the “most significant and exciting change to the Polaroid form factor in decades” and it’s probably not wrong. The company’s improbable return from the dead was likely more exciting, but we don’t want to undermine how cute this thing is. Let’s just hope it makes pictures good.
The Polaroid Go will join the Polaroid Now, its standard though now hideously bloated sibling, and the OneStep+, which blends digital and analog and connects to a phone over Bluetooth. It’s on preorder now and will retail for $100, which is the same amount you’d pay for the regular old new Polaroid camera. But why would you?
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