Polaroid Two: The Return.  It sounds a little bit like a low-budget Hollywood blockbuster.  But the latest offering from the American manufacturer is no flight of fantasy: after its decision in 2007 to abandon film-based cameras, we've just tested the second version of its instant digital camera.

Handling
After getting used to testing digital cameras that seem ever lighter and thinner, I was surprised to see the Polaroid Two.  Once you unpack it and fit the battery, paper and memory card, this brick weighs 320 g and still calls itself a camera.  Of course, there's a printer in there too, but it's nevertheless a bulky camera, even if its 1970s styling might look pretty cool.


The Two is fairly simple to use, though it's far from certain that many of its users will venture into the different menus (scene modes, flash, resolution, white balancing, etc.) because the automatic mode can handle all of these.  Unfortunately, Polaroid hasn't included the 'intelligent' automatic mode that most manufacturers now feature, which chooses settings based on the scene you're photographing.  Ironically, then, even in automatic mode you need to adjust some of the settings yourself before you start snapping.

The lens doesn't have an autofocus, but two separate modes (macro: 0.6 cm-1.45; landscape/1.45 m-infinity) that you can choose between using a dedicated switch.  With a 5 Megapixel CMOS sensor on a 2009 model, the Two's tech specs look more like they come from a webcam than a real camera.  The 3'' screen only displays 230, 000 pixels and the viewing angles are fairly limited.


Without autofocus, you can take your photos very quickly.  We'll see what effects this has on image quality later, but being able to press the shutter release and capture a shot almost instantly is a great feature.  The options available in the menus are fairly cursory, and don't go much further than a few printing options with special effects or superimposed frames.

The main interest of the Polaroid Two, of course, is that it includes a printer.  Even a few years after the end of the older system of Polaroids, during which time a whole series of compact 4 x 6'' printers has grown up, the idea of an instant photo is still quite magical.  You need to do a little bit more than pressing a single button, of course (although one of the best parts of the digital version is that you can choose which photos to print) but your shot is ready on paper in just forty seconds.

The photo paper used by the Two is different to the classic Polaroid format: it's now 2 x 3'', a little bit smaller than a business card.  A pack of ten self-adhesive sheets costs £6.75 or you can buy 30 for £8.60.  The latter is more cost-effective overall, and brings the cost per print down to around 30p--more or less the same price as a 4 x 6'' print.

The Polaroid Two doesn't have great battery life.  You won't manage more than ten prints and a few shots with flash before the battery runs out.

Image Quality
We've already mentioned that the Polaroid Two's specs are stunningly basic, and the results produced by the camera are even more impressive.

In low light levels, this camera is quite simply unusable (you'll need to activate the flash), and in bright sunlight, a shutter speed that's limited to 1/1500 s is a guarantee of overexposed snaps.  In general, the image quality is far from satisfactory and we are very disappointed to see that Polaroid didn't include a real camera inside its hardware.


The images from our Product Face-Off speak for themselves.


Even some mobiles with 5 Megapixel CMOS sensors can do better, like the Samsung SGH-G800.

Printing your photos is hardly any more impressive: the prints are dominated by strong colours and lack sharpness.  The video mode is very old-fashioned and just as mediocre.

The future of Polaroid Films

The announcement of the closure of the last plants producing Polaroid films in February 2008 was bad news for professionals in a number of fields and photographers of all stripes around the world.  Only Fujfilm would continue production, but it too gave up in March 2009.  The Austrian firm Unverfaeuflich and Ilford have both promised to restart production of Polaroid films in 2010.  For the time being, though, even the project's supporters acknowledge it may well be impossible.  They're faced with both technical and financial challenges, so this is a story that is likely to run and run ...