Polaroid has announced a brand new digital camera, the Snap, which brings it back to its analog roots, printing immediately and in full color, and all without ink.

Their fresh release employes an SD slot that can hold up to 32 gigabytes and features a built-in inkless ‘printer’ (details below) co-developed with ZINK (Zero Ink) and using their printing technology.

Effectively, the paper already has the colors in it, with cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals covered by a protective polymer overcoat. Heat activates these latent colors on demand.

The prints are 2 inches by 3 inches (wallet sized) and the camera body comes in red, blue, black and white. It will be coming out before Christmas and sell for just $99. Tapping into that classic functionality of original Polaroids as well as the give-to-to-me-now generation of instant gratification, this is sure to be a holiday gift hit for all ages.

The post Sleek New Polaroid Camera Prints Instantly & Inklessly first appeared on Gajitz.

Photo sharing moved almost entirely into the digital realm, but there’s still something special about pulling a snapshot out of your wallet to show off. Polaroid has created the best of both worlds with the Socialmatic camera: an instant print camera that also posts your images to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other apps.

The Socialmatic camera prints out 2″ X 3″ images with Zink Zero Ink printing technology. They’re smudge-proof, tear-resistant, and water-resistant. But even if something were to happen to one of your picture print-outs, you’ll have a backup online.

Built-in wifi connects your Socialmatic to the internet. If you’re in a location with no wifi, the Socialmatic also connects to your mobile device via Bluetooth so it can upload from anywhere you get cell phone service.

Remarkably, the camera is also a tiny Android computer with a 4.5 inch touch screen, stereo speakers, and 4 GB of onboard storage. It lets you browse the internet and check email, though that kind of seems like Polaroid is stretching the features a little too far.

The 14 megapixel forward-facing camera is complemented by a smaller 2 megapixel backward-facing selfie lens. When it goes on sale in early 2015 it will retail for $299.

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The marvel of the moving picture is now at your fingertips. Remember the first time you drew those sequential stick figures on the outer margins of your 8th-grade copy of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? The GIF computer file is sort of the modern version, and a new camera gives you physical copies.

Designer Jiho Jang captured this novel concept with his camera, the GIF-TY. It uses the burst-shot technology of a Polaroid camera and a ‘Zero-Ink’ printer to give you sequential photographs. They print out in a strip that allows you to rip each frame apart and stack in order to make a mini-film. The GIF-TY has a timer that can make the flip books between 1-5 seconds.

The two principle ideas behind a ‘movie’ – persistence of vision and phi phenomenon – are very captivating. Jang seemed to have this in mind when he created GIF-TY. The camera fully realizes this, along with that unique memory GIF-TY helped you create.

The post Fun Movie + Photo Camera Gives You the Gift of Memory first appeared on Gajitz.

We were sort of crushed when Polaroid announced that it would stop selling its iconic instant film, considering it the end of a very long and very fun era. But little did we know that they would come out with something that, though not quite the same, would still fill a void in our instant picture-loving souls.

The Z2300 Instant Digital Camera brings together the best of old technology and new technology. It’s a digital camera that lets you see the picture you’ve taken on an integrated screen. You can then crop, edit, and add effects to the pic instantly, right there on the camera.

When you’re satisfied with the picture, you can print a copy instantly – you know, kind of like the old-school Polaroids we loved for so long, but with ZINK Technology instead of the classic weirdly colored instant film. The Z2300 also keeps a digital copy of your pictures and lets you upload them to all sorts of sharing platforms. At $160, this 10-megapixel camera seems like a surprisingly good value.

The post Polaroid’s New Camera Blends the Best of Digital + Analog first appeared on Gajitz.

Famed designers Charles and Ray Eames produced a number of short films between 1950 and 1982, many of which highlighted emerging technology and products that displayed brilliant form + function. One such video is their 10-minute 1972 video advertisement for the Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera, itself a marvelous piece of design history.

The camera, designed by Polaroid founder Edwin Land, sported an undeniably stylish folding body and unique interior features that have made it a favorite amongst photographers since its introduction. It was the first instant SLR camera, and its complex inner workings were completely revolutionary for their time.

As Cool Hunting pointed out, the 10-minute-long Eames film hearkens back to an age when people took the time to learn how things work. What may seem like a very long advertisement by today’s standards is actually a wonderfully executed examination of an emerging technology that happens to be extremely attractive as well. Retro technology doesn’t get much better than a stunningly beautiful gadget being explained and

The post Instant Classic: Iconic Designers on an Iconic Design first appeared on Gajitz.