![]() This has led him to being a go-to expert for camera and lens reviews, photo and lighting tutorials, as well as industry news, rumors and analysis for publications like Digital Camera Magazine (opens in new tab), PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine (opens in new tab), N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine (opens in new tab), Digital Photographer (opens in new tab) and Professional Imagemaker, as well as hosting workshops and talks at The Photography Show (opens in new tab). He also serves as a judge for the Red Bull Illume Photo Contest. In this time he shot for clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal, in addition to shooting campaigns and product testing for Olympus, and providing training for professionals. The editor of Digital Camera World, James has 21 years experience as a journalist and started working in the photographic industry in 2014 (as an assistant to Damian McGillicuddy, who succeeded David Bailey as Principal Photographer for Olympus). If you don't mind paying a little more for the privilege, and you don't need the extra bells and whistles of the OneStep+, the Polaroid Now is an instant classic. And much as we love the instax line, when you're shooting old school instant film there's nothing quite like the tactility of handling a big, boxy Polaroid. It boasts superior image quality to the OneStep2, thanks to its improved flash system, though it lacks the additional features (such as Bluetooth connectivity and remote trigger) found in the slightly pricier OneStep+.įor pure point-and-shoot simplicity, though, the Polaroid Now is hard to beat – and while the similarly new instax Mini 11 does have it beaten on price, we definitely prefer the full-size square prints that Polaroid delivers. The Polaroid Now is a welcome arrival to the Polaroid product line, and a worthy addition to the increasingly crowded instant camera world. Shots from the Polaroid Now (left) are brighter and have better color than those on the Polaroid OneStep2 (opens in new tab) (right) (Image credit: James Artaius) Verdict In all, though, we were pleased with the photographs produced by the Now – and its flash performance gives it a definite edge over its predecessors. The metering system takes a little getting used to, but bear in mind that you'll be paying for each print while you do so. However, we experienced a few occasions where it would underexpose a frame quite dramatically when flash wasn't used. In most situations the camera handles abundant ambient light very well. Somewhat less consistent, however, was outdoor exposure. Of course, the color output is in large part down to the photochemistry being dictated by the flash, but we got consistently better colors from the Now than we did its elder sibling. You'll also notice from those same comparison images that the Now delivers substantially better color reproduction. The performance of the flash is the biggest revelation here, as the Polaroid Now takes a significantly brighter and better exposed image than the OneStep2 – as you can see in the side-by-side images of the plush lion below. So we were very pleasantly surprised by the pictures it produces, which are notably better than those of the OneStep2. ![]() While we're always happy to see a new Polaroid product arrive, in truth we weren't expecting a dramatic improvement in image quality from this latest camera. ![]() Image taken with flash (left) and without (right) (Image credit: James Artaius) Performance The shot counter has been redesigned, too, with the panel of eight orange LEDs on top being replaced by a numeric readout indicator, while the flash now has an illuminated "lightning" symbol to show when it is active or not.īuild-wise, if you've used the previous Polaroids then you'll know what to expect here: a sleek but reassuringly solid block of plastic, which feels like it will withstand plenty of knocks when you toss it in your backpack or the glovebox of your car for recording your adventures. The flash system also omits the manual exposure control, so the only physical inputs aside from the power and shutter are the flash on/off and self-timer buttons. The new autofocus lens replaces the need to switch between the main and secondary lenses on the OneStep+, so the top switch from that model has been jettisoned. The Now is still a boxy Polaroid camera, of course, but the softened corners and edges do make it slightly less pointy to hold and handle.Īll but two of the manual controls from previous models have been removed. On top of giving the camera a smoother appearance, this also improves the ergonomics. The new housing on the Polaroid Now is sleeker and softer than before, removing many of the harder corners that have traditionally featured on Polaroid's bodies both new and old. The smoother, sexier Polaroid Now features a new flash indicator and shot counter (Image credit: James Artaius) Build and handling ![]()
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