I don’t like Polaroid cameras, and they certainly don’t seem to like me. But a lot of people do seem to like them, so a while back I bought the latest and greatest Polaroid camera: a Polaroid I-2. The first time I tried it I was not surprised to discover that I hated the results. Then I read that there was a problem with the exposure. It didn’t work correctly when the camera was in auto mode. I kept meaning to try it in manual, or aperture priority to see how that went, but I never got around to it.

However, I recently read that Polaroid had issued a firmware update that fixed the exposure problem. I updated the firmware and put the camera aside (you can see how enthusiastic I am about Polaroid photography). Eventually I went out to try it.

How did it go? Well, you can see from the pictures…terrible, and if you think this is bad you should have seen my first attempt to scan the pictures. I didn’t notice, until I’d already scanned them all, that I’d left the camera set to scan color rather than black and white, so I had to scan them all over again.

Once again, I’m disappointed with the results but I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. It’s fairly clear that I chose the wrong weather/time of day to take the pictures. There was too much contrast, and I think that the film didn’t have enough dynamic range to handle it. Next time I’ll go out on a cloudy day and see how that goes. I’m fairly persistent (stubborn?) and I’m not ready to give up yet. I have some more film on order.

I’ve read that you need to try several times before you start getting halfway decent results. That’s all very well, but Polaroid film is incredibly expensive, and these failed attempts are costing me a lot.

Taken with a Polaroid I-2