I love Polaroids, so it was a sad day when Polaroid announced they would discontinue production of their instant films this past February. I knew the end was coming, but I had been in denial up until then. I had used up my stockpile of instant film with my army of Polaroid cameras: a modified Holga(roid), twin SX-70’s, an old passport camera, and even a 35mm NPC film back. I really enjoyed using Polaroids and each frame that developed was special, even the ones that were terrible. There is something liberating about shooting a Polaroid. There are hardly any adjustments beyond focusing, no raw files, no white balance adjustments, no bracketing, nothing. Like the act of photography itself, each Polaroid represents a single moment in time that is impossible to duplicate. And just like memories, Polaroids are romantically low fidelity and wonderfully imperfect.

My affair with Polaroid prints eventually had to end as film supplies became scarce and third party substitutes cost nearly $2 a print. I’m all for romance, but it’s hard to be carefree when shutter starts sounding like a cash register.

Just when I least expected it, Polaroid released a new printer called the PoGo. As the name implies, it is portable and it is also digital. It fits into a jacket pocket and you can pair it with your phone or digital camera to make 2″x3″ prints. Part of the magic is that the printer charges the paper which releases ink. So, like Polaroid of old, it’s all about the paper. Though with the PoGo, what comes out is your already-dry print that doubles as a waterproof, smudgeproof sticker.  The prints might seem a little gimmicky at first, but I think this new print form factor offers some new creative possibilities.

As I unboxed the printer, I wondered how this PoGo compares to using old Polaroid instant film. Is it lo-fi and imperfect? After making a dozen prints, my answer is yes. Lo-fi in the digital age means that the color gamut is small and the resolution is low compared to your standard desktop inkjet printer. Is it imperfect? Yes. Since the printer pairs directly with your phone or camera, there isn’t any opportunity for image editing beforehand. And, the final print will color shift (and crop) your source image without any warning. So, I think that there is some fun to be had with this printer as the results are a bit unpredictable and dreamy.

Something closer to your memories.

But the real question is: Is it romantic? No, not by comparison at least. To me, it’s still a digital printer that can spit out a dozen copies of the same image without batting an eye. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great thing. A wonderful thing. But, the precious nature of a print is lost when you can just hit the print button again.

The story goes that a famous photographer was sent a Polaroid camera very late in his life and he gave it a try. When asked about this new camera and what he thought of it, he said that only once you’ve had a lifetime to learn photography would you be skilled enough to use a Polaroid.

Now, I don’t think he was being elitist. I think he just meant that the Polaroid distills all of the photography process, theories and second chances into a single shutter click. It is automatic. It is point-and-shoot. It is easy, but at the same time, incredibly hard. The onus is entirely on the photographer to see it and get it right in their head. If you can’t do that, you’ll never get it.

In the end, I think the PoGo printer gives me another chance to cut myself out of the editing loop and to print just what I shot. Now, I have to figure out how to get what I want.