Polaroid! The iconic camera that when you took a picture, the picture itself would feed out of the camera where you could stand around like a dope waiting to see if the picture you took was a masterpiece or not worth sullying the trash can you’d throw it into.

So iconic was it, that the framed film with the chin by which you would hold it became the standard imagery for what a picture would look like. Even digital pictures would have the ‘Polaroid frame’ on occasion. Those of a certain age can recall taking trips to some scenic or exotic location, where a group of tourists would all be waving film around so vigorously it sped up global warming.

Polaroid-style borders placed on digital images

But Polaroid has suffered greatly over the years. Iconic as it is, it didn’t keep up with the digital photography revolution and in fact we’ll use it as an example of the impact of what’s known as disruptive technology. Like Kodak years later, Polaroid became a shadow of its former self under the crushing juggernaut of digital cameras, and even those are now experiencing a fall in sales because of increased capabilities from phones.

Even so, you can’t keep an old brand down. First, there is – if you can believe it – a Polaroid museum right here in Las Vegas. At the oddly-spelled Linq. To be fair to the company, their cameras, their film, even their color scheme is very well known. They even had a surprisingly big booth at CES, and I spent a surprisingly long time inside their surprisingly big booth because, well, they’re Polaroid, and I’d really like to see them do something great with their brand.

Something, say, like this.

A New Polaroid!

Yes, Polaroid now has a new somewhat-digital camera with some awkward, boxy dimensions (the linked article compares it to the size of a paperback book whose top-third has been sheared off) and an equally odd-shaped display in the back for uploading pictures to, what, Instagram? But that’s not the best part. The best part is that the reason it’s so thick is because IT ACTUALLY HAS A PHOTO PRINTER BUILT IN TO THE CAMERA! Yes, just like the bad old days, you can take a picture with this Polaroid camera, then print it out onto physical photo paper right there at the Grand Canyon or wherever you are. It’s glorious.

The Polaroid name is very well loved; in fact, several years ago they stopped manufacturing the film for their instamatic cameras due to low demand, but the outcry was so loud they actually started making it again! That very, very rarely happens. I still have my Polaroikd camera from way back, and I’m glad to see them still kicking around and trying to innovate. At almost $400, I don’t see the camera being a huge success, but we’ll wait and see. I’m also still not sure what that happy-frowny face thing on the camera is all about, but maybe it will become more clear in the future. The article indicates the more you share your pictures online directly form the camera the more happy that face will be, but that sounds…well, you know.

Also, as the article notes, the Instagram logo is actually a play on the original Polaroid color design, but this new Polaroid camera is a square design that looks like Instagram logo, so this is turning into some kind of digital design-culture singularity that may very well destroy the universe but leave a nifty picture of the event behind.