Anyone who lived through the 80’s knows that Polaroid cameras were unavoidable. The instant camera is as much of a part of retro culture as VHS tapes and hair metal. At the time of its release, the Polaroid instant print camera was a technological revelation. Before the ubiquitous takeover of mobile technology, Polaroid was the only camera brand that provided the user with instant gratification. Now, with the old days of dropping off a roll of film at our local pharmacy well behind us, it’s easy to take for granted the craze that Polaroid caused in the photo industry.
快速在你下次你一眼re out in public and you’ll notice that the 80s are coming back in a big way. When the updated Teddy Ruxpin is the hot new toy of the holiday, it’s clear that 80s revisionism has begun to grace itself with its excellent presence. Now that millennials are beginning to creep towards middle age, nostalgia has taken the cultural wheel, and Polaroid had held on for the ride.
我们最近能够看一下新的Polaroid POP Instant Print Digital Camera，，，，which includes Polaroid’s patented ZINK zero ink printing technology. What we were hoping for was an updated instant print camera experience featuring modernized specs and functionality, without having to sacrifice our craving for nostalgia. Unfortunately, what we got instead was a product clearly rushed out to stores in an attempt to strike while the 80’s iron was hot.
为了庆祝成立80周年，宝丽来们在聚光灯下抓住了短暂的机会，使下一代即时印刷升级。他们的流行摄像头旨在成为摄影技术的超级便利动力，但几乎在每个级别都跌落，甚至设法搞砸了其最重要的功能 - 其印刷技术。
First Impressions
我们对宝丽来流行的第一印象是积极的。相机的小尺寸结合了20 MP传感器的承诺，这是令人兴奋的原因。相机本身的构建质量并不像高级产品。它的方形塑料身体感觉很奇特，奇怪的是光。它的塑料饰面似乎是一种指纹磁铁，即使在非常轻巧的使用后，表面上也有表面划痕。
Build Quality and Form Factor
对于声称是数码相机技术进步的新步骤的产品，块状形式使拍照感觉很尴尬。当我们测试流行音乐的自拍能力时，我们意识到，相机几乎不可能舒适地单手，这使得将坦率的自我拍摄成为真正的问题。看完宝丽来的营销材料后，我惊讶地发现，宝丽来已经通过将其自学成分作为某种技术奇迹而不是标准功能来准备了该问题。
Print Quality
宝丽来流行音乐最大的问题是其最大的卖点 - 即时印刷功能。尽管我们这么说，但Zink印刷纸真是太糟糕了。自从备受喜爱的80年代型号发行以来已经有30多年了，但是照片打印质量不仅没有改善，而且质量的质量大大降低。这些版画看起来更像是用喷墨打印机打印的，而不是下一代即时印刷弹药筒。照片的颜色非常不准确，任何人造光都使照片散发出超现实失真的气氛。
The photo prints were so poor that we honestly couldn’t believe that our model was functioning correctly. We even tried another pack of ZINK refills, hoping that perhaps we had been sent a bad batch. To our disappointment, the quality remained inadequate and disappointing. Photos took way too long to print, and printing multiple photos in quick succession was out of the question because the camera needed a cool down period after every other print. If the print quality was worth of the wait of a cool down period, we would consider it an excusable side effect of an aging technology – but the fact that the photos are so poor makes the slow performance seem even slower.
Software Integration
We were excited to try out the POP’s ability to sync with your phone and print out photos from your camera roll. Unfortunately, the Polaroid app for iOS was practically unusable. The Polaroid POP app promises the ability to print any photo from your smartphone in a matter of seconds, but the reality is that even when the app wasn’t crashing (which it did very frequently), we even found it nearly impossible to connect our camera to the app.
We were repeatedly greeted with warning messages alerting us of new firmware updates, only to discover that the firmware update would not download and install. We received the firmware warnings nearly every time we tried to connect our phone to the device. In the rare occurrence that we could print a photo, the app would immediately crash following the request. There’s not much more that can be said about the app other than that it plain stinks.
相机本身上的本机软件充其量是故障，最坏的情况是无法使用的。POP会决定偶尔关闭自身，并且只有在我们按下精确重置按钮后才打开。真是令人遗憾的是，相机总体上并没有更好的工作，因为内置过滤器软件实际上很整洁。如果流行音乐并不是因为其执行不佳，我们可以看到流行乐很有趣。
Touchscreen Display
宝丽来流行的3.97英寸触摸屏显示合格ty was lackluster and grainy. The ability to mark up the photos was responsive enough, but the overall experience was disappointing considering that we expected much better screen quality from a device that does not have a viewfinder and sells for a premium price. As we have seen from lower-end model tablets, such as the Amazon Fire line, a great screen at a low-price isn’t an impossibility. The price point of the POP makes it feel like Polaroid was trying to cash out on a product that was knowingly inferior, which is a cardinal sin of tech companies looking to reestablish themselves.
Video
The most impressive feature of the Polaroid POP was its video recording capability. The 1080p quality looked great in comparison to the rest of the features. Unfortunately, we don’t feel like the basic video capabilities that the POP offers are enough to make up for its long list of shortcomings. It’s like a tiny spray of lilac perfume on a huge pile of garbage – it doesn’t make all the much of a difference.
Other Features
The POP offers a basic selection of features common amongst modern digital cameras, including image stabilization and digital zoom. There’s nothing special about the camera’s features other than its on-board filters and effects, which as we said earlier are cool in principle, but simply don’t work the way we want them to work.
该相机支持高达128 GB的普通SD卡格式，这是一个不错的选择，与HD视频一起使用。我们遇到的另一个疑问是保护该打印机插槽的橡胶保险杠。我希望整个橡胶背，而不是它拥有的便宜塑料混乱。保险杠不能牢固地牢固地固定在插槽上，并且对我们的口味感到有些松动。感觉就像是一个丢失的部分，等待发生。
比赛
不幸的是，对于宝丽来流行数码相机，比赛非常激烈。与设计更好，更便宜的相比柯达迷你射击，，，，the POP stands out like a big ole’ dirty thumb. The Mini SHOT surpassed the POP’s performance in practically every way. Even if the Mini SHOT only offers a 10 MP camera instead of a 20 MP camera (which doesn’t make a whit of difference unless you plan on printing out large prints, which I doubt you’d be doing with the POP), the Kodak 4Pass instant printing technology annihilates the Polaroid ZINK technology in a side-by-side comparison.
Kodal Mini拍摄的照片以出色的颜色准确性和令人印象深刻的细节打印出来。可能会使某些人离开的是迷你镜头的屏幕明显较小，但实际上我们发现它很有吸引力。Not only did the display provide a more accurate portrayal of the photos that were printed, but the size of the screen is similar to the size of an 80’s viewfinder, which allows the Mini SHOT to better capture that nostalgic feel that the Polaroid POP never seems to be able to achieve.
迷你镜头的外形效果创造了80年代更令人信服的体验。
The real deal breaker with the Polaroid POP was its complete inability to connect to our phone through their dreadful iOS app. In comparison, using the Kodak app was like a breath of fresh air. The Mini SHOT’s Bluetooth functionality synced with my device without a hitch, and even better, could successfully print the photos that I transferred over from my phone’s camera roll.
最终印象
The ZINK instant print technology lacks any of the nostalgic wonder you would feel when using an original Polaroid camera. The photo print quality is similar to, if not worse than, the quality of a bundled inkjet printer. Its cheap build quality and awkward rounded-square shape are both confounding and disappointing – resulting in a photography experience that left us wondering where to place our hands, especially when trying to take a one-handed selfie.
The bottom line is that thePolaroid POPis a barely average, run-of-the-mill digital camera with an awful instant printer and even worse software interplay. For the price, we found that the POP’s lack of quality was inexcusable, especially when compared with theless expensive Kodak Mini SHOT，，，，which manages to outshine not only the Polaroid POP, but its competitors as well. If you are faced with a choice between the two, the right choice couldn’t be any clearer. The Polaroid POP is a pass.
