Polaroid izone200: a modern relic

Even casual Pikamac readers have likely noticed an obsession with photography on my part, particuarly found and lower-tech pictures. This weekend I picked up a Polaroid izone 200 camera and a mess of expired film. The camera cost two bucks and the film as a dollar for twelve shots. Here's the izone as taken by an izone:

This camera was originally targeted to the teenage market. The camera was cheap by Polaroid standards: $25 dollars for the camera and $6 for 12 shots. $7 if the shots had a peel-and-stick backing on them. The easiest way for Polaroid to keep the cost down was to make the pictures small. And by small, I mean tiny. Here's what my Panaphonic says the camera looks like:



The quarter gives a nice sense of scale. The developed prints are 1 inch by 1.5 inches but they still have that muddy Polaroid charm. The camera has a fixed shutter speed of 1/250 second and three settings: indoors (used at 2 to 8 feet), Sunny outdoors and Cloudy outdoors. The three settings control the intensity of the unexpectedly powerful flash (as far as I can tell). Here's the easy to use wheel:



Please note the camera also has a attractive "bass boat" metallic flake finish. Unlike the digital cameras that I've grown used to, the izone must be reset before each picture, as this setting winds the spring that the shutter releases. In fact, the camera will operate happily without the suggested two AAA batteries, although the low-light response is abysmal.

The camera has many less-than-positive features, to be sure, but they could be thought of in the same way as the Pixelvision, Game Boy Camera or for that matter the Holga or Lomographic cameras. Flawed, but in a good way. In the case of the izone, the film is already expired, so the urge to "horde" the film is blunted... encouraging the photographer (in this case me) to shoot as much as he can before time turns the instant-developing chemicals into goo.

The last thing I like about the izone, is that it's so easy to simulate pictures from the 60s and 70s. Wash the color out just a bit, and the eye reads the image a thirty years ago.



I'd say to go out and get one (or three, as I did, along with 40 rolls of film), but they're not sold in stores anymore, the film isn't being made and even eBay is relatively dry. This isn't the sort of camera that's going to be a niche treasure in the coming years but it's fun to play with now. More images can be found in my flickr gallery.