By Amy Livingston on November 28, 2010 in
For years, the name Polaroid has been synonymous with the instant-print camera. The classic Polaroid camera’s chief selling point wasn’t picture quality but the fun of printing out your snapshot instantly and watching it develop before your eyes. A couple years back, Polaroid made its first attempt at bringing that experience into the digital age with the introduction of the PoGo Instant Mobile Printer, a pocket-sized snapshot printer that could print photos from a digital camera and from many -- though not all -- Bluetooth-enabled phones. We touch upon the PoGo printer in our report on photo printers. Now Polaroid has gone one step better with the Pogo Instant Digital Camera, a camera and printer in one.
How does it work?
Like the printer, the Polaroid PoGo digital camera relies on ZINK (zero ink) technology to produce its prints. Rather than applying ink or dye to the paper, the camera uses special paper that contains embedded crystals of clear dye. When activated by heat, the crystals change color to bring out the image. The paper also contains a clear polymer coating to protect the picture. The Pogo camera, like the printer, does not produce full-sized (4-by-6-inch) snapshots. Instead, it prints out small 2-by-3 inch photos with sticky backs, which can be stuck up on a refrigerator door, a school locker or any other handy surface.
PoGo or no go?
We’ve seen only one professional review for the new Polaroid PoGo camera. M. David Stone and P.J. Jacobowitz, writing for PCMag.com, cover the product’s merits as a camera and as a printer. For a camera, they say, it’s a bit on the large side, measuring 3 by 4.7 by 2 inches and weighing in at 12 ounces, but they add that this is still “incredibly small for a combined camera and printer.” It has simple, easy-to-use menus and a video capture mode, but one feature it lacks is a zoom lens (although it does have a digital zoom feature). Fixed-focus lenses have become virtually extinct on point-and-shoot cameras, and the reviewers say it’s a bit more reasonable to compare the PoGo to a cell-phone camera. Its 5-megapixel images compare well with those from a good camera phone, though that evaluation applies only to the files themselves and not to the prints. It’s also fairly “snappy” to use, with a shutter lag time of less than half a second; however, it takes nearly four seconds to recycle between shots.
As a printer, the PoGo is quite easy to use: just load the paper, preview your picture on the 3-inch LCD and hit Print. You can use the menus to adjust settings, if you like, or just hit Print again. Photos take about 43 seconds to print, which puts the PoGo camera on par with the best snapshot printers for speed. In terms of print quality, however, it doesn’t measure up. Despite their small size, photos have a soft-focus quality, and the contrasts are less vivid. However, colors are reasonably true, and the editors judge the prints quite good enough for a wallet snap. The camera can print out as many as 27 photos on a fully charged battery. At $10 for 30 sheets of paper, the prints work out to 33.3 cents apiece—around the middle of the range for snapshot printers.
Users say that fun comes first
The PoGo camera has a decent amount of user reviews at Amazon.com and a scattered few on other sites. While some users are turned off by this camera’s large size, short battery life and iffy picture quality, most consider the quality acceptable and the fun factor paramount. Many stress that this is not a “serious” camera, but as a just-for-fun gadget, most users consider it a good deal at its typical selling price of $170.
If you're looking for bettery quality photos when on the go, there are some pretty good portable photo printers detailed in the full ConsumerSearch report. While you are at it, don't forget to check our reports on digital cameras and cheap digital cameras for some suggestions on top performing as well as budget-friendly snap shooters.