Camera Review: Polaroid 300 Instant Camera

 An Instant Film Camera Revives the Polaroid Picture

I recently took a Polaroid instant picture for the first time. While I've been into film photography for years, I just bought a brand new Polaroid 300 camera in 2012 for my birthday. It's an investment in the future of film and opens up a whole new world of retro photography. Plus, I won't have to worry about film laying undeveloped in a camera bag for months. While the Polaroid 300 camera is undoubtedly a re-badged Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s, it's fun to use a camera bearing the iconic Polaroid brand.

The Polaroid 300 camera is a fixed focus camera with four scene modes and an automatic flash. If you are used to tiny digital cameras, you'll find the 4 5/8-inch tall by 4 5/8-inch wide and nearly 3-inch deep camera to be huge by modern standards. But, the ergonomics of the controls work well. Controls are simple. The camera is turned on my pulling outward on the lens housing. The scene mode is selected via a rotating selector on the top of the camera. Settings are indoor/dark, cloudy/shadow, fine, and clear.



Film is loaded via a 10-shot cartridge and runs between $10 and $14 per box. At a $1 a shot, you quickly learn not to take pictures of unpredictable subjects like the family dog. You can shoot Polaroid PIF-300 film or Fujifilm Instax Mini film in a Polaroid 300. When you take a picture, the exposed film is ejected out of the top of the camera. The image starts developing within seconds and the film remains chemically active for up to 10 minutes after exposure. The photos themselves are small. They are roughly the size of a business card and measure 2 1/8-inches by 3 3/8 inches. Since they have the traditional white Polaroid border, the images themselves are slightly smaller 1 7/8 by 2 1/2 inches.

The Polaroid 300 is made for taking instant photos at parties, family gatherings, wedding receptions, and other social events. It's a fun camera for taking pictures of people at fairly close ranges. However, since our dog was uncooperative, I pressed my Polaroid into service taking pictures of landscapes and cityscapes around Atlanta. While some photos came out too light or too dark, the camera did yield some wonderful pictures. I enjoyed the challenge of working with the camera and striving for great results. In a world of super zoom digital cameras, the Polaroid forces you to walk up to a subject so that it fills a viewfinder. You also have to compensate for a slightly offset viewfinder as you compose your picture. You can rotate the camera depending on whether you want to take a shot with portrait or landscape orientation.


Out of 17 pictures, one failed to develop, 2 came out a tad dark, and 2 came out with overexposed bright objects fading into oblivion. The one shot that didn't turn out may have simply been too bright or handled too roughly by me. I took a shot of a shiny mirrored skyscraper on a bright sunny day while sitting at a stop light and then roughly through the resulting shot into a box where it landed face down on a previous photograph. Shots of human subjects or objects like a park swing turned out best. I didn't have any problem scanning images into my computer using my inexpensive Pandigital scanner. I looked at both the Polaroid 300 at Target and the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s at Walmart before buying the Polaroid 300. Ultimately, I liked the color scheme of the Polaroid at Target better than the all white scheme of the Fuji Instax Mini 7s. An all-white camera is just a little too Andy Warhol for me. The Polaroid 300 camera retails for around $70.

The Polaroid 300 is an interesting camera. It has some obvious disadvantages: expense per shot and small picture size. However, it is also an instant conversation starter and it provides instant developed photos that you can give to people. If you identify with the ideals of the lomography movement, you'll enjoy the Polaroid 300. If you like to bring a camera to social gatherings, you'll love the Polaroid 300. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. It's the kind of camera that could save film photography.

Sources: Polaroid 300 Camera Packaging
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