5 Frames with the Polaroid Now on i-Type Color Film

There’s something special about instant photography – the ability to capture a moment in time and hold it in your hands in an instant. And when it comes to instant cameras, few are as iconic as the Polaroid. The Polaroid Now is one of the newer instant cameras from Polaroid, and is the precursor to the latest Polaroid Now +. 

Until now, I’ve always been a diehard Instax fan (mostly because of the price), but with several upcoming instant photography workshops this summer, I want to become more familiar with Polaroid so that I can cater to both Instax and Polaroid users. 

I borrowed the Polaroid Now from a friend of mine and took my very first Polaroid image back in March. This camera uses both Polaroid i-Type and 600 film, where the only difference between these two types of film is that Polaroid 600 has a built-in battery unlike the i-Type film and works on older Polaroid camera models. I took all of the following photos using the Polaroid Now with i-Type color film.

Here are five of my favorites:  

This is an image of a rainbow shot from my balcony in the late afternoon. I was shocked that the rainbow even showed up on the film. I half expected the camera to overexpose the sky, but surprisingly the camera did pretty well with properly exposing this image.  

I titled this photo based on the red, yellow and blue color scheme of the building. Though I really like this image, I would’ve preferred a little more saturation and “pop” in the colors.  There are also some chemical spots that appeared on the Polaroid film, but I kind of like how it looks like whimsical light beams dancing around the image. 

I photographed a lot of trees, blossoms and flowers with this camera, but unfortunately, the Polaroid Now doesn’t do well with close ups. I especially love the contrast between the white blossoms and the blue sky in this photo. Once again though, several chemical spots appeared on the edges of the frame. 

This yellow building stood out to me in contrast to the stickered-up car parked in front of it. The camera had some difficulty balancing the exposure on this image and the colors are a bit muted compared to real life. However, I’m starting to embrace these little Polaroid imperfections as part of the art. 

This is another image shot from my balcony. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of this exposure. The Polaroid Now captured the beautiful pink hues in the sky, the full moon and even the rooftop without over/under exposing the image.  

Overall, I really enjoy experimenting with this camera. Have you used the Polaroid Now or other Polaroid cameras? How do they compare? If you have any recommendations,  I’d love to hear your them in the comments below!  

To find out more about me and my work, check out my Instagram @instax_berlin. 

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