Polaroid Introduces Instant Camera For Digital Age

The new Polaroid camera

The year was 1948. Polaroid, teaming with inventor Edwin Land, introduced the Polaroid Land Camera. Unlike other cameras, where you shot a roll of film and then had to take it to be processed into prints, the Polaroid camera produced a print in about 60 seconds.

Through much of the 1980s Polaroid produced a series of models of the instant camera, but the basic concept remained the same. You could take a picture and have a print 60 seconds later.

Then along came digital cameras and the Polaroid instant camera was instantly obsolete. Or so you might think.

This week Polaroid introduced a new instant camera for the digital age, the Z340. It's the same concept as before, only updated. (Today's Polaroid Corp., by the way, is only distantly related to the "original" Polaroid, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001.) 

The Z340 is a 14-megapixel digital camera with a Zink printer inside. You take a picture and the digital file is stored in the camera's memory, as with any digital camera. But if you push the “print” button, the Zink printer spits out a four by three photograph in about 45 seconds.

The original Polaroid camera

Noting that generations of consumers had grown up with Polaroid instant cameras, company officials said the retro camera comes full circle.

"Polaroid photos connect people together in a way that is more personal than any photo tag, slideshow or comment box, yet digital images shape our stories," said Scott W. Hardy, President of Polaroid. "The Z340 brings these two worlds together in harmony by merging the excitement of the instant printing experience with the ease of digital photography and sharing. We're very excited to share the wonders of instant photography with a new generation."

The camera went on sale Tuesday for $300. Thirty sheets of Polaroid ZINK 3x4'' paper costs $20. Both camera and photo paper are being sold through Polaroid.com, B&H Photo, Adorama and Amazon.com.

Today, Polaroid is known for low-end TV sets more than cameras. Whether the Z340 captures the public imagination the way previous Polaroid cameras did remains to be seen. The camera if larger and bulkier that today's point and shoot models. Also, every smartphone is a digital camera.