This is the POLAROID Go,
a simple camera for special Go film, an I-type film without battery,
but only 1/3 of the size of regular I-type film. The first modern
camera for I-type
film was the Impossible I-1 camera with a somewhat awkward design, but
with advanced features, accessible via Bluetooth from a smartphone.
When the Impossible project was sold to the new Polaroid company,
rebaptisized Polaroid Originals, the I-1 was replaced by a OneStep 2
model. Its design was inspired by the old OneStep series, which were
simple non-folding cameras for SX-70 film without flash. Obviously they
kept the base from the I-1 and its built-in rechargeable battery for
the use of I-type film. They put a flash into the old-style housing,
but kept the design very close to the old Polaroid cameras. The OneStep
2 lost the advanced features.
The Go camera is very simple, fixed focus, no exposure control, not even darken/lighten, just point and shoot. There is an improved Gen2 model.
Specifications (Gen2 in brackets):
Lens: Fixed focus lens, optical grade polycarbonate, coated (there is little information about it)
Standard lens focal length: 51 mm, ~0,5m-inf
Aperture: f/12 and 64 (9 and 42)
Shutter Speed: 1/250-1s (1/300-1s) Field of view: 48° vertical, 49° horizontal
Battery: lithium-ion battery (750mAh), rechargeable via USB Outer shells: Polycarbonate + ABS plastics External viewfinder barrel, no parallax indication Flash System: Vacuum discharge tube strobe Strap and USB charging cable included No tripod mount, flash off possible, self timer, double exposure
Go film format: 66,6 x 53,9 mm, picture area 47 x 46 mm "Classic" film format: 88 x 107 mm picture area: 79 x 79 mm which is 3 times bigger
The basics, camera, charging cable and film cartridge.
Front. Flash, lens and viewer. Ejection slot. The flash is extremely weak, range
only up to up to 2m. Under the flash: control lamp for self timer.
The viewer is semi-mirrored to serve as selfie-mirror.
Right side. USB charging socket and battery control lamp. Green: charged, orange: less than half charge, red: empty.
Back
view. Viewer, on/off switch, LCD, indicating that no photo is left. The
point (or period) to the side of the number indicates that the flash is
active. It activates anew with each photo.
Strap lug on the base.
Left side.
Seen from above. The LCD shows 8 exposures left and no flash. Red
shutter button and mode button, short mode press: flash off, has to be
repeated after each photo. 2s press: timer on, a lamp under the flash
lights. 2 consecutive presses: double exposure. The LCD will show a 1
blinking for the first exposure. After a first exposre it will show a 2
blinking for the second.
No tripod socket.
Back open.
When the back door is open, the LCD shows d-o-o-r...
Dark slide not ejected. The camera does not eject the dark slide automatically. However the Gen2 model does.
The Box of a Gen2 model.
What's in the box: camera, cable, short instructions.
The Gen2 model has the Polaroid name on the right side, the first generation on the left.
No further changes.
Front.
Size comparison to a full grown Polroid I-2.
The camera is easy to use, point and shoot, it's automatic. Within
the small
flash range and in broad daylight the pictures are just OK. In subdued
light as in bad or cloudy weather and near dawn or dusk pictures are
largely underexposed. So are pictures with heavy contrast. As there is
no darken/lighten switch, you can't compensate. Suppressing the flash
in well lit circumstances is strongly recommended.
Polaroid tried to improve the camera with a Gen2 model. They changed
the 2 apertures and adapted fastest speed a bit. Slowest speed is
still 1s, so no real night photos. And still no darken/lighten
compensation. Maybe they re-programmed the exposure system, it seems to
underexpose less.
The pictures are really small, not even 5cm or 2 inches. So this is
more a gadget than a real Instant camera. At €1.25 per picture and only
8
pictures per cartridge, this is a quite expensive gadget.
So here are some pictures taken with this camera, scanned with no post-treatment:
The photos are scanned with 400 DPI which is much more than life size. If you hold
them in your hand and look at them, they seem sharper. So one about life
size first:
This is what you see in your hand. It's the fiftth photo.
1. Interior photo without flash on a sunny day. Unacceptable.
2. Same photo with flash. Underexposed. Even at about 2m the flash doesn't cover the picture and it's too weak.
3. My Cologne House. Sunny winter day, heavy contrasts. Again severely underexposed.
4. Bright day, in the shade. 60cm with flash. Totally underexposed.
5. Cologne, St. Pantaleon church. Bright winter day. Heavily underexposed.
6. Cologne, New Tax Offices (1950s), bright winter day. Underexpoed
7. Cologne, a City Park, bright winter day, underexposed.
8. St. Pantaleon again, bright winter day, underexposed.
9. Cologne, Rothgerberbach (main threspassing road), Very bright winter day with deep shaddows. Underexposed.
So more or less all photos are underexposed, some severely. As there is no exposure compensation and no darken/lighten switch, I tried one more cartridge and pointed the camera towards the darker part of the image, half-pressed the shutter and framed anew. Half-pressing the shutter makes a little click noise, easily audible if the scene isn't too noisy.
10. Same as no. 5, but by error the flash was on, which happens easily as the flash is set anew after each and every photo, no way to switch it off for good. The camera obviously sets F12 and the photo is blurry.
11. Same photo again, without flash. Much better. A nice result.
12. Same as no. 6. A bit better, but not really.
13. Same as no. 8. Much better, the result is quite OK.
14. Same as no.7. Pointing towards the darker areas did not help.
15. Same as no. 9. The trick helped a lot.
16. Same as no.3. Worked fine as well.
And here are some photos taken with the Gen 2 model:
17. Interior photo with flash. Quite OK and much sharper than Gen 1.
18. Entrance to St. Pantaleon. Some backlight, so it's a good result.
19. Same as no.6 and no. 12. Much better and sharper as well.
20. St. Pantaleon in the rain. Good result, that's what it looked like.
21. Same as no. 9 and no.15. After a rain shower. Very good result.
22. One more interior with flash. Nice photo.
So Gen2 photos were MUCH better the those from the first genaration camera.
Gen1: If you just point and shoot, all photos are
underexposed, some severely. As there is no exposure compensation and
no darken/lighten switch, you have to trick the camera into a better mode. If you point the
camera towards the darker part of the image, half-press the shutter
and frame anew, it works better. Half-pressing the shutter makes a little click noise,
easily audible if the scene isn't too noisy. And always remember: switch off the flash in daylight! Otherwise the photos will be blurry. Not being able to switch off the flash for good is a nuisance.
All
in all this is a bad product. Polaroid is able to
build much better cameras. Even an entry level camera should not be
that bad. As the film is very expensive, there should not be so many bad
photos. If this were my first Polaroid, I would never buy a Polaroid
again.
Gen2: Results with the Gen2 model were much better. No need to trick the camera exposure system. Flash pictures at a short range are much sharper although the aperture is wider (F9 for Gen2 against F12 for the first model). So if you want a Go camera, get a Gen2 in any case. They are easy to detect: If you look at the front of the camera, the Gen2 model has the Polaroid name on the right side, the first generation on the left.
