Most Expensive Polaroid VS Cheapest Polaroid: Comparing the I-2 and "The Button"
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- My name is Jake and I overhaul, repair and upgrade instant cameras! Want your camera upgraded like you see here? Then message me through the links below!
In today's episode, for a bit of fun I compare one of Polaroid's most advanced cameras against one of their simplest. It's a battle of CHEAP vs PREMIUM
00:15 - Overview of both cameras
15:01 - Comparison photos
31:54 - Final thoughts
Prash' video on the I-2 - • Polaroid I-2: The mode...
Prash' video in the I-2 exposure issues - • Polaroid I-2 exposure ...
If you like this kind of content, let me know in the comments below. What else would you like to see?
This will be one of a few videos I do regarding the new Polaroid I-2. A future video discussing the non-user replaceable battery is planned for the future.
Like what I do? Find this video helpful or entertaining?
Feel free to buy me a beer (or two!):
ko-fi.com/thei...
Getting artifacts in the video? For best quality, manually select 1080p quality, as depending on your bandwidth, CZcams may default to 720p - and CZcams's 720p compression looks like garbage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Initially I planned on comparing the Polaroid I-2 to one of my "SX-70R" PCB modified SX-70 - in an all-out battle of manual-control Polaroids.
BUT, I still need to complete the SX-70R manual control camera... so while I finish that up, I thought it would be fun to do a much more ridiculous comparison.
What if I compared Polaroids most expensive current camera, to one of their cheapest they ever released?
Its literally-marketed-for-children 'THE BUTTON' vs aimed-at-pros "I-2".
WHO WILL WIN
YOU DECIDE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In future videos I will discuss:
- the new Polaroid I-2 non user replaceable battery issues
- I-2 vs SX-70R
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got a Polaroid that needs some love? Hit me up!
/ instantcameraguy
/ theinstantcameraguy
www.theinstant...
“ Vintage” photographer here (in my 70s) so I find your videos on the ancient art of Polaroid photography/cameras very addictive. This one is no exception. So glad that people like you and others are helping to keep Polaroid photography alive using the magical SX70 type cameras and the more basic cheap versions. Look forward more of these vids. 👍
Damn, what started as a funny / goofy comparison video turned into a brutal / good morning Vietnam knockdown of the I2 😮. Impressive, sheesh.
Awesome video as usual! Box OneSteps shouldn't be underestimated!
Strangely, I sold dozens of them over the years - especially The Button, which are very plentiful here in Ireland -, but I'm only now finding out there was a matching "The Flash". Will have to track one down!
i really wish polaroid would invest in tech to make foldable flash assemblies a thing again like in the old 600 box-types, it's such an elegant way to protect the lens from dust and scratches when not in use. Also I tend to like the downwards shadows produced by the raised flash more than the sideways shadows produced by the flash to the side of the lens of the modern cameras
Foldable cameras are still the best on the market today…
Agreed 💯
Agree!
i like how unlike a lot of other polaroid camera channels, you have gave a honest and realistic review.
Subscribed !
The Polaroid I-2... An interesting topic to say the least.
Having manual control in a modern 600 film camera is certainly a nice addition to the modern Polaroid lineup, but I don't know if it's 650 - 700 dollars nice.
With the exposure issues like you mentioned and also the non-removable lithium ion battery, I can't say I'd ever want to get one. Certainly no shame towards the folks who purchased one though. They got a premium camera for an expensive hobby.
Personally I like looking at the bigger picture or the product 15 to 20 years down the line. Every tech item we make nowadays has an internal battery that will be useless in 3-8 years depending on usage and storage conditions. The modern offerings from Polaroid are no exception.
Meanwhile with a little luck you can pick up a 50-year-old SX-70 that could work straight out of the box. Granted this is somewhat uncommon, but I've never heard of a vintage Polaroid camera with a dead battery! It's just a shame that some young aspiring photographer in the future could pick up their parent's or grandparent's old I-2 and be holding a brick rather than an amazing piece of history, and a tool for making priceless memories.
For as much of an advancement as the I-2 undeniably is, it also feels like a regression in some ways. It's very cool they managed to get such good image quality with polycarbonate lenses as opposed to glass, but personally I'll stick to my (soon-to-be) SX-70 Sonar with an SX-70R PCB.
Hilarious that the I-2 often got matched or even beaten by an unassuming SX-70 box camera!
I'm coming to the conclusion so far that I'd be stoked to own the I-2 if I got one for free
But... the dodgy auto exposure puts me off owning one for its current price point
That and the battery is an issue
I own myself a Supercolor 670 AF and it's a really good camera
670AF is the best bang for buck possible!
And do great to mod to AAAs
me too! plus a sx70 and a slr670s.
Just one thing. If the dog is black and laid on dark fabric, you shouldn't compensate to +1, but the exact opposite. The auto exposure will see the subject blackness and will overexpose to middle grey, causing it to be overexposed. So if the photographer wants to keep a black subject black, one would have to underexpose 1 stop. So, set -1. As you did later, at least left it in the middle. It's a very contrasty scene though. Hard for any camera. Specially for Polaroid or Instax. The difference with regular film is that you can compromise to under or over and still get good results. But new Polaroid material looks really bad overexposed. You can't compromise.
See... I'd be willing to buy this point if The Button didn't nail the exposure with a fraction of the technology
@@theinstantcameraguy Sure. 👍They need to improve the i-2 meter via firmware update if possible. BTW. You do an amazing job fixing and modifying those Polaroids. Congratulations! Amazing work!
My thoughts exactly for this particular test scenario. This is what one should do with film photography given that these types of built in light meters are made to average out readings to a mid grey (always been told 18% grey). But a big issue here is that with each shot costing £2-3 one would hope that each shot would be more than acceptable for the intended user (taking into account the “still in development of current Polaroid film”).
@gabvideo @gd70 I think I should provide more input on the lighting of this scene.
I think you guys are reading too much into how the light sensor in the Polaroid 'averages out' a scene. The eye used for auto mode is merely a small photodiode, prone to getting confused by highlights. There is not a miniature Ansel Adams sitting inside the camera doing zone calculations, working out what shade of grey to expose for.
1) The shot was taken outdoors, but under patio cover, so no direct overhead sun. The scene was fairly back lit with light reflected into the scene from behind the couch, where the white fence and plants are.
2) Yes, there was a dark blanket under Luna, but she is a good shade darker than the blanket is
3) The white cushions on the couch, white matt at the bottom and white fence and back-lighting overall dominated the scene from what my eyes could see
4) All Polaroid instruction manual documentation will tell you that a dark subject requires the wheel set to 'lighten' in order to compensate
The Button nailed the brief, and did not require a re-do. Its only flaw was needing around a 1 second exposure, which added some motion blur. This makes sense given its f14.3 lens.
The I-2 utterly failed the test. +1 was a mess and neutral was also less of a mess but still a poor shot.
Requiring -1 for this scene would fly against my intuition acquired over 13 years of instant film experience.
Could I have re-shot the scene using 3-4 photos until I got it right? Sure, but it would have been a big waste of film.
Where the I-2 would have excelled at this scene would have been manually setting shutter and aperture after spot-metering the dog. But that wasn't the purpose of my test. I wanted to compare auto modes.
@@theinstantcameraguy Got it. Make sense.
I think Polaroid dropped the ball by using a plastic tripod thread on the I-2. It probably costs 23 cents to include a cheap brass 1/4-20 thread insert, and the plastic threads aren't going to last more than a few years.
Wow, I never realized you had a sub 1000 subs channel. By the quality of your content and voice-work I expected a much larger channel. Nice video! You deserve much more attention 👏👏👏
Then get to work sharing my content haha
The Button looks so cool with the Flash
Hi Jake I don't think your video was nonsense and though it's perhaps not the usual comparison one would make i. the most expensive camera to the most cheapest camera it will certainly make people think twice before parting with £600 here in the UK for a camera that, judging by your photos, that a camera costing a fraction of the price can perform nearly as well. Admittedly the Button has been tweaked by yourself but those tweaks had no affect on optical performance they simply made the camera more usable.
From the videos i've watched auto exposure appears to be inconsistent and the LCD screen is apparently difficult to read in bright light. Also I-type film itself can be inconsistent sometimes. I recently purchased a Now Gen2 camera along with 2 packs of film which stored correctly and out of the 16 shots i had 2 that had distinct colour banding and 2 where part of the photo hadn't developed properly. Not the fault of the camera but with the film and the chemical developing process i think.
I think £600 is way to much for a camera that offers that sort of performance and Polaroid need to look at I-type film and make it more consistent/reliable.
I've also got Instax Mini 90 and Instax Wide 300 cameras and Instax film is far more reliable. The only time i've had a less than perfect or acceptable photo with them is when i've pushed the cameras beyond their limits.
"manuel control is a nice bonus" is that not the entire point if the camera?
It is
It's a pretty that it seems that manual mode is the only setting that works consistently though
keh?
Thank you for another great video, and good choice to compare the high line and low line for obvious reasons.
Our i2 overexposes outdoor bright, predominantly sunny scenes, as well as indoor flash scenes.
Polaroid suggested we do a ‘factory reset’ as well as a firmware update except the app indicated the camera was already current.
Part of the problem we believe is the extremely narrow dynamic range of the film, and the curve is just hyperbolic.
The other thing to be aware of is the half press on the shutter button is very hard to feel compared to our 680, definite two press, and you hear the focus rack in and out, where the i2 you do not hear and the half press is extremely shallow and soft.
Dynamic range of the film is one problem, but its not THE problem. Metered correctly, the film is fine.
I find the I-2 far easier to 'trick' than classic models. And the performance of "The Button" here proves this.
The Spectra is my absolute favorite.
A shame they no longer produce its film... 😔
The finest nonsense content on CZcams love your channel and videos keep up the great work
Back in the 80s when the button was made a lot of people were still using the Disposable flash bars with Polaroid which gave you 10 flashes five on each side. I don't remember how much those flash bars cost. Some some of the electronic flashes that were made by Polaroid for the one-step cameras such is the Q light which looks similar to the gray one here had its own light sensor enlightened darken switch and actually could not be used as a fill Flash and the instruction manual said to just use the flash bar if you wanted fill Flash.
Buying a Button now!
Another excellent video! And my need for Luna content has been quenched, so that was a bonus. Now if only if we had a video about a talking camera, imagine that.... 👀
You provide the camera and I'll provide ANY TALKING CONTENT YOU WANT
On the Luna pics Im thinking I would be expecting to use minus compensation rather than plus because the exposure system would be trying to bring the black dog up to middle grey so would naturally overexpose unless you dial in minus compensation.
Probably the i2 meter is heavily centre weighted and reading mostly just the dog while the button's meter is reading a wider area and picking up the bright areas at the edge
I did a detailed explanation on the other comment here that suggested this, along with more information about the scene
You shouldn't have to be Ansel Adams to take a decent photo on Auto when the 1981 technology does a better job.
Setting such a scene to minus 1 would fly against every intuition I have as a Polaroid photographer of 13+ years
If this is true, and the I-2 is spot metering for the very center of an image, it should be explained in the manual
do you think its possible to mod an old flash bar to have LEDs?
I believe i can distinguish sx70 shots and box cameras shots. But it’s more about rendering of image rather than “quality”. I don’t believe that you will see big difference on such small film/print size, it’s not even 10x10 cm. Which is maybe a nice thing - all and all you can enter the hobby with 10 bucks and 636 and have same “quality” as slr680 or i2
The thing that gives it away the most IMO is that an SX-70 has a 116mm lens, instead of the 98mm to 104mm range of most box cameras.
The FOV is different as a result
The thing that put me off of the I-2 is that it’s a manual RANGEFINDER. I’m spoiled by SLR’s after being taught photography on a Pentax K-1000. So like, I don’t think I could justify that kinda control/price without being able to truly see exactly what I’m going to get.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s my own user error that’s keeping me from doing that and I’m fine with it. BUT STILL I don’t understand manual rangefinders ☠️
If the autoexposure of the i2 were consistently good, it would be the better value … given the limited film choices and COST of said film, ya might as well get the best camera.
Noah @ analog resurgence did a video comparing a slr680 against a box type 600 cool cam and the results were almost identical! film is very average compared to OG film ?
I love SLR for SLR convenience and functionality, esp when using macro lenses, but this should be a frog stomp from the i2. And it isnt. Damning.
While in 1981 they weren't called selfies, many people took back then (and likely a long time before that) what are now called selfies. It's not a new thing. 🙂
I understand the I-2's appeal, but for the price, you could get an SX-70, mod it, and still have enough left over for film.
With that being said, I want to believe that Polaroid B.V. will eventually develop a folding SLR if I-2 sales are good enough (though I'm not sure if they'd be able to manufacture it).
I'm keen to see the I-2 up against its natural predecessor, the I-1
do any of them still work ?
@@Markybug-Keira-Cody My one did the last time I used it, I don't anymore though. It's rubbish
You definitely don't but that camera for it to be automatic. How ever I can understand your point
The fact it has manual control is not an excuse for lousy AE
It's a straw man argument
@@theinstantcameraguy man I said I could understand your point not excusing it but if your buying it for that then it's a foolish purchase it's ment as a pro body Polaroid I've used mine for studio shooting, landscapes, even shot the solar eclipse with it the camera is a fantastic tool, I agree the ae is inconsistent the few times ive try it its been meh results. but photography is part of my trade as an artist and i got it for its manual abilities not for it's automated. If you want Ae buy a sx70 or an impulse or one of the other itype cameras even the go I've had great results. How ever if your not afraid of looking at Polaroid as a serious format you have the money and the knowledge buy the i2
@@StuartTrenholmArt I won't disagree with the manual control. It works perfectly fine, as I'd expect from a brand new "pro" camera. But that really wasn't what this video was about
I had a full video planned on my opinions of the I-2 in much more detail - pros, cons, nitpicks etc but it was shelved due to Polaroids surprise announcement of spare parts and battery replacement guide, which derailed the direction I was taking in the video
I lost faith in basically any positive points it had when I saw the insane battery replacement guide. It's basically a camera you rent - not buy
This is a hilarious comparison, 700€...
FIRST
I may be stupid for being here it’s true but you are a coward for not taking apart the I-2, there I said it
Please don’t take this comment seriously I like u
If it was mine I would have lol
Tbh... I'm seriously considering it anyway
Best non- nonsense “nonsense “ video in a good while.
The Button may be a cheap box camera in its day but the muppets knew what they were doing as photographers !
Toys they are not ….
The Amigo was another interesting basic camera to play with as well.