Remember Polaroids?

Most of grew up with some version of a Polaroid camera in our household. The one I remember for ours was the Type 100 and 101.

Some of you will remember these:

And when I first started in photography as a job, there was this type of fantastic tool:

Polaroids, as we called the images on their unique medium, were very useful and fun. Useful for pros needing confirmation of an effect, exposure, or a layout before moving on to the next subject. Fun for casual users because we got to share the pics almost instantly. We had special timers for the peel apart films, coatings that had to be applied, and even a printable negative from some films. And we shook the SX-70 pictures, thinking that somehow helped. Didn't hurt. "Shake it like a Polaroid picture!"

Digital had pretty much eliminated the pro use for Polaroids, and as P&S and cell phone cameras got better and cheaper, instantly sharing a hard copy of a print just sort of faded out...

Instagram on social media became the way many people were now sharing their casual photos.

But, what if we could share on social media, have as a digital file, AND share a hard copy instantly?

Look at the Polaroid Socialmatic (name and price not finalized). A very interesting concept. It looks like it will come in at the $299.00 price point. Not bad for an initial outing. Look for more updates as it actually hits the market.

Will this be a new wave of picture sharing enjoyment? Too early to tell. But I like the idea.