Suggestions for an instant print camera?

[arich]

My girlfriend is big into scrapbooking and has been giving me a hard time lately about being a photographer who manages to have no pictures of the two of us so I've been looking into getting a Polaroid camera for us to carry around snap cutsie little shots with that will fulfill the apparent need for more photos of us.
I understand that polaroid stopped producing their instant film last year so I am wondering if there are any viable alternatives or if I need to go a different route.

[ChristopherCoy]

Saw these at Imaging USA

Walmart.com: Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S White Instant Film Camera, Automatic Built-in flash: Digital Cameras

[texxter]

Amazon.com: Polaroid CZA-05300B PoGo Instant Digital Camera: Camera & Photo

I ended up getting a battery operated printer so that I can print from my D700 anywhere:

Amazon.com: Epson PictureMate Dash PM260 Compact Photo Inkjet Printer (C11C694201): Electronics

[arich]

wow thanks guys, how silly of me to think that a little PS+printer would be cheap and easy to find, sheesh =P

[Hanky]

We have a thread on replacement film for the polaroid. Not sure where.

[Daniel W.]

Skip whatever is new and go old-school. The "Impossible" project stuff is expensive...

Almost any old Polaroid Land Pack Film Camera! They work with the Fuji FP 3.25x4.x25 pack films (10 exposures a pack, about $10 for B&W, a little more $ for color).

The older ones have a true rangefinder for focusing but batteries to power the auto-exposure system can be iffy. I have a Land 420 camera that uses an old-school 3V battery with clip-on contacts no longer produced (think 9v battery) but got lucky finding a fresh one. You could DIY-mod it to use AA batteries I guess. Easily under $30 on the ebays.

The newer plastic models (Reporter, EE100) use AA batteries, but have a "zone" focusing system, which means you guess the distance, and set the lens to that. Think of it as a step or two up from the Holga focusing system. Also easily under $30 on eBay.

A few caveats, no flash... unless you can find a working Polaroid-specific flash or maybe a pack of flashcubes. Also, the optics on most cameras are plastic, which means fuzzy. But if this is to appease the GF, that'll be fine. Most of my memories with women are fuzzy anyway...

(Another, expensive option: Get a camera that can work with a Polaroid back. A number of high-end 35mm film SLR's allow for a Polaroid back, or Medium format cameras...but this is a whole nother' bucket of worms.)

Or, just get a small P&S and send em' to a printer every now and then...

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Yeah the new Polaroid cameras images that are printed are a lot smaller than the old school Polaroids, saw a guy using one a couple weeks ago. So just buy a printer and print out the shots that she wants at home, would be a lot cheaper in the long run than buying a whole other set up.

[Daniel W.]

Photo Gifts - Photo Books, Photo Bags, Photo Printing | ArtsCow.com has 1200 free prints (+shipping I think), they do an alright job. They print on Fuji Crystal Archive IIRC, which is a bit thinner than Kodak Endura. Mpix.com also does 19-cent 4x6 prints on Endura.

[arich]

Yeah she was just all excited about the whole Polaroid film look. Looks like I will be lovingly telling her to get over it lol

[Daniel W.]

Filters and Photoshop templates!

[Dobick]

Originally Posted by Daniel W.

Filters and Photoshop templates!

gotta second this -- with Lightroom and any point and shoot (along with the "mogrify" plugin for borders and such) you can pretty much make your own "polaroid" look alike output with pretty much nothing more than a one click develop preset, and then one click polaroid border.

[arich]

Haha but that's extra work on the back-end! =P I think I'm just going to see if there isn't an app for android like Camera+ on the iphone, I believe that it will pop your shot into that polaroid style frame