captaind's Full Review: Polaroid JoyCam Film Camera
I actually got this camera for free when I got my American Express Blue card, so I can't really comment on value for money, but with epinions showing offers under twenty dollars, I’d say it represented good VFM. However the films (10 pictures per film, battery for the flash included in the film - which is a different design than I've seen before!) are pretty expensive although that's a problem with all polaroids and the joycam films are no worse than most others for price.
The camera itself is a bit clunky and a rather odd shape – it could possibly find a home on Star Trek at some point, probably as a brainwave analyser. It definitely wouldn’t fit in your pocket (unless perhaps you are the Incredible Hulk), which makes it rather less convenient for casual photography than a normal / digital camera. This is a major point against it as nobody would ever dream of doing anything other than casual photography with a Polaroid.
The viewfinder is really small, but despite this you can see everything with it quite clearly. It has an indoor and outdoor flash, and, um, that's it! It's really only designed for single / group portrait photos, don't even think about this one for photographing anything else! The lack of even rudimentary focus or zoom is a bit off-putting for anyone other than children, though the simplicity of the unit would make it an ideal camera for youngsters to begin to learn the art of photography on, if it weren’t for the price of the films.
What did impress me about this camera, aside from the exceptional ease of use, is the colour quality and definition. The finished pictures, which take about 2 minutes to develop, are generally excellent quality. (They do tend to be a little on the dark side though so make sure you take your pictures where there’s plenty of light.) The actual picture size is 2 7/8 x 2 1/8in (72mm x 55mm)which is just the right size to put photos of your loved ones in your wallet.
If you want a polaroid then this is an excellent choice, but the advent of digital photography drastically lessens the appeal of Polaroid photography. There is still some novelty value to having the actual photograph in front of you a couple of minutes after clicking the button, and if that’s what you want then you could do far worse than get a Joycam. A better solution (which for all I know may already be in existence, and if it is I’m sure someone will tell me!) would be a combination of digital and Polaroid technology to give you the best of both worlds, though heaven only knows how much that would cost!!
I think 3 stars is a fair rating for this since although the technology is a little outdated, it does what it’s designed to do well.
This is only my fourth review in Electronics to date. The other three were all of mobile phones (cellphones):
Nokia 3200 (Colour screen, camera, radio, tons of features)
Nokia 5210 (don’t be fooled by the numbers, the 3200 is more advanced – the advantage of the 5210 is that it’s practically indestructible!)
Motorola V300 (colour screen, downloadable games, good quality camera)
* (Incidentally to avoid charges of plagiarism, this review is expanded from a previous review I wrote on Ciao.co.uk – a website I ceased writing for years ago, but this particular review is still posted there and I can’t be bothered to remove it now. If you care to look it up it’s easy enough to find, and you will know by the user name and real name info that it really was me!)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): N/A This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Fool-Proof for Absolute Beginners
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