The most foolproof way to keep your photos from being scraped by AI is to never have them exist online at all. Still, the problem is there are few instant cameras that actually give you the option to mess with your photos beyond applying kitchy Pokémon backgrounds to your image borders. The next big, honking Polaroid camera, on the other hand, wants you to get extra creative by fooling around with exposure.
The upcoming $170 Polaroid Mod is using a fixed-focus, two-lens system with either a 103mm standard lens or a 95mm portrait lens on offer. Other than the variable lens, the main reason you should be interested in this instant camera is its various shooting modes. With a turn of a dial surrounding the lens, you can access a longer exposure. That includes a light painting mode that, like you see on many phones or action cameras, allows you to create streaks of neon within the frame—like those photos you see of car headlights moving across a street or highway.
The modes get even more interesting from there. “Double Exposure” lets you expose for two completely different subjects, such that you can, for example, add a photo of rippling water on top of a human subject. The “Motion Freeze” setting will let you take a longer exposure and then finalize it with a flash. This can create an odd distortion effect while also creating the traditional vintage instant film look that’s all the rage in TikTok circles. There’s also a separate accessory for the “Split Shot” mode. It’s essentially a demi-cover for the lens that lets you expose for one subject and then another within the same frame.
Polaroid has been feeling a little too old-timey for too long. The company’s past Polaroid Flip is a classic example of keeping things a little too retro for its own good. Various focal length options didn’t decrease the camera’s weight, meaning you had few reasons to take it to your friends’ next outing at the rooftop bar compared to a smaller Instax-sized camera.
The Mod may actually do the trick, since it’s taking advantage of the larger lens for all these various camera effects. You can actually see this play out in a few videos posted by Polaroid. In one of those videos, photographer and YouTuber Linus Johnson experimented with double exposure for some cool light bleed effects and the Motion Freeze capability to create a kind of Animorphs effect with motion blur from one side of the frame to the other. It takes a lot of trial and error, but we’ll admit it that the ad makes the whole process look way more fun than it should be.
Some of these modes are taken directly from the kinds of artists who already experiment with mechanical film cameras or film exposures. Polaroid is just making them easier to use, but that doesn’t mean every one of your shots will come out good enough to host on an art museum’s walls. You’ll probably have to experiment a lot, which means running through cartridge after cartridge of expensive Polaroid film. The Polaroid Mod accepts either i-Type or 600 film in color or black and white. For example, a single cartridge with just eight shots worth of i-Type will set you back $19.
At the very least, the Polaroid Mod should have enough juice to last through 15 packs of shooting with its 750mAh battery, according to the company. It’s also a bit easier to carry around to your amateur photo shoots at 1.15 pounds compared to the Polaroid Flip’s 1.4 pounds. If I were to get a single, big-body instant camera, I’d likely prefer the one that makes me at least feel like an artist, even though I may not have any idea what the hell I’m doing. The Polaroid Mod is available now on Polaroid’s website and at other retailers starting Oct. 6.
