Polaroid I-2 Review: Polaroid’s New Top-of-the-Line Instant Camera

As an avid Polaroid and instant film shooter, I am always looking for that dream instant camera: manual controls, a great lens, and a viewfinder that actually lets you line up the shot.

Generally, this leads you to the Polaroid SX-70, one of the few SLR instant cameras out there. But Polaroid just came out with the Polaroid I-2, and, with its fully manual controls (all available in-camera) and an incredibly sharp lens, it checks off a lot of those boxes.

Polaroid sent us a copy of the I-2 to test out, so let’s go over what makes this camera so special and see if it lives up to the hype.

Find the Polaroid I-2 on Amazon.

Polaroid I-2 Camera Design

When I tell you that opening up this camera box was an experience, I am not exaggerating. Polaroid set the expectations high right from the start, letting you know that this is a high quality, professional level camera. It even comes protected in its own velvet pouch.

The Polaroid I-2 has the same general shape as the Polaroid OneStep 2 and Polaroid Now, but is sleeker with a black matt finish, rounded corners, and a lower height profile.

And then you look at the front… There is a gorgeous, large lens staring right at you. It’s immediately impressive and stands out from the small, plastic lenses of the other instant cameras.

Using the Polaroid I-2

There are three things that really set the Polaroid I-2 apart from other Polaroid and instant cameras: the lens, the exposure controls, and the viewfinder.

The Lens on the Polaroid I-2

When Polaroid set out to build a professional grade instant camera, the biggest thing they were taking on was improved optics.

Polaroid cameras are in the point-and-shoot world, known for plastic lenses with dreamy, soft focus. There are a handful of vintage Polaroids with higher quality lenses, but they are few and far between, and even those are not known for being exactly sharp.

The lens on the Polaroid I-2 is a three-element lens made from an epoxy resin optical plastic. I was hoping for a glass lens, and, honestly, when saw the lens and started using it, I thought it was glass. But don’t be turned off by the material, the images are impressively sharp for a Polaroid.

This video from Polaroid goes into more detail on why the optical team went with a resin lens instead of glass, and it’s a fascinating watch. They discuss the lens material right around the three minute mark.

For comparison, the Polaroid Now+ and OneStep 2 both have one-element, polycarbonate lenses, and the difference was evident from my first shot. With the I-2, shot after shot, I was just blown away by the sharpness and clarity of my images.

It is still instant film, though, just to set expectations correctly. You’re not going to get the same amount of sharpness as you do on a Hasselblad with a Zeiss lens, but I’ve shot pretty much ever iteration of Polaroid and Instax instant cameras, and this is the sharpest lens by far.

The lens on the Polaroid I-2 also has filter threads. Check out this article for more info on using creative filters with the I-2.

Exposure Control and Shooting Modes

Like many of you, I have been waiting for a fully manual Polaroid camera for ages. We got close with the Polaroid Now+, but using an app to access the manual features was not the analog experience I was looking for.

But the Polaroid I-2 came through! Fully manual controls completely in-camera, a 100% analog experience.

The controls on the I-2 are simple and straightforward with so many options. You have six different shooting modes: auto, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, multiple exposure (up to four shots), and self-timer. It also has an exposure compensation dial of +/- 2 in 1/3rd stops right above the lens.

You can see the f/stop and shutter speed for each shot no matter what mode you’re in. So if you’re shooting in auto, you can easily check to see if the shutter speed is too low and you’re going to get a blurry picture.

The amount of control you have with this camera is so satisfying. My keeper rate per pack of film was much higher. All of the information I needed was right there, and I didn’t have to take a test shot to make exposure decisions.

I never thought I would be able to use a Polaroid camera to shoot neon lights at night, at least not without wasting a million shots. But I set the manual controls and took one shot. Could not believe how easy it was!

And let’s talk about the auto mode on this camera a little bit. I was soooo impressed by it’s auto setting.

With most instant cameras, the auto setting isn’t great and you kind of have to trick the camera to try and get a decent exposure. I have instant cameras where I always have to set it to “darken” or some other mode to get to a working exposure.

But the I-2’s auto exposures were right on. So if you’re shooting more casually, you don’t have to rely on the manual settings to get a good image.

And by half pressing the shutter, you can focus and recompose your images. The half press will lock the focus and exposure, and then you can reframe your shot however you’d like.

You can also connect the camera to the Polaroid app and use it to access all of these settings. This is especially useful if you want to use the app as a remote shutter or if you’re shooting long exposures and don’t want to risk shaking the camera.

The Viewfinder

Another aspect of the Polaroid I-2 I love is the viewfinder. It is an optical viewfinder (not electronic) with all of the features you would hope for: large and bright with a wealth of information about your exposure and settings.

But my favorite part of the viewfinder is the framing lines. It has framing lines that are actually useful to center your subject.

I know one of the biggest frustrations with this camera is that it is not an SLR, meaning what you see through the viewfinder is not exactly what the lens sees. This is common for Polaroids, and always introduces the problems of parallax error. Parallax error is just a fancy terms for how off what you see in the viewfinder is from what the lens will take a picture of.

With almost every instant camera I have, the first thing I learn is how much do I have to shift the camera to center my image. If it’s centered in the viewfinder, then I shift the camera a little bit left and a little bit up to center it in the actual Polaroid.

The I-2 gives you an extra set of frame lines to correct for this misalignment. This camera just makes shooting such a joy! You don’t have to do a bunch of mental gymnastics before each shot to make your vision come to life. All the tools you need are right there.

Here’s an example of when I centered my subject in the full viewfinder vs centering it with the extra frame lines:

Polaroid I-2 Technical Specs

Compatible Film: Polaroid i-Type, 600, and SX-70 Film
Shutter Speeds: 1/250 – 30s, Bulb
Aperture: f/8 – f/64
Effective Focal Length: 98mm
Lens: 3-element lens with continuous autofocus system
Lens Filter Thread Mount: 49mm
Flash: Integrated flash with on/off switch and 2.5mm sync port for external flash
Tripod Mount: Yes
App Enabled: Can fully control remotely through the app
Price: $599.99

A Note About Polaroid Film

The Polaroid I-2 can take any of the three kinds of Polaroid film: Polaroid i-Type film, Polaroid 600 film, or Polaroid SX-70 film.

One of the main difficulties with shooting Polaroid is the inconsistency of the film and the cost per image. It costs about $2 per image to shoot a Polaroid, and with washed out colors or inconsistent results, wasting an image can be very frustrating and costly.

All that said, I shot these images with fresh packs of i-Type film, and I was very surprised with the quality of the colors and the consistency of the images.

I’m not sure if they have recently improved their i-Type film, if the lens on the I-2 helped with color renditions and consistency, or if I just got lucky. But if you’ve been disappointed by the film in the past, it might be worth another try.

Final Thoughts

The Polaroid I-2 is not a cheap investment. At around $600, it’s definitely a tough decision if the benefits of the camera are worth the hefty price tag. But I can 100% tell you, you won’t be disappointed with the I-2.

The camera made me excited to shoot Polaroids again and could not be more fun to use. Have a brand new, in-production analog camera of this quality gives me hope that we’ll get to hold on to shooting film for a few more years.

I’m such a fan, and I love that Polaroid is moving in this direction. I can’t wait to see what this leads to.

Leave your questions about the Polaroid I-2 below in the comments, and you can pick one up for yourself on Amazon.

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Kathleen Ellis

Kathleen Ellis (Kathleen Frank) is a fine art and travel film photographer and the founder of Shoot It With Film. Find her other articles here, such as 5 35mm Film Cameras for Beginners and 5 Best Point and Shoot Film Cameras.

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