I recently got my hands on the Polaroid Now Instant Film Camera Generation 2 in the classic Black & White and I must say, it’s like going back to my childhood before digital cameras and phone cameras. As someone who enjoys photography and who appreciates the charm of analog photography, this camera is a blast from the past for that vintage look in photographs.
The Polaroid Now Generation 2 has a timeless elegant look of the disposable cameras of Polaroids from the past. Its sleek black body gives it that old school look, and the build quality is excellent. It feels sturdy yet lightweight, making it easy to carry around for impromptu photo sessions, the capture button is kind of in an awkward position, as someone with big fingers it was hard to get a good grip and pressing the capture button.
What sets the Polaroid Now apart is its instant film capability. The anticipation of waiting for the film to develop adds a sense of excitement and charm to the entire process. There’s something incredibly special and nostalgic about holding a physical photograph moments after capturing it, and the Polaroid Now brings that feeling back.
The Polaroid Now Generation 2 is incredibly user-friendly. The camera features autofocus, ensuring that every shot is sharp and clear. The built-in flash adjusts automatically based on the lighting conditions, guaranteeing well-lit photos in various environments. That being said I definitely recommend taking pictures in well lit environments to get the best out of the camera photos, because even with the flash if there’s not enough light photos can come out very dark, and with the price of the film you don’t want to waste it with bad lighting.
Overall the Polaroid Now Instant Film Camera Generation 2 in Black & White is a delightful blend of vintage charm and modern convenience. Its old school design, instant gratification, monochrome magic, ease of use, and the joy of tangible results make it a must-have for anyone passionate about photography and preserving memories in a timeless form. Using this camera is not just about capturing moments; it’s about creating timeless mementos that will be cherished for years to come. I absolutely love the Polaroid Now 2 and highly recommend it to anyone seeking a nostalgic photography experience.

Great vintage camera. Straight up polaroid with some modern touches

I grew up in a world of Polaroid (and Fotomats) and still have some Polaroid instant prints laying around in shoe boxes and taped inside photo albums. I remember those days fondly so when the new Polaroid Now Instant Camera Gen 2 came onto the scene promising pictures with all the “charming flaws and imperfections you remember” but with a modern and updated twist, my nostalgia muscles contracted and I just HAD to try it out. To my surprise, my oldest daughter said she’d also been DYING to get one of these because so many of her friends had been talking about them–she was over the moon when I brought one home.
Well, after spending some time on a recent family trip with the Polaroid Now, I quickly realized that the reason we used these cameras when I was a kid wasn’t because they took great pictures, or even that they were necessarily convenient to haul around so that you’d never miss one of those once-in-a-lifetime photo ops (you could still do that with a regular camera)…it’s because we simply didn’t have anything else. There was no way to take a photo and see the results instantly like you can with a cell phone, or admittedly, with an instant photo printed from a Polaroid or other ultra-portable instant camera. At best, you had to drive to a one-hour photo shop with your roll of film and hope they could squeeze you in and get your pictures back before you had to drive home. So in that sense, the Polaroid Now delivers a nostalgic bit of photographic instant gratification–you DO get to see your photos AND hold them in your hands just a scant few minutes after you take them. Sadly, the cost, trouble, and abysmally low-quality results associated with all that effort makes the Polaroid Now a very poor investment for anything more than a prop at an 80s costume party.
To be fair, this is every bit the Polaroid you remember and more. The colorway is precisely as I remember and the shape is just as weirdly trapezoidal, with jutting, angular shapes and protrusions that make it anything but a joy to tote around…again, sporting the same clunky ergonomics as the Polaroid cameras of my youth. There are two wrist-strap slots on the back that, in my time, would have accommodated a neck strap so that you’d at least have your hands free when walking about while the camera bumped and bounced around at chest level. Here, you only get one wrist strap, and at ~1.2 lbs with a loaded film pack, it’s not heavy per se, but you definitely feel the weight and hard shapes, edges, and angles bouncing around awkwardly at the end of your hand. The fact that there’s no neck-strap option included makes the new Polaroid Now more troublesome to carry than it should be.
There is a bit of modern flair thrown in for good measure. The little paper picture counter at the back of the camera that indicated remaining shots in the film cartridge has been replaced with an easy-to-read LCD display. The camera is USB-C chargeable, which not only makes it easier to find a charging cable these days, but that built-in battery means you can use the slightly chapter i-Type film packs that don’t have a battery in them necessary to otherwise power the flash, electronics, or picture roller/motor.
There’s a power button on the back, and a big ol’ red button up front for taking a picture. There’s also a handy flash control button at the back next to the power button that lets you cancel the flash per exposure; the button itself blinks with a glowing lightning bolt in the middle when the flash is ready to use, and is not illuminated at all if you turn the flash off–that’s some nice usability/design work that helps make the camera pretty much self-explanatory.
I loved the addition of the small self-timer button on the front; but in use, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The Polaroid design makes it really easy to simply “point-and-shoot,” so long as you are generally facing the direction/object you want to capture. But if you are really looking to frame your subject properly, there’s a telescope-like viewfinder jutting out of the back you can peer through to get a better sense of how the image will be composed on the print. Unfortunately, there is no threaded tripod mount on the bottom of the camera so you generally have to find other objects–a tree branch, park bench, shelf, table, etc. to set the camera on and hope it’s at roughly the proper height/angle if you want to use the timer to get into the action yourself. Of course, the rub here is that most objects we needed to use in the moment as a camera prop didn’t easily accommodate someone walking behind the camera to make sure everything/everyone was in frame. This is not a knock on THIS Polaroid camera…the same was true in my youth, back when they were all the rage, but the general inability to properly frame most shots when each exposure is relatively expensive quickly drained some of the nostalgic fun from the prospect of repeated re-shoots and one more-for-luck or one-more-for-mom photo ops.
That brings me to the heart of our misgivings with the Polaroid Now, especially in today’s day and age. After a LOT of searching at several different big-box stores, we were finally able to track down some Polaroid film. But short of buying a bulk package of film online that started to close in on the price of the camera itself (!!!), the cheapest we could find Color i-Type film (which, again, is slightly cheaper than 600 film) was about $16 per pack–for 8 exposures! At roughly $2 per photo, that struck me as more than a little pricey because there’s a good chance that not every one of those 8 photos was going to come out in focus, in frame, or lit well enough to make out the subject…aaaaaaaaand, sadly, I was right.
I picked several colorful compositions to start things off…my dog next to a colorful plaid doggie bed, my wife next to a bouquet of flowers bursting with color, my daughter posing in her newest outfit purchased solely for going on job interviews, etc. Each photo was taken during the day, in a brightly lit kitchen or dining room, or outside in the daylight. With each photo, I experienced a healthy dose of that quaint, old-fashioned Polaroid magic when you see (and hear) a picture slowly spill out of the front of the camera and start developing right before your eyes. Only this time, you’re not supposed to take the picture out and either shake it or stare at it while it develops. Instead, you’re supposed to keep it in a dark place or face-down while it fully develops. You can even leave it perched at the front lip of the camera under the dark protective cover screen–which was actually a cool design feature and I give Polaroid major props for thinking of it when you don’t have a dark, flat surface ready at hand to allow the photos to safely develop on their own.
But once the photos did develop, the disappointment set in. Yes, the prints came out often as soft and “charmingly flawed” as they used to, while many others were simply unusable due to being so washed out or so dark and underexposed that it was hard to believe I was looking at a picture of the same scene I had just photographed. My wife and I compared notes and frankly neither of us remember the Polaroids of our youth coming out looking quite as badly as these did. I grant you, perhaps our “Polaroiding” skills were a bit rusty, but I don’t remember photos taken 2-3 feet away under the cast of bright overhead lights (and with assistance of the onboard “accurate flash” to boot) coming out quite so dark and soft-focused.
Worse still, after just a few test shots, I had already burned through $12 of photos with only two decent but absurdly dark prints for my trouble. Then the next realization sunk in–with so few prints in each film cartridge, I was going to have to tote around a LOT more film packages in addition to the rather bulky camera itself if I was going to get any legitimate use out of the camera on our family trip. I did relent and bring it along, but the novelty quickly wore off as fatigue set in from carrying the bulky camera and multiple packs of instant film around with me, as did my misgivings at throwing away at least 70-80% of the photos we took. Honestly, I don’t remember what the economics of a Polaroid camera were in the late 70s and 80s…maybe the marginal cost of each photo is still about the same now as it was back then relative to the price of the film packs, but I just can’t abide throwing so much money away on film with so little return on my investment, especially when digital photography has changed the landscape of photography and photo-sharing in such dramatic and fundamental ways.
YES, the Polaroid Now delivered every bit of the unique “photo-taking experience” I remember when using similar cameras in my youth–and it was a nice, albeit brief, sashay into those familiar feelings when we couldn’t wait to produce an instant photo we could hold in our hands. And I freely admit that Polaroid photography probably takes some practice and getting used to, and we might not have given it enough time to shake off the cobwebs. But the ergonomics and economics of the Polaroid solution just doesn’t make the kind of sense today as it did back when we were burning through several photo packs a week, especially when there are so many other options for picture-taking and picture-sharing available these days.
I can certainly see the appeal at parties and for recapturing the retro-spirit of DIY photography; but I think we’ve sadly outgrown the Polaroid mindset and I’d have a hard time convincing anyone to come back into the fold based on our experience. In fact, when I told my oldest daughter she was free to keep the camera for herself but would have to buy the film packs on her own from now on, she looked up the price of an 8-pack of film, did the math for even a brief outing with her boyfriend, and told me, “That’s okay, dad, I don’t really need it.” For all her exuberance and excitement, that told me all I really needed to know.

Great Polaroid Camera! Easy to use. Love the vintage look! Definitely worth buying and recommending it to family and friends.