Polaroid

It's 40 years since the first Lomo camera went into production, a Russian copy of the Cosina CX-2. That simple model spawned a global art-centred Lomography movement – which has now been embodied in the stylish and versatile Lomo’Instant Wide Glass.

Sadly not in time for the holidays, but perhaps a treat for the new year – a project out of the Lego Ideas fan platform is about to bring the iconic OneStep SX-70 instant camera back to life through a 516-brick set.

Though many of us will have an instant camera with us pretty much all of the time, printing out snaps can be a hassle. Polaroid cameras have a built in printer, and the company is going premium for its latest model – the I-2.

Polaroid instant cameras of old were big, blocky snappers with one-press simplicity and the ability to throw out self-developing photos. The latest addition to the family follows the same design aesthetic, but the Go is a fraction of the size.

Although many photographers like experimenting with old instant film cameras, the things typically lack the manual controls that are integral to serious photography. That's where the InstantKon SF70 Instant Camera is designed to come in.

Polaroid has today launched the Hi-Print, a pocket-friendly photo printer that can turn smartphone snaps into 2.3 x 3.4-inch prints in less than a minute, which can then be stuck on lockers, laptop lids, backpacks, or scrapbooks.

In an age where instant photography means whipping out a smartphone and sharing the image with friends online, a boxy camera that produces self-developing prints seems like a huge backward step. But that's exactly what the Polaroid Now offers.

Polaroid has announced an official version of the Impossible Instant Lab from 2012, which turns smartphone images into physical prints.

​While there may indeed be a retro appeal to analog instant cameras, digital cameras do certainly make some things easier. Polaroid has decided to combine the two – sort of – in the form of the smartphone-controlled OneStep+.

In 2015 Prynt launched its first unit designed to turn your smartphone into something akin to a Polaroid instant camera. The first design was followed by the Prynt Pocket, which was half the size of the original. Initially only for the iPhone, the Prynt Pocket for Android has now been developed.

​Kodak has announced the upcoming release of a brand new point-and-shoot instant print digital camera called the Printomatic. Designed for simplicity, the bare-bones snapper prints out photos on no-ink Zink photo paper, just like 2015's eerily similar Polaroid Snap model in fact.

At CES this week, Polaroid has introduced the new Polaroid Pop, which offers higher-res photos than its digital predecessor in a package that retains more than a hint of nostalgia. ​