Almost two years ago, Polaroid announced that it was closing shop for good. The arrival of digital cameras have effectively doomed the company that pioneered instant developing film (kind of like the spiritual grandfather of digital cameras’ ability to preview your photo right after you take it). But the company has come back from the grave and has been releasing new products that is aimed to make it a significant player in the photography market once again.
One new product in the Polaroid lineup is the Z340, a camera that will not only take photos digitally, it will also print it immediately because it has a built-in printer. Imagine the classic Polaroid camera but updated to the 21st century – now you get the idea behind the Z340.
Polaroid is making sure that you don’t forget the pedigree of the camera and where it came from. The Z340 sports the classic Polaroid camera form factor – the long, tapering chassis with a small slit at the front, where the printed photo comes out. The Z340 sports a 14 megapixel image sensor that is just right smack in the midst of the current crop of digital cameras available in the market right now. The camera sports a 2.7 inch LCD screen that pops out at the top, again, reminiscent of the old Polaroid cameras wit the pop-up viewfinder. Polaroid really wants to make this camera your only go-to device for photography. The LCD screen not only doubles as your screen for reviewing the photos you take, it will also be your workspace for editing and cropping the photos. Polaroid has included rudimentary photo manipulation features in the camera so you won’t need to go to your computer to crop or edit your pictures. After editing the photos on the Z340 you can now print the picture or save it on the SD card.