Then, in 2017, The Impossible Projects’ majority shareholders acquired PLR IP Holdings, LLC, the owner of the Polaroid brand, and The Impossible Project subsequently rebranded as Polaroid Originals. In 2008, it ceased production of film that its classic cameras used, leaving families and hipsters bereft.Īt this point, a company called The Impossible Project stepped into the breach, selling film compatible with classic Polaroid cameras (and its own Impossible I-1 camera). However, things started to go sour with the advent of new technology around the turn of the millennium, forcing Polaroid to pull out of the instant printing game. In the second half of the 21st century, Polaroid all but owned the instant camera market – which is why we now use the brand name as a proprietary eponym for instant cameras in general.

Why we like it: This brilliant piece of tech looks great, is easy to use, and takes nostalgia-laden pictures. Here's the results of the testing, starting with the very best instant camera of them all. These devices vary in price from around £70 to nearly £200 – although contrary what you might expect, I found that paying more doesn’t necessarily ensure you get a better product. So, which instant camera should you buy? To answer that question, I tried, tested and reviewed the best from the biggest names in the instant photography game: Polaroid, Fujifilm, and Lomography. There are plenty of instant camera options available, each offering subtle differences that serve to significantly alter the overall experience. Polaroid, the company synonymous with instant cameras, actually went bust in 2001, and while it now exists in a slightly different guise, it no longer hogs the market. There's certainly something alluring about the photos they take: underexposed, oddly-shaped, and not always completely focused, instant cameras serve a reminder that Polaroid was doing natural filters long before Instagram came around.

In recent years, however, instant cameras have swung back into fashion, propelled by the 'new cool' of old analogue media. Despite never having ‘gone away’ exactly, instant photography took a nosedive in the late 20th Century, squeezed out of the snap-happy insta-photo marketplace first by the rise of disposable cameras and then by the advent of the smartphone.

Athome camera borders