The Polaroid Go ($99.99) is the smallest instant camera on the market. It fits in your palm of your hand, snaps shots with point-and-click simplicity, and has a clever mirrored viewfinder to frame selfies. That’s all good, but the film itself nets tiny prints with dull colors. Images taken by the Polaroid Go simply don’t have a lot of impact, and the film is expensive. If you want an easy-to-use instant camera for square snapshots, get the $119.95 Fujifilm SQ1 instead.
Points for Cuteness
The Go’s design is a throwback, one that plays on nostalgia for Polaroid cameras from the ’70s. It’s finished in white plastic with a few splashes of color. The company’s rainbow stripe logo is positioned above the lens, and the shutter release, Polaroid Go logo, and wrist strap are bright red.
The camera is palm-size, at about 2.4 by 3.3 by 5.9 inches (HWD). It’s made for one-hand use, with the shutter at the top right. There’s a second button nearby, used to turn the flash on or off, and the power button is on the rear, next to the LED film counter display.
The lens covers about the same angle of view as a 35mm prime. It’s good for single and two-person selfies. Optics are plastic, typical for affordable instant cameras. Details in prints are a little soft, but the photos are pretty small to begin with. The lens flares when shooting into the sun, so avoid backlit scenes.
An internal, rechargeable battery provides power. It charges via micro USB and Polaroid promises it can handle 15 packs of film between charges. I only had two packs to try, so I wasn’t able to run down the battery to verify the claim.
Polaroid Go Film
The Go uses a new, eponymous film format. It’s a cartridge format, with eight shots in each container. Polaroid prices it at $19.99 for two packs, about $1.25 per photo. If you use the Go with any frequency, it won’t be long before you’ve spent more on film than the camera. Film isn’t included, either, something to remember if you decide to buy one.
Prints are small, about two inches wide, including the border. The color film takes some time to develop and has to be shielded from light during the early stages of the process. Because of this, the Go includes an opaque film to cover pictures after they eject from the camera. You’ll want to stow them in a camera bag or jacket pocket as they develop.
It’s not the only issue with the film. Polaroid warns against color shifts toward green on cold days and red on hot ones.
Our test shots were a mixed bag. My first pack of film turned out poorly—images were underexposed, colors were dull, and my outdoor selfies looked like they were snapped inside a dim room (for the record, I shot them outdoors on a gray June afternoon).
The second pack turned out a lot better. I used it on a summer morning at a nearby national park and netted shots with much brighter, vibrant colors. Accuracy wasn’t perfect—the film shows my eyeglasses as having Walter Sobchak yellow lenses, which they don’t.
But even with vibrant results, the pictures themselves are just small. Fujifilm’s Instax Square format has proven to be more reliable and consistent over the years, and has a larger, more impactful size (2.4 inches). It costs a little less too, at about $0.90 per image for color. It’s a better instant film, and there’s even a black-and-white option available, though at a higher $1.49/image cost.
You Can Pass on the Go
The Polaroid Go is a cute, tiny instant camera. It’s the smallest you’ll find with a pure analog process. Once the novelty factor wears off, however, you’re left with undersized prints that require more care in handling and cost more to make than the Fujifilm’s competing Instax Square format.
The Fujifilm Instax Square SQ1 remains our Editors’ Choice winner for affordable, square format instant cameras. It’s not as svelte as the Go, but it’s available in a few fun colors and lets you switch to black-and-white film if the artistic spirit catches you.
