Should I buy an old Polaroid Camera ?

A friend of mine recently asked this question, Should I buy an old Polaroid Camera ? My short and flat answer was NO. Well but he couldn't resist all those ultra cheap vintage Polaroid cameras available for sale in ebay. One of those older models which doesn't have film anymore. Now he is asking about which alternative film packs he should use. Unfortunately, Even though a Polaroid Land Camera Model 95 is beautiful camera, you can not film for this one. There is one option which is modify it to take 6x10cm images of 120 film. These it's hard to find places which do this and a it costs lot more money.

If you really badly want to use an old Polaroid instant camera, then buy only either Polaroid 600, Polaroid SX-70 or Polaroid Spectra models. Because only those have new film packs available at Impossible Project Co. Rest of those old cams are only good as collectors items which can be kept in display. Even these film packs cost you around $24 for 8 photo prints. But they are doing their best to improve the film quality. Recently Impossible Project released  their 2nd generation black and white film packs. These new packs have improvements  over those old packs.

Unless you are a collector then best option is go for a new Polaroid or Fujifilm Instax instant film camera. Main reason is film for these cameras are in production and lot cheaper. New Mini film cost only around 50 cent per photo print. also quality is better and you don't have to keep these packs in fridge. 

There are new cheap Polaroid cameras like the latest one, Polaroid Snap. This model cost you only around $100, the cheapest Polaroid cam in market today. But there are also some great Fujifilm Instax Instant cameras out there in market too. Their latest Mini cam , Instax Mini 70 is one of the best they have come up so far.

Also don't forget about the Fujifilm Instax Mini Hello Kitty camera. This Amazing camera is available now for around $80 at online stores. Even thought it uses mini film, the camera is quite big and it comes in pink color only. So I think only girls who love pink and Hello Kitty fans buying it. Original price of the camera was around $250.

Not just these but there are plenty of other models such as Polaroid z340, Fujifilm Instax 300, Fujifilm Instax mini 90, Instax Mini 8 cameras out there too. There are so many choices and all these models are pretty good.

Above video is showing one of those Old Polaroid Model 95 land cameras and the original film packs for it.