Polaroid isn't a name that many people think of these days, mostly remembering it as one of the big “buggy whip” companies of its era, a loser against the onslaught of camera phones. But Polaroid proved cannier than some may have expected, and took its camera knowledge to the next level with one of its newest product lines, which it brought to the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to show off. The product in question is a line of bridge cameras that offer a variety of features and make the line extremely timely in use with Web-based real-time communications (WebRTC).
Polaroid's line of cameras all, at last report, boast 18 megapixel resolution and HD video capability, with the biggest issue separating the four cameras making up the line being zoom quality. The iE3035W offers a 30X optical zoom, while the Ixx353W boasts a 35X optical zoom. The iE4038W allows for a 40X optical zoom, and then, in a move that breaks the pattern, the iE5036W allows for a 50X optical zoom. Perhaps in a nod to what took the original Polaroid down, reports suggest that the line of bridge cameras has “...the ease and convenience of a smartphone, making it fast and simple for everyone to capture outstanding photos with minimal fuss.” All four cameras pack a three inch LCD screen, image controls, a pop-up flash complete with red-eye reduction systems and an SD card slot to provide some extra storage capacity. The cameras are expected to hit stores in spring, with prices ranging from $149 to $299, depending on the desired zoom.
But the real winner here is that the cameras have peer-to-peer sharing capability, allowing the users to quickly move pictures from one user to another, assuming both users have access to a smartphone or tablet with a wireless connection capability. That's what makes the new Polaroids particularly useful, and, in a surprising move, able to come back from a future in which camera phones destroyed the standalone camera by making the standalone camera work with the phone.
It sounds convoluted at first, but the idea makes some sense. While camera phones are much more convenient than a standalone camera could ever be, camera phones often don't boast the kind of power that standalone cameras can have. Many camera phones use digital zoom over optical, and certainly not a 50X optical zoom, even when it's available. Add-on lenses can help, but the Polaroid line is ready to go, out of the box. Plus, it has the peer-to-peer connection capability which allows for rapid transfers of photos between one user and another, the kind of thing that's somewhat similar to WebRTC in nature, and can prove useful when put alongside the Polaroid camera line. With smartphone cameras, there's not always the rapid transfer that users may want, often requiring an intermediary app to get involved, but peer-to-peer connections can be much smoother and faster overall.
Polaroid may not be experiencing the best conditions it's ever seen, but the use of improved technology and better systems—along with advances that actually use a competitor's systems to improve its own performance—is the kind of thing that can really only help in the long term. The introduction of peer-to-peer connectivity, meanwhile, should be a particular help here for both Polaroid and its potential user base, a user base that may well have given up on Polaroid altogether.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
