First impressions
James Garner passed away earlier this year at the age of 86. For those of us who remember the successful series of TV commercials he did with Mariette Hartley, that gives us some idea of how long ago it was that the Polaroid camera was popular.
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, this instant camera produced photographs that would develop in your hand, featuring a very recognizable white border that was extra thick at the bottom. If you were an average citizen without your own darkroom, this was pretty much the only way to avoid taking your film to a shop to develop. Remember that? Waiting to pick up your photos and then realizing your thumb was over half of them? But I digress…
Digital cameras slowly entered the market, and while home printer technology advanced at the same time as prices dropped, the Polaroid camera became an obsolete piece of equipment. There’s no denying, however, that like the yearning for the vinyl records of yesteryear, some people long for the days of those Polaroid images with their interesting array of colors.
Enter the Polamatic app. That’s right, folks! You can take a photo, and have it develop on your 21st century tablet or phone, with the same “quality” as good ol’ 20th century Polaroid photos. How could I resist?
How it works
It’s quite simple: once you’ve downloaded it, you can choose to either take a photo with your device’s built-in camera, or import one from photos you’ve already got stored. Lo and behold, the image will “develop” before your very eyes, although it happens a lot faster than I remember, and you don’t have to shake your device like a Polaroid picture (ahhh Outkast, we hardly knew ye.)
Once it has appeared, you can get into the effects to make it look everything from crisp and clear, to slightly aged or changed by different color filters. Honestly, you’ll be amazed how the memories will return if you’re over the age of about 35, when you apply those different filters.
The border options are even more hilarious, allowing you to make your photo border look deliberately crumpled, or sporting the remains of some old Scotch tape that might have attached it to a wall or board many moons ago.
You can also crop your shot, adjust the brightness, and add text. That’s one of my favorite parts of this app – the text part.
You get your image, and then write your text by choosing the pencil icon in the bottom right hand corner. You can then change the size and type of font, along with its color and alignment; rotation and opacity. Tap and hold the text to move it around with your finger, including down onto that bonkers bottom margin.
As you work your way through the various options, your photo will look less and less like a recent vacation picture, and more and more like a 1980s snap that you posted to your parents from Camp Chippawappa.
When you are finally happy with your masterpiece, you can save it to your photos, or share it with the world via the usual suspects, such as email and Facebook. I suspect that once you get addicted to this app, you’ll be sending retro shots to everyone you know.
When I tried it
I had a ball with this app, particularly as I was surrounded by people of a similar age. We all yipped with glee, as those color effects washed over our pictures. My last year’s vacation in Alaska was transformed to Vicki in Alaska in the days of the gold rush. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture (guffaw.)
I didn’t have to work with it for long to know that I would be introducing all of my friends to the Polamatic app. It was easy to use, cheap, and brought back a lot of memories.
Final thoughts
If you were around in the time of Polaroid’s heyday, this app is a no-brainer for you to download, if for nothing more than the curiosity factor. Trust me, you’ll enjoy using it, even if you don’t take new photos for it. Just give it a try on some of your existing shots. For $0.99 it’s well worth the craic.
Pros:
Less expensive than Polaroid film ever was. Fun options. Can you put a price on memories?
Cons:
You’ll wish you were 13 with braces all over again.
Polamatic by Polaroid
- Cost: $0.99
- Seller: Dana Shakiba
- Devices: iOS and Android
- Rating: E for Everyone
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