The Impossible Project Debuts Its First Camera, The I-1

Truth be told, I wasn't taken by the name. I was hoping for more, like maybe V1, or A1 for analog one. But it didn't hold true.

Impossible Project has been grinding its way to more sales of positive polaroid film. They have in the past come out with a slew of accessories for you to double down on their instant film. Problem was the films relied on old Polaroid cameras which are in decline.

The old Polaroid formats needed more users, hence the new camera from Impossible Project named the i-1.

I am for analog cameras. But I clearly want a classic of vintage to shoot with in the same way I would buy and use a vintage or classic car if I had the money. Would I buy a replica car? Nope.

And the i-1 is a replica of sorts with updated ring flash and some exposure controls.

It doesn't look one bit like the beautifully designed Land Cameras from Polaroid.

At first, by looking at the picture, I thought the folks at Impossible Project had invented a new analog telephone....and mistakenly called it a camera.

Apparently that's the problem with designers. They use the best and cheapest option for flash by having LED bulbs arranged in a ring shape. This low power option will give good life to the battery no doubt.

Beyond this, you have bluetooth. It connects to your iPhone or Android device allowing you to remotely capture images and control the shutter speed and aperture.

Not sure how useful this would be as controlling the aperture and shutter speed via an app just sounds weird. If you don't know the exposure reading for a scene, how are you to remotely dial in the needed aperture or shutter speed?

Finally the resulting images are dreamy. Sort of...

Those of you who have been shooting in Instagram won't have a problem adapting to the square format pictures but for me at least, the camera appears bulky and unlike those collapsable Land cameras, they can be quite a pain to carry around. This new i-1 will hit the retail shelves in May 2016 and is expected to cost in the ballpark of US$300.