VITAL STATS
ECHOING FOR GOLD
[ Words Tom Wiggins ]
Polaroid Flip
£200 /go.stuff.tv/PolaroidFlip
Have I got olds for you
This isn’t the first Polaroid camera to have ultrasonic skills: in ancient times, the SX-70 Sonar and SLR680 both used it for their autofocus systems.
With a nifty nature-inspired focusing trick and nostalgic design, could this be the ultimate point’n’shoot cam for impatient snappers?
● Measure hunt
You might not think dolphins and instant cameras have much in common, and in general you’d be right. Polaroid’s new Flip can’t swim, there’s no blowhole on top, and it doesn’t have a layer of blubber to keep it warm… but very much like a dolphin, it does have sonar. Rather than finding fish, the Flip’s sonar skills are used to determine how far away you are from your subject before automatically selecting the most suitable of its four lenses – and because it uses sound to do so, it’ll even work when it’s dark.