Polaroid pc-compatible printer (early 2000s, late 90s?)
December 17, 2015 10:48 AM Subscribe
Has anyone heard of or owned a vintage Polaroid printer that printed directly from a computer onto standard Polaroid stuff (not sure if 600 or SX-70). I'm trying to locate one for maybe experimenting with Impossible stock. Unfortunately, in the years since, Polaroid has made a ton of newer printers for smartphones etc and it's very hard to find with just the vague memory of when it came out. Any help would be appreciated.
Best answer: It's called the Polaroid Colorshot Printer.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:30 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:30 AM on December 17, 2015
According to the manual, it used its own film packs:
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:44 AM on December 17, 2015
The printer uses Polaroid ColorShot film to create instant color pictures featuring highly saturated, continuous-tone colors. Unlike other Polaroid film, this specially-made pack does not contain a battery.Since the images it prints aren't square, it's probably Spectra film.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:44 AM on December 17, 2015
Response by poster:
I lost interest in trying to master the printer when a friend just used a regular polaroid camera to take a photo of a jpeg on a monitor - the picture turned out fine, and that method was much much easier and quicker than messing with the printer.
Ha, funny you should mention that. I've been doing this as it's the only way to get a usable photo out of my particular polaroid. It works well for "arty stuff."
It's called the Polaroid Colorshot Printer.
That's definitely the one, thanks. I really do remember it printing on off-the-shelf polaroid film though. This says that it uses standard Spectra film as well as the Colorshot stuff. This would definitely be an experiment all the way around I think...
posted by tremspeed at 11:50 AM on December 17, 2015
I lost interest in trying to master the printer when a friend just used a regular polaroid camera to take a photo of a jpeg on a monitor - the picture turned out fine, and that method was much much easier and quicker than messing with the printer.
Ha, funny you should mention that. I've been doing this as it's the only way to get a usable photo out of my particular polaroid. It works well for "arty stuff."
It's called the Polaroid Colorshot Printer.
That's definitely the one, thanks. I really do remember it printing on off-the-shelf polaroid film though. This says that it uses standard Spectra film as well as the Colorshot stuff. This would definitely be an experiment all the way around I think...
posted by tremspeed at 11:50 AM on December 17, 2015
I just dug mine out of the closet. It is called the P-500 and uses (naturally) Polaroid 500 film. This model is certainly cheap on ebay, but for the reasons above I really don't recommend it. One of Polaroid's other printers (like the colorshot) would presumably be better.
posted by anonymisc at 1:33 PM on December 17, 2015
posted by anonymisc at 1:33 PM on December 17, 2015
Polaroid has made a ton of newer printers for smartphones etc
Yeah and not even actual Polaroid products, just the name being licensed to put on random crap from China.
posted by w0mbat at 2:15 PM on December 17, 2015
Yeah and not even actual Polaroid products, just the name being licensed to put on random crap from China.
posted by w0mbat at 2:15 PM on December 17, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
And it would crash a lot - it could read a jpg direct from my digital camera or from my pc if it came from the camera, and print that no problems, but it would crash on a jpg from my PC or a photo from my camera that had been through photoshop or saved by any software on my pc.
Every time it crashed, to restart it I had to cut the power, ie remove the battery, ie remove the film, which exposed the current polaroid. So I remember burning through most of my film to figure out how to make a jpg file that wouldn't crash the printer. I don't recall if I succeeded or what I did if I did.
I lost interest in trying to master the printer when a friend just used a regular polaroid camera to take a photo of a jpeg on a monitor - the picture turned out fine, and that method was much much easier and quicker than messing with the printer.
posted by anonymisc at 11:01 AM on December 17, 2015