Camera review: The Polaroid and The Bloggie

 

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Do you think Kate and William have packed a good camera for their honeymoon? If they haven't yet, I can recommend the Polaroid camera I bought recently with my eBay stash. At £79 for the camera and about £9 for a box of ten blanks, I thought it was a bit of a luxury treat, a fun techie indulgence. But we've all rather fallen for it on holiday, where it has plugged a touchie-feelie gap left by the ever efficient digital camera. 

When we're travelling I always keep a diary (well I have to do something with all those notesbooks) into which I write what we've done. I always keep the cards of good restaurants and shops we've visited and stick 'em in, along with the odd pressed flower or leaf to decorate. I also takes loads of photos meaning to print them off when I get home and stick them in as well. Never happens. Life gets too busy on my return and I never get around to it so the travel diaries remain picture-less.

Which is where the charming little Polaroid pictures, in their new slimline format (as opposed the the square ones on the old style camera) step in. Although the quality of the snaps is not as good as digital and the settings a wee bit difficult to get right (there are only four- 'inside' thro to 'bright') the pictures have loads of retro-character, they remind me of the size and feel of the pictures my parents took in the early 60s. They make fabulous instant keepsakes, a way of taking the moment with you- or in my case sticking it down on a page with Pritstick. I now can't imagine writing the diary without it. 

Youngest teen, however, informs me that I should have bought the Polaroid Pogo instant camera, which is a digital camera with an instant printer, which of course means you can have your take-away picture AND have the digital version saved for later. it's more expensive but does look a clever idea. Anyone already using one?

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And then there's the Bloggie, Sony's camera with a USB stick built in. This is very neat and came on holiday via middleteen's girlfriend, who has been using it for 6 months and loves it. Not only can you easily load up your (high quality) pics and video straight onto your laptop via the usb stick, but there's a bit of softwear that allows you to upload them straight onto Facebook/social network of choice, although neither she nor I could be bothered to do this as it was just as easy to dump them onto the desktop or iPhoto.

It is touch screen, very lightweight and slim in design and middleteen's girlfriend keeps hers in a pink iPhone case. I think it would be very useful for covert photography, ie taking pictures in shops when we are not supposed to, because it doesn't have a flash to go off accidentally, not that we ever do this sort of thing of course. 

Either would work on honeymoon. I do hope Kate's kept a diary in the lead up to yesterday, their kids will love to read it and I love the idea of her snapping William by the pool with the Polaroid. We hope they have a good time.

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