I feel like I've been spending so much on Polaroid-size film and film cameras over the last 2+ years. I've tried buying an old OneStep, then purchased the OneStep2 and then an old SX-70 but I can't seem to catch a break. Either the batteries die far too quickly or the film doesn't expose very well. Fortunately my love of Polaroid will always prevail.

I remember seeing the I-1 launch but didn't feel like making the investment. It wasn't until the price dropped and that didn't seem like much of a financial gamble try it out at this point. I've taken it out on a number of trips and I'm surprised at how long the battery life is. Also, the way the camera viewfinder is set up, I'm also not cutting off my subject in the pictures. The app and all the modern bells and whistles are awesome to do more artistic things with.

Polaroid Originals/Impossible Project/Polaroid are doing some incredible things in this space. I hope they continue on their path to bring back this awesome instant platform. If anyone from Polaroid is listening, I would LOVE to see an interpretation on a modern SX-70 foldable camera. Unfortunately the OneStep and 1-I are just awkwardly sized for my travel photography kit and I would love to see a foldable Polaroid that I can take along with my main camera kit.

But the camera is actually not as bad as I thought it might be. Everything worked as described. The open box experience was cool. The product design is well executed and tidy. The App worked great too, to my surprise. I had no issues with the magnet viewfinder - worked as intended - flipped up at a push of the flap and collapsed down with a couple of folds.
The charging issue seems to be one of the problems many people complained about, but based on my experience so far, I realized I must use the supplied USB Charge Cable to achieve a fast charge (about an hour). I did use my own USB phone cable initially and that took forever!!! In fact, I don't think it even charged at all after a whole day of being plugged in. To be honest, I didn't want to carry and use another what I thought to be a "standard" USB cable, but I think we don't have a choice here. Impossible should have thought about this and engineered the standard USB cable to work, rather than causing so much pain around the charging issue for many users.
I purchased this camera during a big Amazon sale, so for me, it's absolutely great value and a true fun bargain buy! Personally, I wouldn't pay the retail price though. It's a good camera for that fun occasional "artsy" use, but not great as a party point and shoot camera, because image quality isn't that great when compared to other similar instant cameras and films are way way too expensive when it adds up! I think the film cost is this product's biggest weakness for me.

I don't know what most people are expecting from Polaroid, but this was a great purchase. $45 and you get the vintage camera aesthetic with advanced functions that you can use with a paired smartphone that work flawless for me. The photos come out exactly the same as my vintage Polaroid's, or almost better Very crisp I'm shocked. I also have a Polaroid sx-70 that shoots 600 film so it has competition. The battery life is kind of sucky, the viewfinder takes getting used to, once again my sx-70 when I look through the viewfinder I see what I'm shooting but in this one I'm kind of just guessing what's going to be in the frame. It's kind of nice to says autofocus but it's very unsatisfying, when I push the button to autofocus I don't hear it focusing like my sun 660 and definitely not like my sx-70. When I opened up the box I took everything out pretty carefully and it seems my camera did not come with the screws for the hand strap so that kind of sucks. Overall my first day using it I'm very pleased. Take the horror stories with a grain of salt.

Over the past three years, I've spent about $3000 in my search for the perfect instant camera. I'm not proud of that, even a little embarrassed, but it does make me a reluctant expert on instant photography and contemporary instant cameras. I own three cameras by MiNT, one by a small manufacturing company called Mercury Cameras, some Lomography cameras, and this Impossible I-1. I love my MiNT RF70 (uses instax wide, priced around $900), and I really love my Mercury Camera (also a little more than $900). I also love my MiNT SLR670 (a modified sx-70, priced around $800). All three cameras take excellent instant pictures, and give you a wide rage of manual controls.

However, for less than $100, you can buy the Impossible I-1. Out of the box, it doesn't seem comparable to the cameras listed above. But once you connect it to your smart phone through the bluetooth function, the camera unlocks complete manual controls (including aperture, shutter speed, focal length, double/single exposure). The lens is every bit as good as the lens on the MiNT RF70, but for about 1/10th the price. And if you enjoy using manual controls, the picture quality is exceptional and compares very well with the pictures from the MiNT SLR670, or to any other rehabbed sx-70. In fact, because the Impossible has a hard shell, the pictures are probably better than any rehabbed sx-70, since those tend to leak light through the bellows.

In any case, I know this is a fairly technical review, written for users who have a serious interest in analogue and instant photography. But the upshot is: The Impossible I-1 is absolutely the best instant camera for the money, hands down. Get one while you can. I'm not sure, but I fear that Impossible (now Polaroid) has discontinued manufacture.

THis is a great instant camera!. The ergonomics are great, the bluetooth interface gives access to full manual control and lots of other creative modes. The lens quality is good and the new formulation film by Polaroid Originals is really good. As good as the old Time Zero film from Polaroid, although the development still takes much longer... what counts is picture quality and this camera and film combination is really excellent. At the present price, which is a fraction of the original, this camera is a steal. I bought a second one. Highly recommended! Five stars.