Polaroid a500

[Yugoboy]

I got this camera free for attending a sales promotion for a vacation club. There’s a long story behind the “free” part, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t supposed to be, but I can be passionate, convincing and not an asshole when I want to be.

Retrevo Fact Sheet: http://www.retrevo.com/s/Polaroid-a500-Digital-Cameras-review-manual/id/565bh143/t/1-2/

I cannot disagree with much that is said on that site. There isn’t much they say that’s good about this camera. BUT… sometimes a tool is only as good as its user.

The images below are all pictures I got with this camera. Funny thing about this camera… on the side, there’s a switch. After some investigation of the very meager manual, I found that it’s a “Focus Switch”. When set to the mountain icon, it’s for stuff not close – very wide angle. The flower icon allows you to take pictures from less than 6 inches away.

The 1.7″ screen on the back is inadequate to the task of helping you decide whether the shot you got was any good – it’s useful only for figuring out what’s going to be in the picture. There’s some choice among the settings, I haven’t played too much with those, although there are three settings for Red, Blue and Green. Haven’t played with those but if I do, I’ll share here.

Important to success with this camera is having enough light. Based on my experiments, using the flash has an almost 90% chance of suck. If you need the flash, you’re screwed.

All that said… there’s a definite role for this tool in my bag. I’ll likely never use an image from this for a Farktography entry, but there are potential uses.

Wide angle shots:

Kodak Tower from the parking lot (camera is resting on ground):

Kodak Tower from the Front:

Painted Diamond Plate:

Very “Meh,” right? I thought so… if you’re still with me, let me show you what the camera IS good for.

Macro(esque) Close-ups:

Same Diamond Plate from about 4 inches:

Tree Bark (based on this image, I’d say that there’s a limited focal plane at this setting):

Pavement:

Art – a Walkie Talkie Cord in front of a weathered 1×6 with parking lot in background:

Finally, two shots to prove the low-light suckage – both of my rabbit Apollo.
These were taken in a room with much sunlight, but only one window to allow the sunlight in.

With Flash On:

With Flash Off:

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My assessment: Decent toy. I’d give it to my kid, if I had a kid. Better at texture and macro than wide-angle. For use only in bright light conditions. I’ll keep it on me, mostly because of its size and the fact that it takes full-size SD cards- easier to get into the computer, but it will never be my main camera, not even if my Nikon falls in a river.

[Barracuda]

I’ve found that small P&S’s often do have a fairly good macro ability to them where otherwise they are full of fail. I keep meaning to get the batteries charged on my old Olympus camera that has something called ‘super macro’ that allows focal lengths down to like half an inch or something really close like that. Of all the shots above, I like the pavement the most. 🙂

[orionid]

I saw polaroid and got excited. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry in my beer.

[emiliogtz]

My assessment: Decent toy. I’d give it to my kid.

I wouldn’t do that to my kid. 🙂

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