Camera Hacker

Polaroid i-Zone Pocket Camera

November 7, 2000

On Sunday, I attended my good friend's birthday party. The night before, I ran all over the mall, looking for a unique birthday present that would really stand out. Being a Camera Hacker, I really didn't have to spend all that time. Instead, the first thing that should have came to my mind is the Polaroid i-Zone Pocket Camera.

Yes, I know that the Polaroid i-Zone Pocket Camera is for kids. Even though I'm already twenty-six, and my friends are also in their twenties, we are still children in heart.

This little gem takes instant stamp size pictures. In fact, the pictures have sticky backings so that they can be attached anywhere. I purchased one of these cameras for less than twenty bucks, bought some more instant sticky film, and headed down to the party.

The first thing I heard, when my friend opened up the present I gave her, was "Hey! That's the i-Zone camera I saw on TV!"

Next came, "Yeah! That takes instant pictures."

"Oooo . . . it comes with sticky film . . . you know . . . picture with sticky back!"

Apparently this little camera is a lot more popular than I am. I live in LA, when I walked into my friends' apartment in SF, I didn't even stir up that many woo's and ahh's. And my showing up was a surprise.

Over the next few hours we worked on peeling off the sticky backing and sticking picture over each other's foreheads and stuff. But we found the picture to stick best on glasses. In fact, one of my friends thought he had destroyed the TV screen because he couldn't pull it off. I tried the same on the window and it stuck like a strong magnet on metal.

We were surprised at how sharp the pictures came out. The fixed focus lens on the i-Zone camera really came out crisp and vibrant in color. Perhaps, because the resulting print is so small that it looked very sharp.

The film comes in little black cartridges. My friends found out that after using up the film, the cartridge case, with it snap lid, works wonderfully holding the pictures. Now she has a little black album containing pictures from the party to remember all her life.

And I have succeeded in finding a fun unique gift.

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