Polaroid Now Plus Review

[@IanReynolds-i7j]

Banger of a vid as usual brotha. Very informative video with sensible perspectives from quality data. Also had me dying on numerous occasion. Thanks!

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Thanks for watching!!

[@fiver-hoo]

I-2 owner here. Polaroid claims the exposure issues on that camera are because they tested it with a bad batch of film. Supposedly this is fixed in a firmware update (as of yet released to the public, but beta tested by influencers). I wonder if they also used crappy film to calibrate the NOW+. I've seen better QC by kindergartners.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

That's really interesting stuff-- I saw Just Another Chris talking about the I2 firmware update, but I'm not gonna lie I have no idea about any of it haha. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@rebours]

"A bad batch of film", have they produced any good ones ?

[@SweetLouPhotography]

@@rebours boom roasted

[@knoptop]

you just need to tap into your inner imperfectionist

[@TacoMan99]

I almost bought this a couple months ago. With your help along with a few other youtubers I was able to pick the sq6 from instax, I wanted the square film and with the extra control it was an easy pick. I hope poloroid can push through and figure out the formula for all the issues stated today. ✌️from Stockton ca.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

the sq6 has grown on me so much!! I actually said I was gonna review that camera ages ago (still will) but in recent months, it's been out and with me so much more often. Thanks for watching, glad I could help out

[@scotthamilton2016]

It was reported Polaroid calibrated the i2 light meter using faulty film which they are addressing with a firmware update so possibly they made this same error when calibrating the Now+ light meter.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Very possible, and very crappy QC if that's the case!!

[@amb3rlynx]

I genuinely hate this camera. 50/50 for a good pic is honestly a generous. Its more like 35/65 for a good photo. Thank you for this video I have wasted so much money on film and testing to see if I could get good pix and I also thought my first camera was broken and returned and got a new one.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I've wasted so much on money on making this vid hahaha. Thanks for sharing your experience! Sorry you had a shitty time with it though

[@reinerrnuestro6554]

I’ve had more or least the same ratio for my Polaroid shots. For every pack of 8, only 2 to 3 will actually be good and the rest will be underexposed. And if I’m lucky, at least 1 of 8 will be really dark even if it was shot during daytime. 😂

[@filmismorefun]

Man there's soooo much info in this vid. Was the one+ the Polaroid I bummed for a while? I remember having a bunch of exposure issues on the packs I shot but just chocked it up to my lack of operatiing it correctly.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I believe so!! Ugh dude what a skill issue!!! /s I think I said this in another video too, all the polaroid cameras amount to boxes with holes in them. It's allllll about the film. In this particular case ,the camera is just shifting the difficulty up to nightmare mode lol

[@Latenivenatrix_Mcmasterae]

I got the Polaroid Now+ Gen 2 as an early birthday gift two years ago and I'm upset that it has such discourse for something someone paid so much for me to have. I do not plan on getting rid of the camera as I believe that would be rude to those who bought it for me, especially since I asked for one, but I will take this information and use it to take better photos with what I have now

[@DeeSnow97]

i've long wondered why you, along with a lot of americans i talk to, have such a different experience with the film than anyone i know. i got to visit new york city about a month ago, and i got some _really_ weird data on this. during my visit, i shot about 240 photos, and i think i had more spread failures, double ejections, and just general wonkiness with the film than i've had across 2000+ shot at home (mostly around budapest but also other parts of europe too). and i couldn't nail down a source. i brought a few packs from home, to shoot on the plane and on the first day in nyc, and they were crap too. i thought it was the x-ray, so i bought some film locally, at a target close to our hotel. same issues there. okay, maybe target is terrible then, so i went out to brooklyn film camera and bought five packs from them. nope, same issues. my film got x-rayed _so much_ in nyc, every single skyscraper we went up had one, the statue of liberty had one, and we had to get through airport security twice on the way, but none of it seemed to matter. i got crappy shots on the fresh bfc film with no x-ray whatsoever too. no matter what i did or didn't do, the film just didn't work right in america. it cannot be the camera either. i brought my trusty old impulse af, the same camera that's been my constant companion over the last few years, and given me some incredible shots. and when it worked in new york, it worked great too, but it could not save me from any of the issues abroad. and i'm fairly sure that's a camera that was designed and manufactured by the original polaroid corporation, in america, and was calibrated there with a light meter meant to work well in the states. and the kicker? i brought home half a pack of film, purchased at target, and x-rayed at the airports three times (because british airways messed up our connection both ways and we had to take a detour to munich on the way home). i just shot it last week, and it worked spectacularly. perfect exposure, perfect spread, no issues whatsoever, and the colors didn't seem to take any kind of a hit either from all the x-ray. my conclusion is that america is cursed. there is no other explanation to this.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Must be America being cursed, I agree. Thanks for taking the time to write up your experience here!! Also I think the jury is somewhat out on the xray thing. I know so many scream about never doing it, but I've taken film (even 800ISO stuff) through air port xrays and had no issue what so ever. Honestly not sure what to make of that though, could be a fluke. Also I've heard the newer xray machines are far more aggressive than the old ones, so idk haha

[@ForwardBias]

@@SweetLouPhotography Hey, personal experience with bringing my polaroid film through xrays here! If you go through one xray it's likely not going to be noticeable. However, i used film that had been xrayed multiple times (I think two or three times in a row) because I didn't use all of it up on previous trips and it was definitely noticeable after that, made the photos all washed out and grey / very noisy

[@incsk8]

Also there is the option that gringos know jacksh*t about photography

[@zoehelkin]

After this video, I'm thinking about getting a Now and retire the Now+ from regular use. 💩💩💩 Would I get more reliable results?

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I've found the light meter is far more reliable on the Now (I inlcuded some photos from the original Now in the vid too) But you're still at the mercy of the film. You get a bad pack of film or one that isn't stored properly, and it's not gonna matter what camera you're using unfortunately

[@fifix420]

I have the now gen2 ( so basically now but with usb c lol ) and it gets the exposure spot on almost every time, I have 2 or 3 pics that are badly exposed out of 80

[@depi_me]

Is it true that the over-exposure problem is not in the regular now model? Is it only the plus model? I was trying to buy it, but I'm hesitating to buy it because I see the same problem on KZbin.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

i've owned the original now for a long time, i've had consistently better metering results on that model over the now+

[@MissTwistedRose]

I wish I watched this before I bought the Now+ 2. I gave Polaroid another chance after the aweful One Sep I got around 2017. I feel like I got back with an ex 😑

[@drd1614]

What would you recommend as an alternative to this camera? I bought my wife one for Christmas and it’s pretty doo doo.

[@gottanikoncamera]

Same problem with I-2 exposures. I haven’t shot mine in 6 months, it’s just too painful. Last month, two Polaroid guys posted independently of each other in our I-2 owner group that they would be issuing a firmware update in a couple weeks that would fix the metering problem. That was five, six weeks ago and still no update. Interestingly, they said the problem came from testing and calibrating the pre-production I-2 meters to a batch of bad film (they suffered from a lower E.I.) which is why they overexpose.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

that's interesting, I seriously can't believe a camera that expensive would ship with issues like that (I also can't believe we didn't really hear much about that issue until months after release-- oh wait, maybe it's because Polaroid only put the cameras in the hands of people who would give a glowing review haha)

[@gottanikoncamera]

@@SweetLouPhotography I share your disbelief. And to be so quiet on the matter as a company when you know your users are all so frustrated with the metering, especially at the $600 price point. And it all goes back to the film being so inconsistent in the first place.

[@brittanywalkingstick849]

EXPOOOOOOOOSURE

[@polaroidbarber]

i still love my one-step+ bit underrated

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Same here, it's far more reliable than the Now+

[@BThings]

Honestly, even though it has basically no controls or special features, I've reached a point of having more fun with my Instax Mini 11 than with Polaroid's crappy film shenanigans. At least the imperfections are *my* fault.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

That's awesome, glad you dig the 11. I assume that's just a follow up to the mini 9?

[@BThings]

@@SweetLouPhotography Yeah. It's just the basic point & shoot that I bought at Target 😅

[@JustAnotherChris]

The Polaroid NOW+ strikes again!

[@SweetLouPhotography]

it's your favorite right

[@JustAnotherChris]

@@SweetLouPhotography Edwin land is rolling in his grave

[@sunatsunatsunatsunatsunat]

Gear review instax wide 400 when, lou?

[@SweetLouPhotography]

It's in my camera bag rn, it won't take me 3 years this time I promise lol

[@Poorgeniu5]

Polaroid Now Plus: Gacha mechanics in camera form!

[@theoldcameraguy]

Polaroid being Polaroid lol. Sometimes, apps don’t always make our lives better (at least as far as exposure is concerned)

[@breakfastenjoyer]

they should take an average or calculate it with the app and the phones light sensor lol

[@oli.the.oddball]

funny how i see this video after i bought my now+ and i cant return it 😭

[@jonathancaballeros3408]

Thinking of selling it? I'm kinda interested in seeing the manual mode.

[@oli.the.oddball]

@@jonathancaballeros3408 I actually just sold it a week ago 💀💀💀

[@Ilikeicecream310]

2:47 what is that 🤣 3:30 where is the photo😭

[@hmpa21]

I bet you are the North American N°1 super bock fan! 😅 regards.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

goals, tbh (back in the day I covered one of my guitars' pickguards in Super Bock logos and they shared it on their facebook page, that was the highlight of my career haha)

[@marcogalizzi4806]

if it's not possible to update the firmware, it probably will never work perfectly. Better to buy a modded sx-70

[@SweetLouPhotography]

In all this time, there hasn't been an update, so I think it's safe to assume there won't be one unfortunately

[@doughagar]

It's crap - I was an early adopter before the initial reviews came out and wish I never bought it due to the amount of $$ I wasted thinking I was doing something wrong. Now it sits unused and I look at it and curse at it every so often. I've thought about bringing out a separate light meter and trying that strategy.... but.... "work"....

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I definitely got better results by externally metering, but that doesn't make up for the fact that the camera simply doesn't work properly. It's a bandaid for a bigger problem. But it doesn't matter to Polaroid, because they're onto the next camera for 'imperfectionists'

[@keef.mp4333]

2:21 tactical lens filter swap

[@SweetLouPhotography]

you know me

[@metalfingersfilm]

FIRST

[@wyattreading8782]

I'm glad i grabbed a onestep+ when i did. The now+ seems worlds worse.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Yep-- my One Step+ is still here, and will stay on the shelf LONG beyond the Now and Now+

[@drewc8497]

I just watched a great documentary on KZbin about the revival of Polaroid and was thinking of jumping onboard...but let's be honest......the fotos are just awful !!!!! Such a shame 😢

[@lShishkaBerryl]

You should be able to sue for false advertising, yeeeeeeeeeesh!

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Wut up Shishka, in the KZbin studio it lets me know you've been subscribed for five years, that is nuts. Thanks so much haha. Hope you've been well :)

[@lShishkaBerryl]

@@SweetLouPhotography thank you, and you're welcome! my first video watched was the solar photography one 😁

[@SweetLouPhotography]

@@lShishkaBerryl you've witnessed so many era shifts on here, not a ton of people are left from back then haha. You're a real one

[@Victoria-cl5of]

Soooo what’s your favorite film camera then?

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I shoot more 35mm and 120 film, I adore the Pentax K1000, the Mamiya 645. If I am shooting instant, lately I've been going for my Instax Square SQ6

[@VictorReynolds]

I have the same problem: sometimes good; sometimes bad. Thankfully my Plus was free. Love the Waffle House shirt!

[@SweetLouPhotography]

Free is always good haha

[@skytrooper506]

Just buy a refurbished SX70 and be done with it.

[@SweetLouPhotography]

I might, but I promised I'd make the review vid, so here we are (3 years late lol)

[@howgill4829]

Bought new in box, quit working in 1 mo 6 days. Per their faq it was defective and I was refused a repla cement. Never again Polaroid, I went mirrorless digital and will dismember my Polaroid cameras.

[@ocean-hg8be]

this editing makes me nauseous

[@SweetLouPhotography]

barf bag not included

[@JacobCarlson]

*nauseated is the word you're looking for... unless you mean that the editing makes you make other people feel nauseated. 😂😋