Customer Ratings & Reviews

The OneStep+ is a fun to use instant camera that will remind you of the days of old when Polaroid cameras were new technology... starting up the camera and syncing it to your phone was easy and the interface was user friendly. Picture quality was nice! One of the drawbacks is the phone can’t see what the viewfinder sees... the phone is really just a shutter remote... yes it’s convenient, but not as convenient as it could/should be. The price of film is also expensive... though you probably know that if you are buying this camera. I just don’t see this being an item that gets long term use due to the convenience of other cameras and even cell phones on the market where you can review the photo right away with no wasted film, and no wasted $$$.

Just a bit of background – I’m old enough to remember when James Garner and Mariette Hartley were pitching Polaroid Cameras. It was my first introduction to “instant” photography. Back in the day, you had to wait two weeks for your regular film to be developed and returned. You didn’t know if every shot was a keeper or not. With a Polaroid, you knew. Not only that, but it was fun to watch the picture develop right before your eyes. The size of the photos didn’t make them easy to put into albums, but you did have a convenient place to write information about the picture right below the image. Now, though, Polaroids are mainly nostalgic…at least that’s what I thought before this latest model came out. I was curious to see how Polaroid had made their cameras more “modern” to appeal to the digital camera crowd. I was looking forward to the resurgence of Polaroid. After using this camera, I am sad to say that Polaroids are still more connected to history than to the present. The camera is much more lightweight as compared to the Polaroids I previously used. The camera is also rechargeable, which is a nice plus. I have not had to recharge it yet; it comes pre-charged. The basics are still the same. The design of the camera and the placement of the buttons are the same as in older models. You load the film the same way. The film only comes 8 photos to a pack, though, so you wouldn’t be able to take a ton of photos unless you stocked up on film (approx. $16 per pack). You have a choice of color or B&W film – you must pick one or the other; you cannot edit in-camera. The camera also has a screw-in port for tripod use, which is nice. One feature that I did NOT want to see a return of is having to focus through a viewfinder. I don’t remember the last time that I HAD to use a viewfinder to line up a shot. Even my 20-year-old camcorder has a flip screen that you can use during filming. It’s hard to see through; the view is quite narrow and further away than the subject should be. You do sync this unit with your smartphone via the Polaroid Originals App. The app does not offer a way to line the shot up, though. I tried that with the Remote Function and ended up wasting a photo. No trash-and-try-again here. It does have some fun function as Noise Trigger, Light Painting, and Double Exposure, but all need to be lined up through the Viewfinder, and there’s no preview before you print the photo. It also does not archive to your phone, so you will need to scan the photos in to store electronically. I don’t understand how Polaroid missed the opportunity to incorporate two of the biggest advents of the last 20 or so years of consumer photography into their newest model. If you can use the phone as a shutter, you should be able to use it for at least a viewfinder. I will say that my 7-year-old was excited by the camera. She’d never seen a Polaroid in action before and thought it was the greatest thing. She wanted me to continue taking photos, but with only 8 photos to a pack of film, I wanted to be more conservative with my photos. Disappointing to say the least. As a piece of nostalgia, the Polaroid Originals OneStep+ hits all the marks. As a modern camera, though, it misses by a mile.

I really wanted to love this camera. I’m in my 60’s and remember my grandfather showing off his early Polaroid camera, “Imagine, instant pictures you don’t need to take to the developers!” I showed my young grandkids this camera and they were fascinated; they all wanted to try it. First the good points: The best feature of this camera is the free smartphone app that comes with it. It’s one of the coolest apps on my phone. It’s really well made, connects effortlessly to the camera via Bluetooth and allows you the ability to do all kinds of tricks with this camera that could never be done with Polaroid cameras in the past. You can use the app to remotely control the camera, using it to fire the shutter, take multiple exposures and act as a remote timer. You can use it to scan your finished print and save it digitally to share with others. Now the ‘not so good’: You’ve read the other reviews. The camera did take ‘acceptable’ pictures both color and black and white. The camera works much better in outside lighting. If you take a picture of someone indoors in a normally lit room with the flash, all you’ll see is your subject in a sea of blackness. The biggest irritation is having to wait a full 15 minutes to see if your picture came out properly. If, after that wait the picture was too light or too dark, you could adjust the three position “lighten/darken” switch to correct that and try again. This wouldn’t be so bad if each picture didn’t cost TWO DOLLARS. Folks today with their digital cameras are accustomed to just deleting a bad picture, you don’t have to wait, you get your storage space back on your memory card and try again. It costs you nothing and you don’t have to wait 15 minutes. Other thoughts: This camera uses both color and black and white film which ironically is a novelty today. Like a traditional film camera, you just can’t switch film packs back and forth. If you’ve got the B&W film pack in, you have to take all those pics before you change to color, or else you’ll destroy the pictures left in your camera. If you don’t want the flash to fire when you take your picture you can hold the “no flash” button as you snap the picture and it will keep it off, otherwise it’s always in ‘on’ mode. Bottom line to me is that this is a very cool look at analog ‘photography from the past.’ As I said I loved showing my grandkids the camera and what it could do. The problem is the expense of operating it. I loved giving the kids the camera and letting them play with it, trying not to think about the fact that each film pack of 8 pics cost 16 dollars. In a way it’s a great lesson into the reason that digital photography has replaced analog.

It's a cool party gimmick, something fun to pass the time and have instant pictures. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to have a fun party trick with an easy setup.

This is a decent camera, don't get me wrong. But the picture quality seems worse than the ones I would take back in the 80s and 90s - and it seems that they're actually going for that effect. You don't shake it either - you have to place it face down and wait 10-15 minutes. I could print something on my computer with photo paper in much less time. Overall, it's a fun camera to use, but the film is still expensive, and will likely be more of a novelty than anything.

I guess Polaroid is trying to appeal to those that grew up in the 80's, but also want to make it modern with the phone app options. This is really a niche product that doesn't do anything really well enough to warrant a purchase. Right off the bat I had to deduct two stars simply for the fact that the film is way over-priced. $2 per pic is a real deal breaker. Going forward, if they can cut the price at least in half, that might make this a little more palatable. The picture quality isn't very impressive after modern digital cameras have spoiled us. This instant camera is a fun novelty for that person who has everything and loves retro styled merchandise. If you aren't one of these people, chances are the price of the camera and especially the price of the film won't make it worth a buy.

I really wanted to like this camera but it just was not happening for me. It could be me being bad at taking photos, but none of my shots came out well, usually way too dark. I liked a lot of the bluetooth enabled modes. My daughter especially liked the noise trigger and the light drawing features. The photos take a while to develop, if you are expecting to take a photo and take a look at it 30 seconds you will be disappointed. I now have an album of old school looking family photos, which is cool in it's own regard, but this product misses the mark for me.

So I liked the design and the retro feel. To me this is a camera for a child or teen learning the basics of subject framing. I don't like that it connects to a smartphone which defeats the purpose of an instant camera. Why would I use it over my cell? instead of trying to add bells and whistles Polaroid needs to focus on image quality. Film price. and most importantly improving the battery. There was a time when they had this market cornered but others are doing it now and better. There is nostalgic value to the name and design but for me that's all.

I love this camera I love all the different settings and effects