This nifty app called Polar should be one of your mobile tools if you shoot a lot of Instax or Polaroid photos
Everyone likes sharing their instant prints on social media, but sometimes, the smartphone camera just doesn’t give it justice. The best way to digitize Instax or Polaroid snaps have always been to scan them. But what if you don’t have a scanner at home to digitize those cool Instax snaps? To the rescue comes a cool app called Polar, which lets you “scan” them using your iPhone or iPad.
This fun instant photo scanning app promises to quickly digitize your collection using your smartphone’s camera. Simply place one in the frame of the camera and Polar detects it, takes a shot, then prompts you to tap to save it to your photo library. Simple as that; no glares, skewed perspectives, distracting backgrounds, or even your fingers on the photo!
Polar is the brainchild of Igor Rinkovec, who took to Reddit to share his impressive app. There, he said it supports instant photos of all sizes — whether it’s Instax Mini, Instax Square, or Polaroids; if it has a frame, it will be scanned. He also responded to a concern about similar apps needing a specific kind of lighting, or else there will be an odd color cast on the frame and image itself. He’s currently working on implementing an algorithm to autocorrect the white balance so the lighting won’t cause any problems. Feedback at the moment looks positive, so anyone interested might as well give it a try.
Polar is currently available only for iOS, and no word yet from Igor if and when it will be available for Android. If this is something you’re keen on giving a try, head over to the iTunes App Store to purchase the app for $2.99.
