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Is Polaroid Actually Real Film? Comparing Polaroid, Instax, and Zink

Chris Gampat
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08/04/2021
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Mint Camera SLR670 Time Machine 50mm, f1.8, ISO 1600, 1-60s,50,SONYILCE-6500, Sony FE 50mm F1.8 (SEL50F18F) 1

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Instant film is fun in so many different ways. You can shoot a photo of someone and give them the print. You can capture fun memories with it at parties. And you can just plain out have fun while shooting with it. But it’s not all created equal. In fact, some instant film is better than others. So we dove into our archives of reviews to compare Polaroid, Instax, and Zink. Some of it is real film. And some of it is pretty awful and mixed in with terrible marketing. Instant film can make you feel great. But it can also let you down. Here’s some of the truth about it.

Polaroid

Polaroid film is indeed actual, real film. Polaroid became Polaroid after the Impossible Project decided to reverse engineer what Polaroid originally did back in the day. Polaroid refused to sell the original formulas, and a lot of it was just gone. So after years of trying, they finally did a pretty good job. Then Polaroid ended up buying the Impossible Project, unifying it with the original company. 

Polaroid film is essentially a piece of film that has development chemicals inside. So when it ejects from the camera, the chemicals burst and flow through the image. Then it develops. Unlike the song, you don’t need to shake your Polaroids anymore.

So yes, every Polaroid image you shoot with actual, branded company film is real film. You can surely feel organic and real about that. But this is a double-edged sword. Last year in 2020, Polaroid decided to buddy up and help the Unsplash Awards. Unsplash uses some pretty shady tactics to get photographers to give away their high-quality images for completely free. So if you actually care about photography and the future of photographers, I’d cancel Polaroid pretty hard. It’s unfortunate to know this. 

What’s more, this film is for cameras that actually have better image quality on average. But the resulting quality can be hit or miss.

Fujifilm Instax

Fujifilm Instax is also, indeed, film. It works similar to Polaroid, but the formula is a bit different. In fact, when you look at a lot of instant film, chances are that they’re Instax images. Lots of folks make the mistake of thinking that Instax is Polaroid. But the two are much different. Instax is made in totally different sizes than Polaroid. It’s very possible for Instax to also be overall, just better.

Sadly, again, not many Instax cameras have glass lenses or even embrace how sharp the film can really be. However, they have some of the coolest and most fun cameras on the market. The film also comes in fun variants.

Our favorite cameras for Instax are made by Mint. Try the RF70 if you can get it.

HP Zink

Now here’s the tragic part. HP Zink isn’t real film. In fact, it’s just paper with the ink built-in. It’s not much different from simply just printing a photo. Unfortunately, lots of Zink cameras and marketing look like Polaroids. But that’s only because of a special digital filter. I’d even sometimes go as far as saying that it’s false or misleading advertising at times. 

Canon, HP, and Kodak cameras use Zink paper. There are also a few Polaroid cameras that do, too, unfortunately. And they’re all bad. At best, they’re digital hybrids. All of those cameras have digital sensors that then print the image out. Most cameras using Fujifilm Instax and Polaroid don’t do this. Those cameras are truly analog. But Zink looks one way in advertising and product placements. But in reality, it’s actually pretty awful. I’d never use Zink cameras personally, and I don’t think most self-respecting photographers would either.

Cameras canon film fujifilm fujifilm instax hp zink instant film instax kodak polaroid zInk
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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