Polaroid Mod: a $169.99 instant camera with its creative modes on a dial

Most instant cameras are designed to keep you from thinking: point, press, wait for the print. The Polaroid Mod keeps the familiar boxy body and the wait for the print to develop, but it puts a ring of creative modes around the lens. Turn it from Auto to Split Shot, Motion Freeze, Double Exposure or Light Painting, and the camera handles the timing that would normally take a manual instant camera and some trial and error. Polaroid sells it for $169.99, and it takes both i-Type and 600 film.

What the modes do is old darkroom-and-flashgun technique, moved onto a dial. Motion Freeze holds the shutter open to record movement, then fires the flash, so a dancer or a passing street gets a sharp core inside a streak. Double Exposure stacks two frames on one print. Split Shot uses the included half-cover filter to expose each side of the frame separately, and Light Painting gives you a long exposure for flashlights and traffic trails. A Brightness Dial nudges every mode lighter or darker, and autofocus switches between two fixed zones for close-ups and distance.

It's still a Polaroid, with Polaroid limits. In Digital Camera World's hands-on review, the viewfinder's parallax made split frames and double exposures hard to line up up close, there's no manual mode, and the long-exposure Light Painting mode works best on a tripod or a flat surface. Accept that, and the Mod is an inviting way to get odd, deliberate, one-of-a-kind prints out of instant film without becoming an exposure expert first.

Polaroid announced the Mod on September 29, 2026, pitching it as a deliberately analog answer to speed, perfection and AI: "As the world runs after speed and perfection, the new Polaroid Mod invites you to fall in love with the creative process," the press release says. It went on sale at Polaroid.com the same day, reached selected US retailers on October 6, and is due in other countries in early 2027.

The main idea is the mode dial wrapped around the lens. Chief Product Officer Stine Bauer Dahlberg says the team wanted "the creative experience to be built into the physical design of the camera," with the modes "directly on the dial rather than behind menus or settings." Polaroid describes it as a camera for "creative people who want to do more than point and shoot, without needing to be an expert behind the camera."

Early reviews have been warm and specific. Digital Camera World's review praises how easy the creative modes are while noting the viewfinder parallax and the lack of a manual mode. Reader discussion at launch has been light, which is typical for instant cameras next to interchangeable-lens launches.

Independent hands-on samples (link only; images belong to their authors).

• Digital Camera World — Polaroid Mod review and sample images — hands-on review with image samples by Hillary K Grigonis

Official samples from the Polaroid newsroom, each captioned "Shot on Polaroid Mod" there. More hands-on frames are in Digital Camera World's review gallery.