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Polaroid Cube
- adambware 12y agoNo WiFi. No remote control. Not bad for $99 though!
- jamescun 12y agoWhere did you get the $99 figure from? I looked all over the page and couldn't find it. Not bad at all for $99.
- potatolicious 12y agoPhotojojo is selling it for $100. https://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/polaroid-cube-camera/ https://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/polaroid-cube-camera...
- jameshart 12y agoYou forgot "Less space than a Nomad. Lame."
- owenversteeg 12y agoFor anyone that didn't get the joke - this is what a popular and now famous Slashdot comment said about the iPod when it was released.
- simias 12y agoIt wasn't a comment, it was CmdrTaco's reaction in the blurb: http://slashdot.org/story/21026 http://slashdot.org/story/21026
- kisielk 12y ago$99? That's well in to "shut up and take my money!" territory. I've long wanted to buy a GoPro for the occasional kayaking / climbing / skiing footage but there was no way I could justify the price tag. $99 (+$40 waterproof kit) really changes the equation for casual shooters like myself.
- tln 12y agoWalmart has a GoPro kit right now for $50. Vivitar DVR 787HD 12.1MP Action Full HD Camcorder with Universal Car Kit, Surf Kit and Waterproof Kit. The Polaroid Cube is more compact which might make it much more useful -- but just so you know there are options under $99, even.
- kuhhk 12y agoThat's not a GoPro. Or are you saying the Vivitar mounts fit GoPro?
- cbovis 12y agoI can't work out if this is waterproof as standard or with the waterproof casing accessory. Any ideas? Is it perhaps just splash proof without the casing? Also I wonder if it floats in water... would be great for chucking around the pool.
- mey 12y agoWater Resistant to 2 meters w/o the case, water proof (depth unclear) with case.
- etix 12y agoAccording to the FAQ the waterproof case can go up to 10 meters below the surface.
- mcintyre1994 12y agoJust a note that a watch for that depth would probably be sold as 100m - 10 metres is pretty good.
- msandford 12y agoFinally someone else is stepping into the GoPro market. Good to see competition here. I know the feature sets aren't identical but sometimes worse is better.
- rexignis 12y agoSony has been competing with their Actioncams. It's a superior product in terms of image quality (according to reviews), and that wrist screen they offer with it is very cool.
- busterarm 12y agoTheir waterproof case is junk and the colors are skewed heavy on the blue side. Still, they're great cameras and I think they look beautiful, but you can see lots of shots of skies and pools that are very unnaturally blue on the Sony models. If you need something submersible, it's not a good option though.
- epaladin 12y agoThe first-gen action camera waterproof case was rated for greater depth. I used it in water a couple of times and didn't have any issues. It does feel like you might need to replace it every year if you use it in water a lot (and you have to use a sheet of desiccant to deal with fogging) but it works.
- baddox 12y agoThere are several solid action cams out there now. A quick search of YouTube shows countless reviews and comparisons. In my hobby of RC aircraft, the ~$80 Mobius cam is a very popular alternative to the GoPro. Most reviewers compare its video quality to that of the previous generation GoPro Hero 2, but it's smaller and much cheaper. Its firmware also supports it being used as a dashcam. http://buymobius.com/collections/mobius-cameras/products/1080p-mobius-actioncam-hd-video-camera-standard-edition http://buymobius.com/collections/mobius-cameras/products/108... http://www.amazon.com/Mobius-Action-Camera-1080P-Sports/dp/B00DP1WYD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407790258&sr=8-1&keywords=mobius+action+cam http://www.amazon.com/Mobius-Action-Camera-1080P-Sports/dp/B...
- hoopism 12y agoNot a bad offering from an undead company. The lack of remote shutter and connectivity severely limit the applications. With a remote shutter I'd be in for one just for retro-ness of using a Polaroid.
- lbotos 12y agoI'd love to use a bunch of these to build a "bullet time" camera array. Can anybody think of a cheaper/easier method?
- sdenton4 12y agoYou could go with a good-sized pile of Raspberry Pi's with camera boards. $35+$25 for the Pi and camera board, plus the cost of sd cards and networking gear, probably still keeps you a bit under $100 per camera. Plus it's fully programmable, and easily sync'ed over the network.
- fixedd 12y agohttp://www.raspberrypi.org/frozen-pi-bullet-time-photography-with-the-raspberry-pi/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/frozen-pi-bullet-time-photography...
- uptown 12y agoGreat that they were able to accomplish it, but the "wow" factor with bullet-time is capturing a 3D view of some object that's typically in-motion, where freezing that motion allows you to view the object from all angles. The demos in that video somehow missed that concept completely, and show people sitting in poses that could either be in-motion, or intentionally stationary.
- anigbrowl 12y agoGive me the Polaroids any day. The RPi stuff wouldn't survive a day in the field unless you put every one of them in an expensive enclosure, and it's just a ton of extra work that has been done for you in this case. You don't need sync, a regular slate will do that job and the rest can be done in software.
- mdturnerphys 12y agoWebcams.
- influx 12y ago
- jisaacks 12y agoWonder how strong the magnet is. For example, would it fling off if you swung a driver it was connected to? Wondering since they show it on a putter.
- loganu 12y agoI would be absolutely shocked if the magnet was that strong.
- blacksmith_tb 12y agoNdFeB magnets can resist very strong pulls perpendicular to the surface they are attached to, but shearing forces along the surface tend to pull them away (and off). I would expect the camera to go flying off a driver if you gave it a hard swing. If they (or you) applied a high-friction coating it might do better.
- alphakappa 12y agoWould be very cool if it could be programmed to do timelapses with a specified interval. Also, if the recording time was like a ring buffer, it would make for a great security/dashcam.
- BorisMelnik 12y agopaired with Microsofts hyperlapse (I think its called) yes that would be great!
- Gracana 12y agoI remember when polaroid cubes were indexable disposable flash bulbs.
- MBCook 12y agoThat was actually why I clicked on the link. I wondered what they could possibly be talking about and was pleasantly surprised.
- justincormack 12y agoYes, I still have some but they don't work any more alas.
- jerhinesmith 12y agoAre there technical/practical limitations that prevent it from reading microSD cards above 32 GB? I'm mostly asking out of curiosity, as 64 GB seems fairly inexpensive on Amazon...
- ramidarigaz 12y agoSDHC vs SDXC I believe. SDHC only goes up to 32GB.
- jerhinesmith 12y agoInteresting. Thanks. From some brief reading on wikipedia, I wonder if they chose SDHC to avoid any (patent) issues with the exFAT file system. Kinda seems like a shame. 32 GB is quite a lot, but for HD video, it seems like it could fill up quickly.
- Veratyr 12y agoOften they advertise 32GB but they're compatible with larger, just not officially supported. For example http://www.motorola.com/us/moto-g-pdp-1/Moto-G/moto-g-pdp.html http://www.motorola.com/us/moto-g-pdp-1/Moto-G/moto-g-pdp.ht... only advertises 32GB but I put a 64GB in it out of the box and it works.
- gcb0 12y agoi can't lookup the debian bugs now... but beware. it will work only until you write a not so rare byte combination there using the SDHC interface. after that happens, the sdxc controller will just crap on every data read and you will have a tiny brick.
- Veratyr 12y agoOhhh... THAT explains a lot... Might explain why cards dying in phones is so common. If you could find that bug for me it'd be much appreciated.
- reustle 12y agoBased on the video at the bottom of the page, I'm not really impressed with the video quality. Sure, it might be "1080p" but it still looks pretty fuzzy
- georgemcbay 12y agoYeah; I like the idea of it, and certainly concessions have to be made for the size, but it really does look jarringly bad when they switch from the high quality shots (using something else to record), to the footage presumably taken by the Cube itself. Not only does it look kinda fuzzy and janky (like the actual recording frames per second is quite low), but the shot where they show a loop under the bottom of a bike (at ~0:25) has probably the worst chromatic aberrations I've ever seen and I've handled some old lenses with bad chromatic aberration. It is like they made an instagram filter for adding CA to videos and someone went crazy with it and applied it 10 times. If this quality is the best they've got to put in a promo video, it is no wonder they barely show footage from the cam at all and intermix it with high quality footage (especially as seen in the skateboard section) in a borderline deceptive manner.
- gk1 12y ago> It’s wide angle lens... You'd think they'd have someone proofread a product announcement.
- baddox 12y agoThat doesn't mean no one proofread it. These days I think it's more common to have the apostrophe in the possessive pronoun can to omit it. I've even seen people defend their usage as deliberate. I suspect we're near the end of it even being considered a "rule."
- matthewmacleod 12y agoI don't think that's true - I've not seen a single style guide that suggests that!
- baddox 12y agoI made no claim about what style guides suggest. I merely claimed that deliberately using "it's" for both forms is increasingly common in written English.
- sqs 12y agoMy bias is to doubt that, but I could be convinced by data. Do you have any evidence that such usage is deliberate?
- baddox 12y agoNo, I do not have any evidence on the portion of uses that are deliberate. But it doesn't have to be deliberate in the sense that the writer is consciously trying to change the trend. Trends change slowly and "naturally," sometimes even due to misunderstandings of the earlier usages. For example, the word "apron" is widely considered correct and standard, but it arose from a misunderstanding of the phrase "a napron" (from Old French "napperon") as "an apron."
- 12y ago
- aeturnum 12y agoPolaroid is pretty much a hollow shell used to market white label products these days. Anyone know if they actually developed this camera, of if they're just the front for another company?
- basicallydan 12y agoWay to bring the mood down. I think this is good. Looks like a genuine competitor to GoPro Hero!
- aeturnum 12y agoI mean, if you want to buy a sports action camera of uncertain pedigree, ebay has you covered [1]. I like polaroid, I also don't mind white-boxing under a known brand name. It can be a great way for lesser known companies to break into markets. However, it still behooves you to know who really manufacturers and supports the product. Both so you can avoid the bad and support the good. [1] http://www.ebay.com/sch/Camcorders-/11724/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sports+action+camera http://www.ebay.com/sch/Camcorders-/11724/i.html?_from=R40&_...
- yebyen 12y agoDid you ever lay your hands on a Polaroid android tablet? The first thing I learned is that Polaroid has nothing to do with them, they are marketed by a shell company called Southern Telecom which as far as I can tell is about as Southern as Hunan or Guangdong. (South China maybe.) I would say GP's analysis is spot-on, wrt other offerings that were branded as Polaroid lately. You're also right that this looks like a much more well thought out initiative. Here's to hoping it's not just more time spent thinking through the promotional materials.
- wainstead 12y agoWikipedia describes it as a shell company still. I would be really surprised if they developed this themselves.
- teachingaway 12y agoI think that's correct, but calling them a "front" makes it sound a little sinister. I'd say "Polaroid" is mainly just a trademark licensed out by a shell company for random products because its still widely recognized and loved (at least by old people). on second thought... maybe playing with our emotions like that is a little sinister?
- mentos 12y agoGoPro is pretty small but I wonder what new opportunities this may open up being even smaller
- collyw 12y agoWhat's different / better about this than a GoPro?
- _archon_ 12y agoThis appears to be physically smaller. And cute. Polaroid may just have my business if it has standard mounting and the waterproof case works.
- MBCook 12y agoAgreed. While the battery life isn't quite as good as a GoPro, this is also half the price. I'd be willing to buy one to play with, and the built in magnet to make it easy to stick on things is a great idea.
- baddox 12y agoMy guess would be that the GoPro has vastly superior video quality.
- seanflyon 12y agoCost
- collyw 12y agoDoes it really warrant a post here if it is just a cheaper alternative?
- base698 12y agoIt looks like it's smaller form factor and less entanglement hazard for parachuting sports. The Gopro has killed at least 3 people due to entanglement. I know that's a super fringe use, but I like the idea of something smaller with smooth surfaces even though I own several Gopros.
- mkoryak 12y agoThis is cool. Ive been using my v1 contour roam every day for about a year and the battery life is starting to suck. I went on amazon to buy a new contour roam but it has actually gone UP in price from $120 to 200+ :P
- commandar 12y agoContour went out of business late last year and closed shop. An investment group that was involved with the company before bought up what was left and is supposedly going to be releasing new products in the near future here, but most of what you're going to find is old stock, which is why the prices have gone up. (I have a V1 Roam that I love as well. The form factor is just so much better than a GoPro for a lot of things).
- multipass 12y agoWhat I love about the Contour+2 is that the battery is compatible with old Nokia phone batteries, which makes it very cheap to have a bunch of charged batteries in reserve.
- mkoryak 12y agoI might as well drop this link here: http://www.chucklohr.com/808/index.shtml http://www.chucklohr.com/808/index.shtml I have the #16 and its a neat little toy for my cheap syma quad copter.
- commandar 12y agoThe Mobius action cam has mostly supplanted the cheap 808 keychain cameras for that kind of use at this point. Roughly the same size, generally around $75, and they record passable HD video.
- _s 12y agoJust a side note for those comparing these to GoPros's - this isn't a direct competitor to the GoPro; Polaroid already sell the XS100 which is actually a pretty decent action camera - probably best bang for your buck currently (I have one and use it regularly; it's still very much first gen, rough around the edges but excellent where it counts). I think the cube is awesome for a fun, inexpensive little camera to stick in places quickly and just start filming without worrying too much - and at that price point you can buy a few and stick them in your car for a road trip, or hand a few out to friends when going down a slope; it's size, shape, colours and accessibility would be targeting even the non-action-sports crowd and there's a huge market of young skate boarders, soccer players etc etc. I only wish they would market themselves a little better, and also fix up the poor software that tends to be on / accompanies their products.
- bri3d 12y agoAvailable accessories include: Waterproof case and suction cup mount Handlebar mount Helmet mount This is absolutely a GoPro competitor whether Polaroid are competing with their own lineup or not. I do agree that they're going for a more casual angle than GoPro with the marketing and presentation, though. I think GoPro are in an interesting place - they have an extremely strong brand, but "plugged-in" budget-seeking enthusiasts will seek out wallet friendly clones like the SJ4000 while the casual market is inundated with name-brand options at a lower price point.
- t0mislav 12y agoShots from Cube from Youtube clip looks awful. :/ Check clip starting from 21st second.
- tlrobinson 12y agoI wonder how many young people will think "Polaroid ripped off Instagram's logo!"?
- atmosx 12y agoThis seems exactly what I need. I wanted to buy a camera for my snowboarding ventures as long as my track days. The GoPro was kinda expensive, so much that I came close to buy the cheap model three times but never did. But 100€ is a price that I can accept without thinking twice. :-)
- downandout 12y agoI think it's going to be amazingly difficult for Polaroid, or anyone for that matter, to take on GoPro. For whatever reason, GoPro has captured the imagination of the video/photo creating public in a way that few brands have. For several years after the iPhone came out, competing phones could match or exceed its specs, but were largely viewed as toys by comparison. In the same way, GoPro will enjoy a near monopoly on this market segment until their competitors have outmatched them technologically for enough years that the media catches up and makes it socially acceptable to buy an alternative to GoPro.
- und3rw4t3rp00ps 12y agoNice try, blatant GoPro investor. GoPro isn't nearly as stable a mark as people give it credit for. It's not synonymous with a unique product or service so much as an invented product. This new Polaroid entrant will be dubbed the "cheap GoPro" so much, it'll become a "GoPro". Millions of moms all across the world will buy their sons and daughters the cheap GoPro. The more successful GoPro's competitors become - the more "GoPro" they become. Until everything is Kleenex and Xerox and nothing matters. Side note, I wish my beloved Zombie Kodak was as playful as Polaroid.
- downandout 12y ago> Nice try, blatant GoPro investor Lol..umm...no. I actually don't get the whole GoPro craze, but I do know that Polaroid doesn't stand a chance, even if they have a better product. I'm not investing in either.
- programminggeek 12y agoIt doesn't print cute little pictures. That seems like a missed opportunity.
- heynk 12y agoI didn't see it mentioned, so I have to bring up that a magnet mount will not cut it for action sports where you might 'crash'. I know multiple skiers who have lost their GoPro in the snow because mount plastic snapped on a decent fall. I can't imagine a magnet will do better.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- duderific 12y agoYeah...I was like "magnet to a skateboard"... huh? How many metal skateboards are there? I guess you could stick it on one of the trucks maybe, but it would fall off immediately if you did a trick.
- linker3000 12y ago..one of the Ali-alloy trucks? Um, no.
- rplnt 12y agoHelmets are not from metal either. Bicycle at least, but I'd imagine motorbike are from aluminum at best.
- bellerocky 12y agoI want to put a bunch on a weather balloon and send it to space.
- newman8r 12y agoI don't see anything special here, pure marketing play
- oliyoung 12y agoSomewhere in Eastman a Kodak executive is weeping. Polaroid may not be the same company they used to be, but at least they're attempting to stay relevant.
- kris_zhang 12y agoawesome I like it.
- chrissnell 12y agoI want to see a utility camera manufacturer produce a product that is more readily integrated into DIY hardware/Internet of Things projects. These rugged little cameras are awesome but I've yet to see one that provides an open interface for enthusiasts to manipulate the bulb/mode/settings externally to the camera. I'd like to see a Bluetooth (perhaps BLE) -enabled camera that can be triggered from an Arduino, watch, smartphone, or whatever the user can dream up.
- damian2000 12y agoCould it be stuck on top of a car roof (via magnet) and become a dashcam equivalent, with the advantage of a wider angle?
- rnernento 12y agoThe circle is almost complete...
- michaelbuddy 12y agoI like how its water resistant out of the box to a couple meters, and you only have to pay more to go deeper than that.