It's small, black, and silver with a familiar name attached. What looks a little like an over-sized cell phone is really a printer that spits out Credit Card sized prints with a removable sticky back, intended to be a portable means to print images from your point and shoot digicam or your cellphone via bluetooth. The prints are made of a paper containing zinc that once heated produce the water/smudge proof image onto the paper. The concept on its own is fantastic though upon further use it falls short of living up to Polaroid's intentions of furthering the legacy of their instant film.The color is far from accurate, in fact depending on various factors (paper age, iso value, file quality) the colors can range from relatively close to almost a cross-processed look (this must tickle the lomographers). There is an endearing quality to the prints that could be characterized as unique or quaint depending on your intended use. One might decide to use these for collage look to emphasize the quirkiness of these little guys into larger pieces of art.
My whole reason for adopting the PoGo system was to document my trip to Las Vegas the 2nd week in July, take these prints and stick them into my moleskin as a mini album documenting the excursion from airport to strip back to airport. For the record, the execution was far more difficult than the plan and it was not all the PoGo's fault. In fact, I have not even finished the journal and we are approaching August; this is in part due to my schedule as well as the somewhat inefficient means for printing. When I was able to hunker down to print and then log my thoughts it all worked perfectly in sync, but of course the PoGo's battery is only good for about 10 prints.
So how does one get the files to the printer? Two ways, either USB (using Pictbridge) or via Bluetooth, it sends the image automatically spitting the image out within 2 minutes. Pictbridge is pretty simple, attach the camera via usb, turn it on while the PoGo is on, and then pictbridge boots up already ready to send your JPEG files to the printer. Bluetooth is a little tricky especially if you own a Iphone (whose bluetooth does not recognize the PoGo yet) or Mac computer, otherwise you just enable your bluetooth adapter to receive and then enter the PoGo's ID number then you can send any files you want wirelessly to print. The system is pretty portable (with the gigantic charger being the exception), I was able to do prints via my Fuji F30 on the plane while up in the clouds, and straight from my Nikon D90 while in the Hotel Room in Vegas. Of course time was limited while in Vegas and I was only able to do a couple journal entries before it was time to move on to the next activity, then after that it was time to head back east, homeward bound.
The funny thing about the PoGo it is definitely a Polaroid product; in the sense that it was portable but not really. Think of all the Polaroid cameras that have existed through the years since their invention, all are bulky, the packaging for the film is bulky with tons of waste after opening it and in the case of the pack film every single peel apart film comes with the containing package that needs to be discarded. Many will argue that the PoGo does not have the charm of the instant film, there is some truth to that statement, yet the Pogo prints are really starting to grow on me as their own little charming memories that I can stick into my little journals. Will they have the longevity of the film? If polaroid decides to improve upon the Zinc technology, improve the printers, and especially improve the portability; then yes I think the PoGo could be around for years to come. In the meantime I will continue to explore the use of these little prints and perhaps take them beyond my moleskines.
Moleskine art and PoGo prints are a real phenomenon; I am hardly the first to combine the two. Since I lack any real drawing skills my Moleskines are minimally illustrated, they merely consist of prints and words. Flickr has groups dedicated to the art of moleskine notebooks/sketchbooks; this is about the art not only in the drawing/design but also displaying the entire book as a work of its own. Once a means for the likes of Van Gogh to keep their thoughts, ideas, by their side is now become a widely practiced omage to the moleskine and it's heritage.
Next entry maybe relatively spontaneous but may be dedicated to weddings, the designs, the photography, and what it all means to me. Though it might be something completely different.
Links:
Moleskinery Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/moleskinerie/
Notebook Stories: http://www.notebookstories.com/ (a blog dedicated to those who love their notebooks)
My new favorite blog: http://www.acontinuouslean.com/
