Polaroid Mod – an instant camera with the photo tricks on a dial

Every few months I see a Polaroid with a perfect double exposure on it. A face melting into a sunset, that kind of thing. Then I read how it was made and lose interest around step four.

The Polaroid Mod skips the homework. It’s an analog instant camera with four photo tricks printed on a dial around the lens, so you pick “Double Exposure” the way you’d pick a washing machine program. Polaroid announced it on September 29, 2026, and it’s the most fun instant camera idea I’ve seen in a while.

What is the Polaroid Mod?

It’s a fully analog Polaroid. No screen, no app needed, no digital file. You press the red button and a real print slides out the front. It shoots both i-Type and 600 film, the standard square Polaroid formats.

What makes it different from the Polaroid Go Generation 3 and the other cameras in Polaroid’s lineup is the mode dial. Polaroid’s Chief Product Officer, Stine Bauer Dahlberg, says the team wanted the creative part “built into the physical design of the camera.” So the tricks live on a ring you turn with your thumb, not in a menu.

How does it work?

You turn the dial to one of four modes (or plain auto) and shoot. According to Polaroid:

• Split Shot: a little accessory covers half the lens. You take two shots, and each one lands on its own half of the same print. Split it left/right or top/bottom. The accessory comes in the box.
• Double Exposure: two shots layered onto one photo.
• Motion Freeze: a long exposure that fires the flash at the very end. Movement turns into trails, then the flash freezes your subject sharp.
• Light Painting: a long exposure for drawing with a light source, like a sparkler or a phone flashlight.

There’s also a Brightness Dial to make shots lighter or darker, and what Polaroid calls a two-lens autofocus system. The Amazon listing adds auto exposure, a built-in flash and a self-timer.

The good and the not-so-good

What I like:

• The tricks are physical. Turn, shoot, done. Reviewers at Digital Camera World called it easy to use and liked the exposure control.
• Split Shot is a brilliant party gimmick: put two friends on one print, or the same friend twice.
• It takes 600 film as well as i-Type, so there’s more film to choose from.
• Lance Ulanoff at TechRadar said the image quality was better than he expected in poor light.

What could be better:

• It’s big. Digital Camera World lists “large to pack” as a con, and the Amazon listing measures it at about 6.4 x 4.3 x 3.9 inches. This is not a jacket-pocket camera.
• Film is pricey, and creative modes burn through it. Expect some failed experiments.
• The same review says the flash setting resets after every shot, and the viewfinder sits apart from the lens, so framing close-ups can be off (parallax).
• Polaroid film still takes 10 to 15 minutes to fully develop, as TechRadar points out.

Who is the Polaroid Mod for?

People who already love instant photos and want to do more than point and smile. Teenagers who live on creative TikTok edits. The friend who brings sparklers to every party. It’s also a great gift for someone who owns a basic instant camera and has outgrown it.

If you want small and cheap, the Go is the better pick. If you’d rather not pay per photo at all, a digital option like the Fujifilm X half or the tiny Kodak Charmera makes more sense.

Where can I buy the Polaroid Mod?

Polaroid sells it on Amazon through its own store. The camera-only version was about 170 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026), the same as Polaroid’s list price. It ships without film, so add a pack or two of i-Type. There’s also a film bundle listing if you want it in one go.

A double exposure without the homework. Take my money!