Impossible announces the I-1

Impossible has become over the years a key player in instant photography; today Impossible is announcing a new camera: the I-1.

For a long time "" and "Polaroid" rhymed in unison, but since Pola's fall, it's with Impossible that "instant photography" now rhymes.

Impossible announces the I-1

It's on 10 May that Impossible will unveil a new camera: the I-1.

From what we know today, the I-1 is a camera that uses instant film — of the type, to be precise. It's also a modern body notably featuring an autofocus system and a ring flash whose power automatically adjusts to shooting conditions (ambient light and focusing distance).

The camera charges via USB and works with an app — iOS only — that lets you make manual adjustments such as aperture, shutter speed or flash power, and trigger the shutter remotely. The app also includes creative settings, including double exposure and light painting for long exposures. Connection between the camera and the mobile device is over Bluetooth.

Instant photography

An instant camera produces silver-based photographs directly, without going through separate steps of film development and paper printing. The best-known are the Polaroid-brand cameras.

The release of the first instant-development camera (the Polaroid 95) by the American Edwin H. Land (1909–1991), in 1948, marked a significant advance in modern emulsion techniques. This process, initially monochrome, was adapted to colour in 1963 after the invention of Polacolor film.

Facing competition from digital photography, Polaroid discontinued production of instant-development cameras in 2007. On 8 February 2008, the company announced the closure of the last factories producing instant film by the end of the year, which became effective in August 2008.

Since 2011, Polaroid has once again been selling instant cameras and an instant film — the latter (Polaroid P300 film) being a Fuji Mini Instax film sold under licence.

Fujifilm also continues to produce a few instant films in the Instax1 format. Between 2015 and 2016, the Japanese company announced the end of production of the last FP (film-pack) films, marking the end of an era.

Eleven employees of the former Polaroid factory in Enschede (Netherlands) bought the remaining machines in order to restart production. The first films (black and white for the SX-70) were released on 25 March 2010. The goal is to produce 3 million film cartridges in 2010 and up to 10 million in the following years (compared to 120 million at Polaroid's peak).