An Illegal Polaroid Never Released 

“The biggest companies make the worst crap” - DankPods

I love how they ripped off one of the biggest camera flops ever to make an even bigger flop.

The easy IR conversion is kinda neat. Tape a section of a floppy disk over the sensor and you’ll have an IR only camera.

Woah Woah Woah. You can't just show that batmobile of a camera and not talk about it

This camera is basically just an over engineered phone lol

Years and years ago I won a TV. It was a "Polaroid" 32" LCD w/ built in DVD player. Out of the box it was absolute garbage, and the DVD player never worked. I gave it away right after winning it. Was glad I didn't pay for it. It is a shame brands / companies do this.

My first instinct was that it was easier to make a camera module that interfaces with android rather than a sensor that directly interfaces with the hardware. Like the Sony QX, the Hasselblad’s phone camera add on and other camera modules that you connect to with Bluetooth

"Somebody's gonna buy this product because they've heard of this great brand..." [cries in Minolta]

Well, at least you won’t be accused of driving up the price of this camera 😂

I love your videos, they have ignited my and im sure many other people's interest in old digital cameras, and this interest can give many of these things selling ln eBay a second life, so thanks for that. Keep making great content!

Sony made the DSC-QX10 and QX100 around that same time. It was a camera built completely into the lens. It would clip onto a smartphone, and connect tirelessly to the phone, making the phone essentially the body. It was a great idea, but people didn't understand what it was.

Id love to see some of those 2010-2015 smartphones that had huge fancy cameras on the back like the red phone

Speaking of the Pentax Q, I'd be interested to see a video of the best / most creative (or even weirdest) in body JPG digital filters / effects you've tested so far. I'm very into these effects, like vintage and retro for instance. And a tip, in case you didn't know, the Lumix GF1 and GF2 have really stunning creative effects, I'm in love with the one called "Silhouette" with high contrast and very dark atmosphere. Love your channel by the way !

New out of box and you disassemble it? You have some most impressive skills sir!

What a curious bit of history. Thanks for finding and sharing this oddity.

"We bulit the sensor into the lens" That sole fact gave me a Futurama "what?!" moment as much as that Yashica Y35 camera.

I have the J1 and V1 and like them... Great vid, worth the spec purchase!

Nice microphone, all you ever need

It's honestly surprising no one was able to make the Android-ILC concept work. I think it's a really solid idea for in-camera editing and posting to social media, but every time it's tried they leave in too many of the base Android apps and end up with a cluttered mess.

imo a swappable sensor makes a lot of sense, because the processor doesn't need to be updated that often, and you might want different sensors for different situations. like a pure black and white sensor, a low luminosity sensor, an IR sensor, a high resolution sensor etc.. also we had the Sony DSC-QX10 a while back, a camera that is tied to the phone, which imo is something that makes a lot of sense, you can have a powerful processor in the phone, and also update your camera easily.

Interesting cameras and fascinating story! Always interested in finding these types of cameras that failed! But, you can see the potential too. Thanks for sharing!

the idea of "interchangeable sensor" is pretty neat imo .. i mean, what if it comes with apsc sensor, but suddenly you need the fullframe. just change it and boom, full frame camera is acquired. or as crazy as you need an infrared camera, just buy the sensor for it, no need modification. but makes it built in the lens, is the worst decision

Ahh, the days when the Polaroid name was used to license landfill whose fate would be met DankPods style or donated at thrift stores. EDIT: Sakar International, need I say more. Making landfill since 1977.

that's a pretty crazy story actually. Several cameras announced which were cancelled because of a lawsuit even after production started and cameras were ready to ship. Man I don't know how I would have felt if I had been someone working on that project. Kind of reminds me of the Nikon DL series. There was the DL 18-50, DL 24-85 an DL 24-500 which were announced, which would have been an completely new line of premium compact cameras outside of the Nikon Coolpix branding in 2016. Thwy were basically fixed lens versions of Nikon 1 cameras, with some crazy lenses attached to them (18-50mm equiv, 24-85mm equiv which would both have a f/1.8-2.8 aperture, and teh DL 24-500 would have a f/2.8-5.6 aperture). Cameras were announced, showed to the press, pre-orders were completed, launch date was announced and... a month before the camera would have started to ship, the product was delayed indefinitely, then shortly later cancelled, officially because the partner they were working with for the imaging sensors didn't deliver acceptable results up to Nikon's standards... which doesn't make a ton of sense as the sensors would have been the same that were already in the Nikon 1 cameras. This was probably a way for Nikon to shift the blam on someone else, while the real reason was that the costs of the project were too high, and 2016 was an exceptionally bad year for Nikon, being at a 260M dollars deficit at teh end of the year. Too bad, because Nikon's bridge cameras wouldn't even touch what the DL series would have offered if they had actually been released, especially when it comes to the DL 24-500. This cameras could have replaced well the P series super zoom cameras while being generally smaller, with a much larger sensor, better autofocus and still an enormous zoom range. I didn't care about cameras like the P900 because they were big, pretty expensive and I didn't need a 2000mm equivalent, especially coupled with that tiny 1/2.3" sensor. A 1" sensor 500mm equivalent would have been such a wonderful versatile camera for tons of people. The fun part being that you can still find images of those DL cameras in the hands of journalists, official marketing materials ect...

Looks like Nikon 1 J1 and 10-30 VR and not 10-30 VR PD. Probably built in the same Chinese factory ?

I owned a Sakkar tripod that met a bitter end at the sheer and crushing weight of my canon rebel t6 from 2016

Putting the sensor in the lens makes more sense than you think. In fact Ricoh did it too in the GXR, and nowadays Insta360 does it. Essentially it separates the user interface from the imaging unit. Sensors are way cheaper than lenses, so integrating the two can often result in optimising optical units for different purposes.

A crop sensor camera in a phone sized body with android on it and interchangeable lenses would be epic. The combination of computational photography with big camera lenses and sensors would be the perfect combo!

Today is actually a rather good time for approaches like this, considering how the software side has developed, along with smaller sensors (with proper execution ofc)

Easily removable IR filter is nice and I suppose having a normal camera and a separate IR lens would be a bonus.

It would have been way cool, if the camera could have produced instant pictures on android software and have the ability to edit the picture first and then transferring the finished image to photo paper on the inside, before it pops out.

A bit niche but glad you got a fun camera without the infrared cut filter thanks to your easy modification.

Knock off flip screen Q.....say what!

Well makes sense because the camera is the most important feature of a smart phone

This should have been a flagship phone, with a basic smartphone grade camera that you could upgrade with a kit

Seeing that Android was originally made for cameras, I would love to see Android cameras make a come back now that the OS is refined and light enough to run on less power. Not necessarily a phone with interchangeable lens, but a second device that's already internet connected.

Polaroid has an existed as a real company in a long time almost all Polaroid products you see are just licensed to use the name

interesting concept, if the base was made to just be a phone with no rear cameras normally and the option to mount different lens and sensors could be cool.. the sensor is still very small so idk if it would improve anything much but it would bridge the gap between phone camera and pocket camera. mirrorless interchangeable lens phone 🤔

Polaroid left it too late to sue copycat makers. By the time they did, digital camera's were on the scene.

I had the Polaroid branded version of that "for Dummies" camera! It might be the worst digital device I have ever owned... and I had an AtGames Genesis.

I’m fairly sure I have a Sakar 35-80 pentax film lens laying around somewhere

I took apart an old Kodak Easyshare, and these tiny sensors seem to be very common on those. The IR cut filter is the same as this camera. Kind of sad the board was dead because I wanted to try shooting some IR.

Yeah, I definitely thought it was a Nikon 1 in the thumbnail.

The last thing I would want on a camera would be an operating system like android. A camera should run for decades

Wow, what a hoot! thanks for teasing that one out. Sakar hijacking Polaroid AND Nikon1. Yikes.

If we want to talk about Ripoffs, please keep in mind that ALL Japanese cameras are Ripoffs of Leica (Leica invented most camera types, especially Large Format SLR), (on Fullframe SLR - Rectaflex/Contax was first). And this includes film, film SLR and digital, digital SLR and mirroless. All digital video cameras are Ripoffs of Arri, film and digital.

It would be interesting to find out more

I thought you were about to say that’s a Samsung NX…

6:24 No, we can't call it "Interchangeable lens camera", We should call it "Interchangeable 'camera' camera" 😆

Hej Just a little question you have the little shelf on you desk with the lenses on where did you get it? Would you be able to share a link or name how it is called?

Android based high end cameras need to make a comeback. I can't understand why we use proprietary firmwares when cheap SoCs are so powerful. All it needs to do is be able to post to social media and do basic edits, it could be a 7 year old phone's internals and still be really fast since you wouldn't have most of the apps installed that you would on a phone. The Samsung Galaxy Camera came way too soon. I would totally buy one in the exact same form factor with modern internals, and I know I'm not the only one. I'm not naive though, just because I know that many people agree with me, it doesn't mean that I think anywhere close to most people do... But let's be honest, some of the best consumer electronics ever made have been very niche and OEMs like Sony have known this for a long time.

the fact that the word "camera" is missing from the title is giving me major kingdom hearts 2 intro vibes

I want that red one with the red lenses, not gonna lie 😂

You can't just waive that funky beast on frame a couple of times and tell me it's a video for later! Dammit, now i had to subscribe! 😅

Great video! As soon as I saw the 10-30 lens I knew this was some sort of Nikon 1 ripoff. Have you ever tried the Olympus Stylus XZ series? The CCD XZ-1 is really fun, and the XZ-2 is a seriously good compact camera from 2013. The XZ-2 is my everyday carry camera and I find it has a lot of the same charm as something like the Powershot G16. Better lens though! XZ-10 is also really fun because it is legitimately pocket-sized. Would love to see you do a video on one of these. Preferably the XZ-2 or XZ-10 because there are already a few videos on the XZ-1. Cheers!

At the time this Sakar thing happened, there literally was no "Polaroid corporation". Polaroid went chapter 7 back in 2001. That's full liquidation. The name was sold to a licensing company.

Yet another example of why Polaroid died and had to be revived by those passionate of the old Polaroid name.

A camera with full Android is still a match made in heaven that we somehow still dont get. Heck Android was a Camera OS first before it was a Smartphone OS

Sensor inside lens does make sense .

although all the Sakar cameras that I've seen are only point and shoot, they were pretty decent. as good as a similar camera from a known brand.

That's kind of rich because in the 1970s Kodak tried making a Polaroid knockoff and (legitimate, old-school) Polaroid sued them for $12B.

For a point and shoot the sensor in the lens is actually a brilliant idea. The camera will never get outdated as you buy new lens with better sensors

Dig a little further if you didn't see the garbage that was sold at WalMart under the polaroid name. They simply didn't care for 15 years. I think this has a lot to do with the name being licensed over and over for a whole lot of garbage. There is no respect for the brand from 2001 until really when the the Impossible project happened in 2017. Yes, they were finally the company we know now but they were still a joke until really just a handful of years ago if not just the last 3 years. I have a huge polaroid collection of cameras and film over the years and 2001 to 2017 is the most embarrassing time in their history. Thank goodness they are trying now. Not still 100 percent where they were but doing far better. At least they have their name back. Impossible was a silly name and many were glad to see it go.

I have a -theory-. Image sensors have a notoriously short production life. If you're in the process of designing a camera, you're sort of aiming at a moving target when you choose a sensor to design around. Some cases you may need to buy a substantial quantity of them just to have them available for your entire production run of the camera you're designing. If they put the image sensor in the lens, they can design and test the body of the camera without having to worry about the sensor. They just design the lens, and if the sensor goes out of production...all they have to do is redesign the lens. In fact, they only have to redesign the part of the lens that carries and interfaces with the sensor.

I think a good camera you should review is the Yi M1 mirrorless camera. It was my first mirrored I bought in 2019 and I thought it was cool when I first unboxed it. Now I look at it, compared to my R8 and regret ever spending money on it.

One of my AirPods just fell into the mop bucket 🪣

DOOOD I've been looking for one of these for years.

What an odd little thing. If the lens and sensor are a combined module, does that make this an "interchangeable camera, camera"??

It looks like an imitation of Nikion J1.

A bunch of cameras run Android actually. My Sony a6500, for example. Doesn't look it, but there's Android underneath (Android 2, I think). Sony's PlayMemories camera apps are APK files. There's an open source community still developing for them.

17 seconds in: that's an Android phone made to look like a camera.

I'm just guessing that the idea with putting the sensor in the lens was that you could sell a new camera body every couple years when the Android needed to be updated.

Your clickbait titles are on point 👌

Very good

Dude, you should check out 'Yashica', similar story

These could of been really interesting, I like the use of android. Could of given further open source development given the audience.

6:02 actually a lot of compact cameras are like this..

In some regard, the sensor in the lens might have made it simpler. There’s no tolerance stack in the connection to the body and no need to develop a new, proper optical mount standard. You can then have Sakar company make the lens and phone company codevelop and produce the body. I’m not saying it’s a good idea or well executed, but I’m sure there some reason that made sense for a super cheap cash grab product.

imagine if you could add a sim card and make phone calls on it too!!!

A sensor in the lens is so bad, imagine if the Canon ef 300mm f/4 had the sensor on it, a sensor from 1997 rather then an amazing lens being able to be used with a 90D

This feels a the yashica scamera from yesteryear

The look that its just a ripoff or some other brand copy is not fully accurate. Take a look at new cars. Most of them are one and same model just with a small twist here and there for people not to get noticed and have an illusion that there is a choice

The Sony A7Rii runs Android also, just hides it under it's UI.

Olympus made a lens camera you connect to a smart phone app. you could clip it on to a phone While Motorola tried to sell a snap on camera module. The latest design update is a camera grip for a Asian Smart phone. A big fruit company might copy it

Nikon1 system with android OS would be amazing. Unfortunately this was not.

It's ridiculous that a device made of iron works 200 years later, but a high-tech device no longer works after a few years just because some software is out of date. Like why not force the websites to render on that machine? It's just data, what harm can it do? It's like you're not allowed to step on the white tiles just because. So much ewaste

I had no idea this camera ever happened, I kind of don't hate it 😅

You may not know but Polaroid is just a brand, and is borrowed by many product manufacturers, just to sell their products under a known brand. Very likely Polaroid is the most overused brand of all times. If you have a product and have the money, you can send it too under the Polaroid brand.

So it's more of an "interchangeable body" camera? 🤔

Selling brand names to anyone for a price to facilitate the sale of cheap or even junk product under often by deception is very very common. People buying electronic equipment and audio equipment with big brand names should check the name and product online first. Much of it is Chinese spec manufacturers making a product then selling the batch exclusively to the name owner to market. The original manufacturer, who may have been a world top class producer under the name, having long since left the market. The name now belonging to others to exploit or make a go of. Sansui, Akai and even parts of Kodak exist in this ex name group along with many many others. If one is looking for vintage equipment especially, then check the manufacturers bonafides carefully to make sure it is a genuine product or just a cheap product with a well known brand name.

Wtf is this strange camera. I cant believe you found this on ebay,how much did it cost?

The Pentax Q isn't a ripoff, it not only was announced earlier, it came to market earlier, and it EVEN SMALLER than the nikon1, and not by a small margin!

If the sensor is built onto the lens, why can I still see a sensor on the camera?

It's a Nikon J1

It looks like a gat Samsung NX Mini.

can' believe he is 1836

Cameras looking like each other is pretty irrelevant to me, all i care about is if its soecs meet what my application demands.

It looks an awful lot like a Pentax sq-1 or the LUMIX gm1 too. Kinda weird that Nikon was able to sue sakar

I’ll never understand why we don’t have cameras with android OS ! Clearly it’s a game changer! To upload instantly to the web or even have high quality Live Streams on the go

I want the Kodak branded phone just for fun.