POLAKID

Not a Fckn filter.

Another filter? There are like two hundred of those. Hard pass.

I wanted the real thing. The lens. The shutter. The film. The wait.

So we went full nerd. Stacks of Polaroid patents. Ancient data sheets. Camera manuals. A court ruling nobody reads for fun. A mountain of scans, on machines whose names we still can't pronounce.

We even met the people who used to stir the chemistry at Polaroid. White coats. Safety goggles. Legends.

Then we rebuilt everything. Nothing in your picture is faked.

— D.

A guy with a spiked mohawk throwing a hand sign in a doorway — Him again

Punks lying on a mattress on the concrete — Sunday

Rule 01
No import.
An instant camera can't import your camera roll. POLAKID can't either. You shoot it, or it doesn't exist.
Rule 02
No re-do.
The film is in the camera when you press the shutter. You don't get to swap it afterwards.
Rule 03
Not instant.
Prints develop. Peel-apart prints get peeled. Sped up, never skipped: a Colour 125 print takes 10 seconds, a peel-apart wants up to 25 before you peel.

[ 02 / Manifesto ]Lenses traced from Polaroid's patents — film curves and dyes from Polaroid's and Fuji's data sheets

[ 03 / Development ]

It takes its time.

Five friends in bright jackets walking down the pavement — Kiez, 0:10

0:00Out of the camera. A layer of indicator dyes, the opacifier, keeps the light out.
0:02The pH drops, the blue clears, the picture comes up out of the dark.
0:06Colours settle. The whites come last.
0:10Done. The clearing in the original patent runs about six minutes. Sped up, never instant.

Film Colour 125 — Camera Folding 72 — 21 °C

[ 04 / Cameras ]

Four cameras
Zero presets

C/011972–81

Folding 72

Folding SLR, after the 1972 folding camera

Focus wheel, live reflex finder with the split circle
Blur shaped by its scanning blades
Films: Colour 125, Zero 150, NewTone 150, B&W 160

C/021976–

Presto 76

Rigid camera, after the 1976 original

Set the distance on the scale, shoot
Same films as the Folding 72
Films: Colour 125, Zero 150, NewTone 150, B&W 160

C/031981–

Box 640

Box camera, after the 1981 box cameras

Fixed focus. Point, shoot
Flash on every picture, mixed with the light that is there
Films: Colour 640, NewTone 640, B&W 640

C/04Pack film

Pack 78

Pack-film rangefinder, after the 1978 original

Aperture ring f/4.7–64, shutter 1–1/500 s, B up to 60 s
Rangefinder and focus lever. The iPhone is the light meter
Films: Peel Colour 100, Pro Colour 100, NewTone 100, HC 640

[ 04.1 ] On every camera

DepthDepth of field from your iPhone's depth: LiDAR where it has it, estimated where it doesn't.

Tripod or handheldOn the tripod the picture stays still. Handheld, your real movement during the exposure goes into the picture.

RAWThe camera takes RAW wherever your iPhone can.

AutofocusOkay, we cheated once. The originals behind Folding 72, Presto 76 and Pack 78 never had autofocus. Ours do. Tap AF and the orange frame picks your spot. Purists, look away.

[ 05 / Film catalogue ]

11 Films.
Pick one.

Integral — Folding 72 / Presto 76: 01–04Integral — Box 640: 05–07Peel-apart — Pack 78: 08–11

[ 05.1 ] In the menu

Temperature

How warm is it while the print develops? Cold, 21 °C or hot. Cold slows the print down and shifts its colours, as the old camera manuals warn.

Age

Not a vintage slider.

Stick the print in an album or hang it on the wall, for 1 to 5 years. It runs on real lab data: instant prints measured for years in the dark and under light. In the album the whites slowly go cream. On the wall the light eats the magenta first.

Why stop at five? Because that's where the measurements stop. No guessing. And the yellow lines up with real prints from the seventies, scanned decades later. Peel-apart and B&W prints have no ageing data, so they stay as they are.

[ 06 / Peel-apart ]

Peel it.

The Pack 78's films come apart in two: the print, and the negative stuck to it. In the app you choose the moment. Too early and the print comes out pale and magenta, too late and it drifts green — just like real peel-apart film.

Try it: pull the tab, wait, then drag the black sheet off from the bottom-right corner. Sped up for the web — best between 0:08 and 0:16.

0:00

An old green Mercedes saloon parked in front of apartment blocks

[ 07 / ZINEKID ]

ZINEKID

An app inside the app. Make a printed zine from your prints. No layout skills, no InDesign.

Your prints. One sheet. One cut.

Issue 01

Two punks with dyed hair on a city street

Kiez
Kids

Chunky sneakers and white socks on the street

Socks & sins2

Platte, 5 am3

Legs in high-tops sticking out of a washing machine

4

A U-Bahn sign on a wet street, black and white

5

Someone in a striped crop top on a Berlin street, the TV tower behind

Berlin. Again.6

A girl with a cigarette kneeling in the sand

Sand & smoke7

ZINEKID
Issue 01

Cover

01
Pick
Prints straight from your table. No camera roll, no hunting.
02
Drop
Grids, free placement that snaps, one picture across a spread, full bleed to the edge.
03
Write
100+ fonts, Fraktur included, and our own hand. On peel-apart prints the caption writes itself into the border.
04
Print
One sheet, at home or at the copy shop. Cut, fold, done. Print-ready PDF at 300 dpi with cut and fold marks.

Make your own mag

Remember zines? Photocopied, stapled, passed around at shows. That's the energy.

Pick your best prints, throw them on the pages, scribble a title, hit print. One sheet comes out of your printer. A cut or two, a few folds, and you're holding your own magazine.

8 pages or 16. Folded like a classic mini zine, or with a glued spine like a proper little book. On yellow paper, on kraft, on black — whatever your vibe is.

Make one for the trip. For your crew. For your crush. Leave it on a café table. Sell it at a market for five bucks. Nobody scrolls past paper.

PaperUS Letter, Tabloid, A4, A3, A2 — the same zine looks the same on every size. A2 goes to the copy shop.
Paper colour or any colour
ExtrasQR codes, a folded preview, AirPrint, AirDrop and Files

[ 08 / Journal ]

From the journal

Instant history

Why Instant Prints Come Out Blue (And Then Clear)

The blue-grey veil on a fresh instant print is the opacifier, a chemical sunscreen that clears as the picture develops. Step by step.

2026-11-09

All articles →

Not a Fckn filter.

No import.

No re-do.

Not instant.

It takes its time.

Four camerasZero presets

Folding 72

Presto 76

Box 640

Pack 78

11 Films.Pick one.

Peel it.

ZINEKID

Pick

Drop

Write

Print

Make your own mag

From the journal

Why Instant Prints Come Out Blue (And Then Clear)

Get POLAKID

Four cameras
Zero presets

11 Films.
Pick one.