The new Polaroid iM1836 camera is now available for preorder at Amazon US (Click here to read full specs) and BHphoto (Click here). UPDATE: They market the camera as a Four Thirds camera but it is not!!! They just use the term “Four Thirds” for marketing reasons. Here is the official Polaroid site and camera description:
Built into a compact 4/3 body with a sleek matte white finish, the iM1836 features a brilliant 3.5″ touch screen LCD display to help capture the perfect image every time.
And at Amazon you can read that it’s a “Compact micro 4/3 body“. This is a real mess and likely will have legal consequences.
Here is a video presentation fo the new camera:
65 Responses
The standard lens is a 10-30mm: I bet that it’s NOT a micro4/3 camera… I bet it has got a smaller sensor!
Yep, it has MFT mount. Not a FT size sensor
ah…that makes more sense
Are you sure? look here: http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/polaroid_iM1836_hands-on_sg_5.jpg
M43 mount
http://www.androidpcsuite.com/android-polaroid-im1836-hits-shelves/
http://www.polaroid.com/iM1836-android-camera
I’m still doubtful… I can’t see the m43 logo here… and the baionet in the picture does not have anything to do with the m43 one…
It’s just one of those stupid uses of “m43” where they really mean “mirrorless”. The camera is most likely based on the Nikon 1 series.
they write 4/3 Body not mount, like Amazon. com for a while tittles all mirror less as 4/3 cameras.
I doubt they’d be allowed to just use the mount without matching the full m43 spec, it’s not an open standard after all.
Why? The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera also uses an MFT mount with a smaller sensor.
This is absolutely not a micro four thirds camera. You’ve been duped. It’s a modular camera with sensor and shutter built into the lens module. The 10-30mm module has a 1″ sensor. I’ve read that they may make a module with a micro four thirds mount, but my understanding is that the module will still have a 1″ sensor not a 4/3″ sensor.
I’m sure that it won’t be long before the four thirds consortium puts an end to their “compact m43 body” marketing language. B&H, which copied the “specs” (what a joke to call them specs) from polaroid’s website, intentionally left out the “m43” bit.
Can’t find any mention of a mount.
There are a number of contradictions / inaccuracies in the spec listed on Amazon.
It’s listed as a “compact micro 4/3 body” with “18MP”. They also say it’s a “body only” with 10-30mm lens, and is also described as “5.6x optical zoom”!
Not sure what to believe.
Yeah, that lens looks like the Nikon 1 10-30mm.
So, are they using the Nikon 1 2.7x crop sensor?
Nikon is suing them over the camera:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/10/15/nikon-sues-sakar-inc-for-infringement-with-polaroid-im1836-android-camera
This is NOT good for m4/3 if this has a smaller sensor. Someone will get this thinking they are getting a m4/3 camera and say, “Hey this m4/3 standard has really crappy image quality”. Looks a lot like a ploy to discredit m4/3 in general (conspiracy theory).
Also, I thought Nikon was suing them over this because it looks exactly like a copy of the Nikon 1 (same sensor size just in a m4/3 mount instead).
i think it’s 1″ sensor with MFT mount, look at 10-30 standard zoom Nikon.
They describe the camera pretty well here: http://www.slashgear.com/polaroid-im1836-android-interchangeable-lens-camera-hands-on-07263870/
“…As for the lenses, they twist off as you’d expect, and Polaroid will include a 10-30mm zoom lens in the box; a pancake will be the other initial option. The company actually includes the sensor in the lens itself, rather than in the body of the camera, which it says reduces the likelihood of damage when swapping, as well as producing better quality images as the sensor is closer to the lens. It also expects them to cost the same as the equivalent Micro Four Thirds lens, and they’ll be compatible with other Polaroid cameras that don’t run Android….”
So… sensor in the lens module means… NOT M43!
as i said, it’s MFT mount (i did not say it was an 4:3 sensor) and 10-30 because it’s standard zoom for 1″ as like 14-42 for 4:3 sensor or 18-55 for asp-c or FF.
No…
It doesn’t have a m43 mount. It is in no way shape or form related to micro four thirds. It is a modular camera like a ricoh GXR. Each lens module is a self contained unit with lens, sensor and shutter.
You cannot attach a micro four thirds lens to this camera. When polaroid states on their website that it has a “compact m43 body” that is an outright lie.
Thank you, i understand now
10mm f/3? I wonder if it’s any good. I’d consider dumping my 9-18…
18mp. 3.5″ LCD…
Well…I guess that the little GM1 has nothing to worry about here!
It looks like it was made out of cardboard!
definitely the whole system looks like Nikon 1 …which I love…
Not a real m4/3 camera. The sensor is INSIDE the lense. So putting an Olympus/Panasonic lense on the body does nothing. They’re supposed to be releasing adapters with sensors in them so you can mount other manufacturer lenses on them.
With a 10-30 my guess is a 1″ sensor.
Does this mean we have to all start referring to other m43 cameras as “Full frame” now that we have cameras with smaller sensors using the same mount?
MFT has always been full frame. Makes those 35mm large format cameras look like dinosaurs;-)
It looks so cheap built. GM1 is in a different league, its price also. I wonder what will the price be when bought used, but still GM1 looks way more appealing to me (I won’t buy it though).
I also bet it’s not an MFT body or sensor, but a 1” sensor ala Nikon 1 system. It makes little sense to have an MFT mount with a 1” sensor. The 10-30mm focal length strongly suggest it has a 2.7x crop factor too.
Nikon sues Sakar for infringement with Polaroid iM1836 Android camera:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/10/15/nikon-sues-sakar-inc-for-infringement-with-polaroid-im1836-android-camera
@ admin:
Is there a way to contact you? I found a great E-M5 review (awesome pictures!) and wanted to send you the link, so that you can ask the photographer if you might post a link to his review.
OPS! Some spam-filter filtered the email. It is
4 3 r u m o r s (SYMBOL) g m a i l (DOT) c o m
(no spaces of course)
Thanks. I could share my “rumor” with @admin via my iPad. Strangely, there I could see this share 43rumors.com button, but not here on my desktop. :S
The camera looks to be cheap cynical junk. I don’t need to wait for a review.
Would have thought PanOly would want to sue too since this confuses the MFT brand.
The Amazon listing says “Compact micro 4/3 body” so it has an MFT mount. It quite likely has a different sensor and so a different crop factor. I note that the Black Magic cameras have a different crop factor from Pan-Oly cameras so I don’t think MFT licensing requires a specific sensor size or crop factor.
Does look a bit Nikon 1ish based on the rounded corners and white color. Plus, the “Polaroid” marking is a bit faint. Doubt Nikon can prevail on just rounded corners and white color but they may work something out where they are required to put “Polaroid” in a bigger font, darker color, etc.
Its great to see more people join MFT. Considering that both Oly and Panny have cameras with kit lenses at the $299 price point (at least when on sale or when refurbs are available), I wonder how many will buy at this price. I expect the price will have to drop down much further before people will buy one. Probably will see it for $50 at Big Lots one day.
> Its great to see more people join MFT
they are not going to join MFT
this camera has no MFT logo and they neither Polaroid nor Sakar are member of the MFT consortium, so they are not able to support the MFT lens lineup
Black Magic isn’t a member of the Micro Four Thirds. Their cameras are not MFT, they simply have a MFT compatible bayonet, nothing more. That’s why there is no logo and they don’t have active maounts, because they don’t have access to the specs and haven’t bothered to reverse engineer it. That’s also why when you go to the four-thirds.org site there is no mention of Black Magic, Polaroid, or Kodak.
The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera does have an active micro Four-Thirds mount, though.
It has nothing to do with MFT/M43, and the “Built into a compact 4/3 body” or “compact Micro 4/3 body” wording on the Polaroid website seems to be put there for the precise reason of creating confusion and undeserved interest.
I don’t understand why people are so disparaging toward this already. What’s wrong with a 1″ sensor on MFT? I for one have no problem with the choice even though I probably wouldn’t use it. Nikon 1 focusing is ahead of any other mirrorless after all, and if that were in this Polaroid at a low price, it might be interesting.
Granted, it’s probably just a money grab on the Polaroid name, but who knows.
Given Nikon are suing them, I very much doubt it has Nikon internals! It’s a rip off of MFT and Nikon and does nothing to advance the camera market unless you count the claims about jellybean. There’s a lot of unwarranted ridicule on the net, but in this case I think it may be justified.
I’ve photographed the thing in a Walmart and it has two separate rows of electronic contacts. They interchangeably use Four-Thirds and micro Four-Thirds in the description.
If you can see my blog entry, you’ll see that it’s just a matter of them mistaking micro Four-Thirds for all mirror-less system cameras.
http://nobuyukishouldknowbetter.blogspot.com/2013/09/blog-post.html
thanks, so this is neither a Nikon 1 nor MFT a mount camera
Correct.
It’s the photographic equivalent of one of those US$99 Android-based tablets. Sakar are using “common knowledge” to mislead you into thinking it is something it is not. They use the Nikon 1 shape and a license to the Polaroid name to make you believe that it is something desirable, even though Polaroid’s best years were 30-40 years ago.
if you have legacy lens, don’t buy it.
How about lens prices, each lens = sensor.
$299 for an Android cam – that’s how you do it, Samsung!
P.S. 10-30mm zoom lens? f/3.0-5.6? At the expected price, I’m very interested!
Oh, a 1″ sensor… that explains a lot.
Who would have guessed that 43 would get its own crop sensor so soon.
not f/3.0 but 3.8
Ah Sakar seems to be a clone company who bought the Polaroid name
http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/10/05/will-sakars-clone-of-the-samsung-dualview-land-polaroid-in-hot-water
Maybe they throw in a free “Rolex” with each camera as well 😛
It’s more likely they’ll throw in a Rolez watch, since they can’t license the Rolex name.
If they have any sense of humor they’d brand the watch Rolei to keep the photography connection 😉
Ah who am I kidding this stuff works, if I thought about it myself I could have been a millionaire 🙁
So they’ll get sued both by Nikon over the use of the Nikon 1 J design and by the Micro Four-Thirds consortium over use of the brand, splendid !
We want fake DSLRs, not fake PENs! But seriously, is it a bad thing to know that Polaroid wants to imitate mirrorless?
And “Polaroid” Sakar is a maker of cheap stuff, just like “Kodak” JK Imaging (aka GE).
I bet the body has width-to-height ratio of 4:3, and it’s kinda small hence “micro”.
So, can I use this camera to drive my Triggertrap cable to do time-lapse with my E-PM2? 😉 (I’m serious about that, I love playing with Triggertrap but I hate leaving my iPhone hanging from my camera while I use it. I’ve thought about buying a cheap Android phone or tablet just for this purpose.)
Blame those who use common English words for their trademark or logo names, instead of a proper name, i.e. a name that cannot be just used for its English meaning.
LOL smaller than M43 sensor……….is that even possible?
Lots of cameras have sensors smaller than M4/3…Nikon’s mirrorless, the Q, the sony compacts, the x10’s…
Poor Polaroid. One can’t help but feel sorry for them 🙁 hahaha. If they ever made a decent digital camera, it hasn’t been for many years.
They aim so low with their products. I bet this is the result of some guy in the higher echelons of management telling his people to slap together some mirrorless camera because the market segment is picking up. Meanwhile he’s been stuffing his pockets while the company goes down. Probably been that way for years now.
It’s terrible that the Polaroid name has come to this, but let’s be honest, this is just patent copying by people who don’t have a clue. The new owners just copied the Nikon 1 (honestly, just look at this photo: http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/73338-image/polar-3.jpg) and didn’t even have the intelligence to understand the difference between what they copied and m4/3.
I feel sorry for Nikon having to go through this copyright claim now, the m4/3 group for having the name tarnished and a lot of confusion and the original Polaroid group for having their fallen name rubbed in the dirt. What a shameful waste this has turned out to be. I hope nobody buys it.
Spot on.
Totally agreed.
In the front of the lens, it is written “10-30”. On the top of the barrel, focal marks start from “35”. Does it have 3.5x crop sensor, not 2.7x one?
But I guess it may host any sensors, like Ricoh’s GR module.
Maybe someone paid them to discredit both m43 and the Nikon One system including the lawsuits which they will inevitably lose…
At 300$ it’s not even a competitive m43 camera. Discounted pens and GFs are much more value for less money.