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The Polaroid 600 OneStep Closeup is a Polaroid camera using their 600 film format. I got this one at a thrift shop for $2 in about 2015. It's called "OneStep" because it is a point and shoot camera: no focusing or metering is necessary (or indeed possible). "Closeup" because it is capable of taking close-ish photos through the use of a sliding adjustment lens (I guess you could call it a closeup/macro filter) which can be moved in front of the lens/viewfinder to get a secondary zone of focus up to as close as 2 feet. With this lens unengaged, the zone of focus is from 4 feet to infinity. It is an "instant" film camera, meaning it produces a positive image which is developed as soon as it's taken via cleverly concocted chemicals that get squeeged out over the emulsion by rollers after the picture is taken. Despite the name, it takes about 15 minutes for the picture to fully develop, and one is advised to keep the picture out of daylight during this time.
These cameras were purely consumer items, designed for taking vacation pictures or simply as a gimmick. The pictures it takes are quite large, but the image quality is inferior to much smaller roll film formats like 126 or 35mm. The main purpose behind Polaroid cameras of this nature was first and foremost to make money selling the film packs, so the camera itself is rudimentary with very few controls or features. The film packs contain the film, rollers for developing the film, and the battery that powers the camera, meaning they are very expensive (retailing for $20 for a pack of 8 images in color or black and white), and more critically become hazardous eWaste when depleted (the new packs contain lithium ion batteries which are not safe to simply throw out).
This format of film was essentially dead after the initial hayday of the Polaroid camera, but was brought back by the Impossible Project and has subsequently been re-acquired by Polaroid who were essentially a zombie company until recently. It is now available in big box retail stores like Walmart alongside other instant films like Fuji's Instax. In my candid opinion, any potential customer would be better suited buying an Instax camera, because Instax film is cheaper, has better color accuracy, is less wasteful, and the cameras themselves are significantly better in terms of their lenses and auto-exposure. The only real reason to shoot a camera like mine is if you already have one and want to try out the instant camera experience or relive Polaroid nostalgia without buying a new camera. If you want the larger picture size or classic aspect ratio, there are Instax square and wide formats that are comparable.
I purchased two packs of film for a trip via Amtrak to Tucson, Arizona in the spring of 2025. Below are those photos, documenting some of the things we saw. They are labeled in Sharpie; the first few using a large chisel-tip Sharpie we found on the street on the first day in Tucson. You should observe the generally poor quality of the images produced: this is partially but not entirely my fault. The exposure control on this camera is very rudimentary, and there is no light meter or other mechanism to determine your exposure level (really no way to easily meter with a separate meter either). For simplicity (or, more cynically, in an effort to sell more film), Polaroid wants you to take a picture (at a going rate of $2 per image) and retake it if it needs to be lightened or darkened. The resulting images therefore are often quite blown out. Even the ones that were exposed more-or-less correctly are blurry and the colors aren't great. Fun for touristy snapshots, I wouldn't recommend this as a serious camera.
