The GIF format is almost 30 years old and it has not gone out of fashion due to its versatility. GIFs have a certain impact static images can’t recreate and that is why we have seen many social networks supporting the format.
The photos we share on social networks can be printed out for us to see, but in the case of GIFs, we are not able to have physical copies since it is technically video. However, it seems someone has come up with a way to ‘print’ GIFs by using a Polaroid camera.
Polaroid cameras are known for letting you take photos which are instantly printed out as a physical copy. Well a redditor decided to use a Polaroid camera and transform it to something you can ‘print’ GIFs with.
He calls it Instagif Camera which is a DIY project based on a Polaroid camera and the effort that went into building it was quite amazing.
The project was inspired by the Polaroid OneStep. Over the course of the project, it involved coming up with the design on CAD software, 3D printing, circuit design, mechanical and electrical engineering and also the software to run the system.
The resulting camera snaps a GIF and ejects a little cartridge which shows the “moving image” which is pretty cool. It is quite amazing that he went all in to make his own camera which involves applying a variety of skillsets and you can check what you need to make yours from his website.