The Polaroid Impulse is a camera produced by
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid is an American company best known for its instant film and cameras. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of its Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,00 ...
between 1988 and 1994. The camera uses Polaroid's 600-series integral film. The Impulse is distinguished from Polaroid's other 600-series cameras by its always-on flash, binocular-style grips, larger viewfinder, and self-timer (autofocus models only).
Models
The Polaroid Impulse was manufactured with two different lens configurations. The first featured a
fixed-focus lens
A photographic lens for which the focus is not adjustable is called a fixed-focus lens or sometimes focus-free. The focus is set at the time of lens design, and remains fixed. It is usually set to the hyperfocal distance, so that the depth of fiel ...
(sometimes paired with a secondary close-up lens), while the second featured Polaroid's
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
autofocus
An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system ...
system.
Both configurations were released under a variety of names in gray, black, yellow, blue, green, and magenta